If this article may seem like a shitpost entirely inspired by the worm girlfriend meme (my partner has repeatedly assured me that he would indeed love me as a worm)…that is, indeed, why I wrote it; however, we are also blessed with a year of many, many worms in fiction. There were several worm books last year, as well, and they are of course included. Symbiosis isn’t exactly achieved in the works below, but hey, at least these parasites are trying! Which is more than most of us can say on any given day. It’s hard to keep the host body alive, okay?
A.P. Thayer, Tapeworm
(Evil Twin, August 18)
An ancient evil dwells below the dried up lake that once filled Southern California, unable to escape its subterranean prison—that is, until climate change opens a way to the surface, and fractious vacationers soon become the perfect hosts to, well, a lot of worms. So many worms. And they are quite reasonable worms, with fairly achievable goals. This book is the first release from Zando’s new Evil Twin horror imprint, adding to the pantheon of new spinoffs celebrating the horror renaissance.
Briana N. Cox, Indigent
In this anti-capitalist parable of decay, rot, and urban renewal, a soon-to-be-condemned apartment complex gets overtaken by a parasite-infested family. They’ve lost a favorite daughter, and they need to add the building’s maintenance guy to their flesh-eating coven, or risk both discovery and a final death. Most of the family’s victims are people who’ve been so neglected by society that they taste terrible, which is both hilariously dark and quite logical.
T. Kingfisher, Wolf Worm
(Tor)
T. Kingfisher’s new historical horror novel is truly disgusting, and not for the faint of heart. Wolf Worm features a botanical illustrator hired to document the life cycles of flesh-eating insects in meticulously detailed drawings, her employer hiding such sinister deeds as can’t possibly be imagined before reading the final pages of the book.
Andrew Joseph White, You Weren’t Meant to Be Human
(Saga)
In a year of gore-filled nightmares, Andrew Joseph White’s tale of flies and worms might outdo them all them with its poetic grotesquerie. You Weren’t Mean to Be Human follows a young autistic trans man who believes he’s found a safe home when he’s welcomed by sentient bugs and their followers into their rotting nest. There, he can be himself, as long as he also feeds his new overlords plenty of rotting flesh. But when he finds himself pregnant, the flies and worms won’t let him terminate the pregnancy: they have plans for the child.
Hiron Ennes, The Works of Vermin
(Tor)
Hiron Ennes blew me away with their debut, Leech, a novel as indescribable as it is horrifying. The Works of Vermin is just as difficult to capture, although far more epic in its scope. In an enormous city located on a world-sized tree, the residents of the upper branches enjoy strange perfumes and violent operas while those in the lower branches struggle to make do, and the root-dwellers engage in constant warfare against insectoid species capable of unspeakable destruction (including giant worms who favor fine art and theatre costumes in their diet). I read this book, then re-read it, then re-read it again. And I’m quite sure anyone who picks up the book after reading this blurb will feel the same way.
