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Tag Archives: Sarah Gailey

Spread Me: A Review

Sarah Gailey has been one of my favorite writers since I first encountered their work in River of Teeth. They have a tremendous knack for writing team dynamics and characters who survive against all odds. Their most recent book, Spread Me, is a spectacular example of both of these qualities with healthy doses of horror and horniness mixed in.

Kinsey is a researcher. She is the leader of an isolated team that is studying the cryptobiotic crust deep in the desert on a four-year mission. As is expected of humans under these sort of circumstances, the members of the team find themselves romantically (or at least sexually) entangled with one another, with the sole exception of Kinsey herself. While she’s not asexual, she’s not attracted to any of her fellow researchers (or fellow humans). Kinsey has a unique situation that she’s struggled to hide from the others at the station—she’s attracted to and aroused by viruses.

Under normal circumstances, Kinsey’s feelings aren’t an issue. She’s not distracted by the interactions of her coworkers, and feels like the isolation of their research station is conducive to her ability to focus on her work. Really, it’s an ideal setup for her. Until, of course, the specimen is unearthed.

Domino is the one to accidentally uncover it, but Kinsey is the one who saw it was breathing, the one to insist on breaking with protocols and bringing it inside the research station before an oncoming sandstorm can bury it again. Against the protests of Mads, the team medic, she brings the thing into the lab. To give a nod to Gailey’s earlier work, “this was a terrible plan.” Not long after contact with the specimen, the other team members begin to show signs of a viral infection, and Kinsey… Kinsey begins to fantasize about the implications of a previously unknown type of life—one that seems to know just what it is that she desires most, and is willing to do anything to give it to her.

Spread Me is an utterly brilliant erotic horror novella. Kinsey is simultaneously distant and sympathetic as she struggles with the differences between acknowledging and loving what she has and exploring her deepest, most secret desires. The novella alternates skillfully between chapters covering the present situation at the station and the recent past, wherein Kinsey and her subordinates meet, arrive at the station for the first time, and get to know each other. It’s a welcome diversion from the mounting tension (dramatic and otherwise) in the present, and gives you a chance to understand the relationships, and just why everyone at the station implicitly trusts Kinsey, even when that’s not the best course of action.

I absolutely loved Spread Me. It’s the fourth Gailey book I’ve read, and it’s an unrepentantly horny version of my all-time favorite horror movie, John Carpenter’s The Thing. My utmost thanks to NetGalley and Tor for providing me with an eARC in exchange for a fair review. Spread Me is available today. If you’re looking for sexy horror, this is it. Go get it.

Upright Women Wanted: A Review

Esther’s best friend is dead.

She’ll blame herself, no matter what. See, Esther’s best friend, a young woman named Beatriz, was engaged to be married. She didn’t love her fiance, Silas, though. She loved Esther. That was something that the world would not allow. Esther loved Beatriz too, of that, there was no question. When Beatriz was caught with unapproved materials, she refused to deny who she was, and so she hanged. Rather than be forced to marry Silas herself, Esther fled from her home and stowed away with the librarians.

Soon, her presence among the supplies is uncovered, and she tells her story to Bet, Leda, and Cye.

Much to Esther’s shock, the librarians are not what she expected them to be. Bet and Leda are a couple, a relationship that the government would definitively not approve. Additionally, Cye is non-binary, only presenting as female while in towns, to avoid trouble. Cye takes Esther under their wing, an apprentice to the apprentice. Esther soon learns that the librarians are more than she ever would’ve guessed. 

Ostensibly, their mission is to distribute Approved Materials across the West, but the Librarians carry much more than that. Bet, Leda, and Cye have a mission to transport three women safely to Utah, home of a large group of Insurrectionists who are revolting against the oppressive state rule. Now, it’s Esther’s mission too, and it’s not going to be an easy ride. 

Sarah Gailey’s writing is always a damn fun time, and their latest novella, Upright Women Wanted, is no exception. This novella is full of classic western action: horseback chases, gun fights, and more. It’s a fast-paced read, and left me wanting to know so much more about Esther’s world.

Novellas

This has been a hectic year for me, as evidenced by my rather sporadic posting schedule. Despite this, I’ve been attempting to take in as much literature as is humanly possible. That means that I’ve been tackling a lot of novellas. Tor has been publishing loads of new novellas over the last few months, and I’ve loved every one that I’ve read this year.

Among my favorites:

The Builders by Daniel Polansky
Mapping the Interior by Stephen Graham Jones
River of Teeth by Sarah Gailey

The Builders is a revenge story at heart, about a group of friends attempting to overthrow a corrupt leader and identify the member of their group who betrayed them the last time they tried. It’s gritty, violent, and dark, and it’s fabulous to watch the team come back together. Why? Because they’re all animals. That’s right. The Builders is essentially Redwall crossed with your favorite grim western film.

Mapping the Interior starts humbly, introducing the reader to a young Native American boy whose mother, following the suspicious death of their father, has moved him and his younger brother into an off-reservation trailer house. Junior sleepwalks, and one night he sees someone while in the middle of his wandering. His father. It’s a haunting story in the truest sense, and the voice is one that’s sorely missing in much of contemporary literature.

River of Teeth hooked me on premise alone. A debut piece from Sarah Gailey, River of Teeth is an alternate history of the Deep South, a what-if tale in which hippos were imported to the bayous of Louisiana to be bred for meat in areas that were too swampy for cattle. Much like The Builders, this one is a tale of revenge featuring a motley crew of adventurers, trading the galloping stallion of the more traditional western for the lumbering but ferocious hippopotamus as a mount. This one has a sequel, Taste of Marrow, that picks up immediately where the first leaves off, and I can’t wait to read it.

Next in line to read: All Systems Red by Martha Wells, book one in a series called The Murderbot Diaries. I’m hooked!

Do you have a favorite novella? Tell me about it in the comments!