Small Bites

by Eliane Boey

Hammie is a mother who has lost her hunger, and her belief that she is, in fact, totally fine. Until the day she locks herself in the storeroom with a large spider and learns to recapture what she lost; beginning by breaking down everything that now occupies her space, and feeling her appetite return.

Hardcover

Expected publication November 11, 2026

About the author

Eliane Boey (she/her) is the author of "Club Contango", a speculative mystery novel, and stories in Clarkesworld, the Penn Review, Galaxy, Weird Horror, and others. She is based in Singapore, and has an MLitt in Philosophy from the University of St Andrews. Find her on Instagram @author.eliane, Bluesky @elianeboey.bsky.social, or via her newsletter https://thoughthing.beehiiv.com/

Reviews

[Renan Bernardo · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is deliciously weird! I couldn't stop reading it. Eliane's prose (which I knew from other works) always attracted me, but she managed to do something else here that completely mesmerized me. I kept feeling Hammie's agony. There's so many layers in Hammie, her traits, her relationships with the people around her, and how she goes through life. And the subtle/not-subtle transformations happening at every page. Really, this novella is SOMETHING. I'm very happy that I got to read it and will remember it for a long while.

Disclaimer: I received an eARC copy of the ebook.

[C.H. Pearce · Rating 5 out of 5]

“I can tell by her return to short, barely formed sentences that she’s lost interest in me again. Of course, I wouldn’t be able to arrest the interest of even a spider for long.”

Absolutely loved this weird horror novella about Hammie, a mother who has lost herself and her appetite rediscovering both with the assistance of the spider who lives in her cupboard. Complex, grounded horror, with incisive, sometimes darkly humorous or quietly devastating observations about motherhood, relationships, career, compromise, identity and self-erasure (“I was determined to… perform enjoyment for the minimum amount of time before leaving”). Glorious descriptions of food that are by turns viscerally real, transcendent and horrifying (and sometimes all three). I was cheering for Hammie all the way, regardless of what her true appetites may consist of.

*I received a free e-ARC in exchange for an honest review

[A.D. Sui · Rating 5 out of 5]

I devoured this book (ha! you see what I did there?) in one sitting. I spent half the time screaming internally while witnessing Hammie's life and begging my girl to just grab her kids and *leave*, and the other chuckling to myself at the razor-sharp prose. This book is relatable, infuriating, and funny, and satisfied my craving for weird fiction (so many eating puns). I might even go and call it weird, feminist fiction (because it *is* weird and it *is* feminist in its messaging.)

I'm going to be shoving this book into everyone's hands come November... maybe as an engagement or baby shower present. ;)

[Ivy Grimes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Small Bites is an incredible ride, sarcastic and wistful and gross and engrossing. Lots of Weird body horror, too! A woman tries to find her hunger again while grappling with her roles as wife, mother, writer, and everything else as she searches for a room of her own. The only place she finds her needed solitude is the storage room, which happens to be occupied by a very instructive spider.