Friday, December 29, 2023

Short Book Reviews: A Deliciously Bizarre and Terrifying Dystopic Medical Thriller

 Leech, by Hiron Ennes (Tordotcom)


I should preface my review with the confession that although I don’t read a lot of horror, this novel captured my imagination and kept me staying up way too late, turning the pages. It straddles the boundary between science fiction and horror, with a nod to thriller pacing and suggestions of fantastical elements. In a far, but not too far, dystopic future, Earth is barely recognizable. Upheavals have overturned the layers of crust, so that the surface is all but barren. Humans must mine the caverns for wheatrock foodstock. Winters are bitterly cold and getting worse. Even so, settlements persist. One such is an estate ruled by a grossly obese baron who relies on sophisticated machinery to stay alive. When his doctor dies, he sends to the elite Interprovincial Medical Institute for a replacement (the narrator). But this is no simple matter of sending another graduate of the same school. The nameless narrator shares consciousness, knowledge, and memories with every other graduate. In fact, they are all human hosts for a single, telepathic parasite.

As if that weren’t bizarre enough, the cause of death of the former physician turns out to be a second parasite arising deep in the caverns. It’s not only deadly, it’s incredibly difficult to kill, and it’s spreading from one host to the next like wildfire.

I loved the medical neepery, the skillful way the author introduced the characters and plot elements, the rocketship ride of dramatic tension, and the wildly inventive world-building.

Content warning for violence, gore, mental rape, and a few other horrors. The book might be too nightmarish for some readers.


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