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Bury Your Devoured
"Her mother’s love never came without blood. But that’s how all love comes. That’s how you know it’s real."
In the wake of the sudden death of her mother, Irene Blackwell is left haunted by the horrors of her childhood and drowned in the tears of her grief. On the surface, her mother, Ophelia, was a beloved surgeon and a doting mother. But behind the scenes her love for her daughter ran much deeper and bloodier than anyone could ever know.
Upon returning to her home in Philadelphia, Irene is chosen to intern as a mortuary assistant under her revered professor, Camilla Osman. She is everything her mother was: intimidating, beautiful, maternal, and hiding a secret of her own. Camilla is a serial killer.
Infatuated, the lines between familial and romantic blur in a bloody psychological horror full of manipulation, teeth, and formaldehyde.
In the wake of the sudden death of her mother, Irene Blackwell is left haunted by the horrors of her childhood and drowned in the tears of her grief. On the surface, her mother, Ophelia, was a beloved surgeon and a doting mother. But behind the scenes her love for her daughter ran much deeper and bloodier than anyone could ever know.
Upon returning to her home in Philadelphia, Irene is chosen to intern as a mortuary assistant under her revered professor, Camilla Osman. She is everything her mother was: intimidating, beautiful, maternal, and hiding a secret of her own. Camilla is a serial killer.
Infatuated, the lines between familial and romantic blur in a bloody psychological horror full of manipulation, teeth, and formaldehyde.
- GenresLesbian
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
May 15, 2026
It’s not often that i’m left speechless when reading, but this book just grabbed me from the second line and then consumed every part of my brain.
A toxic sapphic story with a boat load of mommy issues is the kind of things my bookish dreams are made off and I was so excited to read this one, and it ended up being everything I wanted. This was so very weird, creepy and eery and every seconds of it was exactly to my liking when it comes to my horror reads.
The writing style and descriptions in this book was just so fantastic. Everything was just so evocative and triggered so many feelings in me. Every time I read a paragraph or two I had to but the book down and consider life and its meaning for a second or two and let me tell you, that made for quite a reading experience.
This was one the most haunting yet beautiful book I have ever read and I enjoyed every seconds of it, immensely.
A toxic sapphic story with a boat load of mommy issues is the kind of things my bookish dreams are made off and I was so excited to read this one, and it ended up being everything I wanted. This was so very weird, creepy and eery and every seconds of it was exactly to my liking when it comes to my horror reads.
The writing style and descriptions in this book was just so fantastic. Everything was just so evocative and triggered so many feelings in me. Every time I read a paragraph or two I had to but the book down and consider life and its meaning for a second or two and let me tell you, that made for quite a reading experience.
This was one the most haunting yet beautiful book I have ever read and I enjoyed every seconds of it, immensely.
May 28, 2026
Disclaimer: I received an ebook-copy from the author.
There will also be some spoilers for the story in this review, up to around the 40% mark, so if you prefer to go into the story with a blank slate skip this.
Love as a knife that cuts deep is taken quite literally in this novel. Irene is a young college student grieving the death of her mother. Like any young person, who experiences a sudden loss like that, she is unmoored, left floundering and looking for any anchor to cling to. Unlike most young people, the relationship she’s grieving was far from normal. Her mother, often cold and unreadable, showed affection best, when she placed her daughter on an operating table and took a scalpel to her, when she tended to her wounds after and when she cooked up the delicious morsels harvested. Scared emotionally and physically, Irene returns to campus and soon finds another older, cold woman to cling to in her Mortuary Professor Camilla Osman, who looks at her the way her mother did.
We are introduced to Irene as a girl awash in grief, overcome with tender longing for a Mother Who Cared, but soon the messed-up relationship between her and her mother unfurls, showing just how much was hidden from others. Despite the abuse presented, it is well laid out why Irene misses her, the grooming seeping through the interactions between them like a sickening poison, the way harm and love intertwine from childhood. I really enjoyed how that was reflected in the way she feels pulled towards Camilla, another woman skilled with the knife and human bodies and the way grief, longing for a messed up not-so-maternal relationship and Irene’s own trauma underlined this strange attraction. All in all, the author creates a fascinating depiction of messed up lesbian attraction here that will be delicious to any fans of toxic yuri.
A short note on the content warnings: While never fully diving into the theme of incestuous abuse, there are clear crossings of physical boundaries in a parent-child interaction that might make some readers uncomfortable and that can be read as sexualized. And while not diving deeply into it, the pseudo-incest does take part of its appeal to the characters from the similarities to related people, so if that is something you’re uncomfortable with, you might want to skip this one.
I found the way disability as a result of chronic abuse was presented here interesting, using the focus on Irene’s physical body as a way to show her trauma, her chronic pain, the scars she carries from her past and the way she was forcibly disconnected from her body as well as the social and communal disconnect caused by isolation and only being allowed interaction with one person for the biggest part of her life. While this is not a story of healing from abuse (far from it), it does not minimize the results of it.
The writing style is gorgeous, creating incredible atmosphere without being overburdening in its descriptiveness. The injuries ache, the meat is tender, the fear and attraction are palpable. The interactions between the characters are layered, the things that are said, those that are only inferred and those that only the reader knows about, creating tense and intriguing scenes.
As I received an ARC it is possible that the few repetitions and typos I found will be fixed in the finished version. The only parts I didn’t like as much was how the use of pronouns became sometimes confusing as it wasn’t always easy to distinguish the characters from each other and I had to reread some sentences to figure out who did what exactly.
All in all, this is an interesting dark sapphic romance that I really enjoyed reading, it was gruesome and tender, twisted and intriguing. If you want an older woman to manipulate you, enjoy reading about mommy issues, the horror of surgery, cannibalism as a form of love or a deeply messed up young woman looking for care in the jaws of a predator, then you should check this out!
TW: abuse (in childhood, emotional, physical, psychological, sexual implied, including csa), age gap relationship, blood, cannibalism, child death, neglect and starvation, death, emotional incest, grief, gore, grooming, pseudo-incest (taking mommy issues very literal), injury, murder, self-harm, suicide (past)
There will also be some spoilers for the story in this review, up to around the 40% mark, so if you prefer to go into the story with a blank slate skip this.
Love as a knife that cuts deep is taken quite literally in this novel. Irene is a young college student grieving the death of her mother. Like any young person, who experiences a sudden loss like that, she is unmoored, left floundering and looking for any anchor to cling to. Unlike most young people, the relationship she’s grieving was far from normal. Her mother, often cold and unreadable, showed affection best, when she placed her daughter on an operating table and took a scalpel to her, when she tended to her wounds after and when she cooked up the delicious morsels harvested. Scared emotionally and physically, Irene returns to campus and soon finds another older, cold woman to cling to in her Mortuary Professor Camilla Osman, who looks at her the way her mother did.
We are introduced to Irene as a girl awash in grief, overcome with tender longing for a Mother Who Cared, but soon the messed-up relationship between her and her mother unfurls, showing just how much was hidden from others. Despite the abuse presented, it is well laid out why Irene misses her, the grooming seeping through the interactions between them like a sickening poison, the way harm and love intertwine from childhood. I really enjoyed how that was reflected in the way she feels pulled towards Camilla, another woman skilled with the knife and human bodies and the way grief, longing for a messed up not-so-maternal relationship and Irene’s own trauma underlined this strange attraction. All in all, the author creates a fascinating depiction of messed up lesbian attraction here that will be delicious to any fans of toxic yuri.
A short note on the content warnings: While never fully diving into the theme of incestuous abuse, there are clear crossings of physical boundaries in a parent-child interaction that might make some readers uncomfortable and that can be read as sexualized. And while not diving deeply into it, the pseudo-incest does take part of its appeal to the characters from the similarities to related people, so if that is something you’re uncomfortable with, you might want to skip this one.
I found the way disability as a result of chronic abuse was presented here interesting, using the focus on Irene’s physical body as a way to show her trauma, her chronic pain, the scars she carries from her past and the way she was forcibly disconnected from her body as well as the social and communal disconnect caused by isolation and only being allowed interaction with one person for the biggest part of her life. While this is not a story of healing from abuse (far from it), it does not minimize the results of it.
The writing style is gorgeous, creating incredible atmosphere without being overburdening in its descriptiveness. The injuries ache, the meat is tender, the fear and attraction are palpable. The interactions between the characters are layered, the things that are said, those that are only inferred and those that only the reader knows about, creating tense and intriguing scenes.
As I received an ARC it is possible that the few repetitions and typos I found will be fixed in the finished version. The only parts I didn’t like as much was how the use of pronouns became sometimes confusing as it wasn’t always easy to distinguish the characters from each other and I had to reread some sentences to figure out who did what exactly.
All in all, this is an interesting dark sapphic romance that I really enjoyed reading, it was gruesome and tender, twisted and intriguing. If you want an older woman to manipulate you, enjoy reading about mommy issues, the horror of surgery, cannibalism as a form of love or a deeply messed up young woman looking for care in the jaws of a predator, then you should check this out!
TW: abuse (in childhood, emotional, physical, psychological, sexual implied, including csa), age gap relationship, blood, cannibalism, child death, neglect and starvation, death, emotional incest, grief, gore, grooming, pseudo-incest (taking mommy issues very literal), injury, murder, self-harm, suicide (past)
May 23, 2026
The only word that I can use to describe the prose is poetic. A poetic prose. Prestigious poetic prose. Well, two words, I guess.
I am astounded. First and foremost I am stunned by the author's writing skills, their description, vocabulary, their hability to transport the reader into the book's atmosphere, just brilliant and chilling.
This was new genre for me, one that I completely enjoyed, it's twisted and dark, it's perverted and toxic, at the same time, remarkable. The dynamic between the characters is complex and interesting. The level of depth throughout this book is impressive, I was rooting for Irene, absolutely invested in her journey, even though... you know.
About that 3rd act:
Anyway, I will read from this author again, and follow their work. There aren't many books like this one, that portrays a queer disable poc.
Also, I one more thing I have to say, mommy issues is not enough to even describe what is going on in "Bury Your Devoured".
I am astounded. First and foremost I am stunned by the author's writing skills, their description, vocabulary, their hability to transport the reader into the book's atmosphere, just brilliant and chilling.
This was new genre for me, one that I completely enjoyed, it's twisted and dark, it's perverted and toxic, at the same time, remarkable. The dynamic between the characters is complex and interesting. The level of depth throughout this book is impressive, I was rooting for Irene, absolutely invested in her journey, even though... you know.
About that 3rd act:
Anyway, I will read from this author again, and follow their work. There aren't many books like this one, that portrays a queer disable poc.
Also, I one more thing I have to say, mommy issues is not enough to even describe what is going on in "Bury Your Devoured".
May 11, 2026
THIS WAS SO GOOOD I LOVE MESSED UP TOXIC YURI such a visceral depiction of abuse and trauma and power dynamics
"Her mother’s love usually never came without blood. But that’s how all love comes. That’s how you know it’s real."
Irene and her mother Ophelia have a toxic mother daughter dynamic... cannibalism and love with blood..... After her mother's passing and the severance of that dependency, Irene is lured in by her mortuary sciences professor Camilla by virtue of her command and appreciation for death and her matronly seduction... Then comes a string of murders of victims who look like Irene... and everything unfolds upon meeting Eileen who also shares the same visage.. and Irene's dark apprenticeship with Camilla develops... towards destructive ends... // i loved the writing and the messiness of the characters... the psychosexual tension and atmosphere.. to die for...!! messed up age gap toxic yuri bc she has mommy issues and a thing for older women.. trauma manifesting in violent desires .. the cycle of abuse and the catharsis of healing.. // overall a horrific exploration of cannibalism and murder as a form of love and emotional abuse, a cutting dissection of the complexities of grief and trauma, and a gothic reverence for death and survivors.. written in lush and poetic prose.. Irene is a complex sapphic and disabled mc with scars... following Irene's journey is both enthralling and sickening and heartbreaking.. the end is bittersweet...
if youre looking for Black queer horror This is the One .. i am stunned every time i read it
arc review!
"Her mother’s love usually never came without blood. But that’s how all love comes. That’s how you know it’s real."
Irene and her mother Ophelia have a toxic mother daughter dynamic... cannibalism and love with blood..... After her mother's passing and the severance of that dependency, Irene is lured in by her mortuary sciences professor Camilla by virtue of her command and appreciation for death and her matronly seduction... Then comes a string of murders of victims who look like Irene... and everything unfolds upon meeting Eileen who also shares the same visage.. and Irene's dark apprenticeship with Camilla develops... towards destructive ends... // i loved the writing and the messiness of the characters... the psychosexual tension and atmosphere.. to die for...!! messed up age gap toxic yuri bc she has mommy issues and a thing for older women.. trauma manifesting in violent desires .. the cycle of abuse and the catharsis of healing.. // overall a horrific exploration of cannibalism and murder as a form of love and emotional abuse, a cutting dissection of the complexities of grief and trauma, and a gothic reverence for death and survivors.. written in lush and poetic prose.. Irene is a complex sapphic and disabled mc with scars... following Irene's journey is both enthralling and sickening and heartbreaking.. the end is bittersweet...
if youre looking for Black queer horror This is the One .. i am stunned every time i read it
arc review!
March 24, 2026
This was an incredibly tragic yet gorgeous gothic horror novella riddled in mommy issues and cannibalism as a metaphor for love. Damn, this was beautifully brutal, a book that will definitely have you staring at a wall.
May 29, 2026
Big thanks to the author for the ARC copy of Bury Your Devoured! This has not affected my review at all, which are my own thoughts.
Irene Blackwell is still grieving her dead mother, trying to come to terms with the horrors of her childhood and the way she would show Irene her love, it being bloodier than anyone would ever expect, when she returns to Philadelphia to continue her classes.
There, she's chosen as mortuary assistant to her professor Camilla Osman, who reminds Irene of her own mother: intimidating, maternal, revered by Irene...and a serial killer. Irene clocks her right away, yet she's unable to resist her, infatuated and willing to follow Camilla to unimaginable ends to feel again her mother's love.
I jumped so fast in the ARC train of this book when I saw the author offering copies for its re-release...And I'm more than glad that I did so!
Bury Your Devoured presents us with an unconventional relationship between a professor and her student, a serial killer and a grieving woman, and many years between them to fill a book. It swims in the darkest parts of Irene's mind, which Camilla uses to her advantage, of course. We see the limits of a person who would do anything for maternal love.
It is a truly f*cked up story, that makes you look at yourself as you see someone as realistic as Irene being depicted, how grieve and the way her mother showed Irene love, lead her to where she is. And that's as much as I'll read to avoid spoilers.
Yet, last but not least, I want to mention how the story hooked me in right from the start and how Kayden Agnus describes sentiment and feelings and Irene's slow debacle with herself; making it sound flourish and disturbing, painting a vivid image. I could never turn my head around and not watch, Kayden's writing just pulled me in completely.
Glad I found a new favorite horror author for me😌
Irene Blackwell is still grieving her dead mother, trying to come to terms with the horrors of her childhood and the way she would show Irene her love, it being bloodier than anyone would ever expect, when she returns to Philadelphia to continue her classes.
There, she's chosen as mortuary assistant to her professor Camilla Osman, who reminds Irene of her own mother: intimidating, maternal, revered by Irene...and a serial killer. Irene clocks her right away, yet she's unable to resist her, infatuated and willing to follow Camilla to unimaginable ends to feel again her mother's love.
I jumped so fast in the ARC train of this book when I saw the author offering copies for its re-release...And I'm more than glad that I did so!
Bury Your Devoured presents us with an unconventional relationship between a professor and her student, a serial killer and a grieving woman, and many years between them to fill a book. It swims in the darkest parts of Irene's mind, which Camilla uses to her advantage, of course. We see the limits of a person who would do anything for maternal love.
It is a truly f*cked up story, that makes you look at yourself as you see someone as realistic as Irene being depicted, how grieve and the way her mother showed Irene love, lead her to where she is. And that's as much as I'll read to avoid spoilers.
Yet, last but not least, I want to mention how the story hooked me in right from the start and how Kayden Agnus describes sentiment and feelings and Irene's slow debacle with herself; making it sound flourish and disturbing, painting a vivid image. I could never turn my head around and not watch, Kayden's writing just pulled me in completely.
Glad I found a new favorite horror author for me😌
January 9, 2026
Heart stoppingly beautiful
God… what a book. The prose was utterly gorgeous and the story had me turning every page and hoping for more!
God… what a book. The prose was utterly gorgeous and the story had me turning every page and hoping for more!
January 21, 2026
[Rounded up from 4.5 stars.]
Bury Your Devoured is a twisted story told with beautiful prose.
There's a sense of unease right from the very first chapter, and that skin-crawling feeling doesn't let up until the very end.
Agnus perfectly allegorized the darkest and most complicated relationship that can exist between mother and daughter—the love, the hatred, and the understanding.
This book is not for the faint of heart but that's what made me love it; there's honesty in the brutality.
Bury Your Devoured is a twisted story told with beautiful prose.
There's a sense of unease right from the very first chapter, and that skin-crawling feeling doesn't let up until the very end.
Agnus perfectly allegorized the darkest and most complicated relationship that can exist between mother and daughter—the love, the hatred, and the understanding.
This book is not for the faint of heart but that's what made me love it; there's honesty in the brutality.
May 14, 2026
This was UNHINGED and I loved it so much. The prose is out of this world good. Like truly, there were so many times where I reread a line because it just hit so hard. The way that things are phrased is truly genius as it evokes a very specific feeling at every word so that everything is visceral (and with a book like this that is both a blessing and a curse and I mean that in the NICEST way).
Honestly, every queer horror fan needs to read this one. It's so amazing.
Honestly, every queer horror fan needs to read this one. It's so amazing.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews