Read more
'' Highly recommended. I '' ll be reading anything Hiron Ennes writes from now on '' - Tade Thompson, author of Rosewater '' A wonderful new entry to Gothic science fiction, impeccably clever and atmospheric. Think Wuthering Heights . . . with worms! '' - Tamsyn Muir, author of Gideon the Ninth In an isolated chateau, as far north as north goes, the baron''s doctor has died. The Interprovincial Medical Institute sends out a replacement. But when the new physician investigates the cause of death, which appears to be suicide, there''s a mystery to solve. It seems the good doctor was hosting a parasite. Yet this should have been impossible, as the man was already possessed. For hundreds of years, the Institute has grown by taking root in young minds and shaping them into doctors, replacing every human practitioner of medicine. The Institute is here to help humanity, to cure and to cut, to cradle and protect the species. Now it seems they have competition. For in the baron''s icebound castle, already a pit of secrets and lies, the parasite is spreading . . . These two enemies will make war within the battlefield of the body. Whichever wins, humanity will lose again. Leech by Hiron Ennes is an atmospheric Gothic triumph, perfect for fans of Jeff VanderMeer and Silvia Moreno-Garcia.
Report
So much more than the horror story it may sound like. Ennes has created a world that's fully realized and disturbingly believable, a place both futuristic in its environmental disasters but Victorian in its manners and ways. This is The Thing meets The Alienist, and to call it merely horror is a disservice, as it's beautifully written and so strangely humane one feels empathy for a virus struggling, like all the humans about it, to survive. So unique and utterly assured, I will follow this writer anywhere going forward Gillian Flynn, author of Gone Girl
