You know how I’ll read basically anything by T. Kingfisher? The same goes for Sarah Gailey. That’s how I found myself reading an erotic horror, which is definitely not my usual genre.
Honestly I like to say I don’t read a lot of horror, but a look through my reviews and reading log will show that I actually probably read about as much horror as sci-fi, and definitely more than mystery and thriller. I’m just extremely selective. I don’t like really long horror books, and I don’t like a lot of body horror (pregnancy horror is straight out), and it can’t be too gory. And definitely if I read too many horror books in a row, I have to take a little break.
But dang if LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC authors aren’t killing it in the horror genre these days. Sometimes I just gotta dip in.
Spread Me by Sarah Gailey is just about the weirdest, horniest thing I’ve ever read. I almost skipped it until I saw that it was a novella. I can put up with almost anything for the length of a novella, so I decided to let Gailey gross me out a bit, and they did not disappoint. The pacing and characterization of this book are so great that they kept me locked in even when things got creepy and sad. In fact, I liked this so much that it was a 24-hour read for me!
It’s funny that I read this so soon after The Last Cold Place, because it’s also about doing science in a remote location. In this case, however, it’s the desert, and the crew does have the option of taking a long drive to the local-ish watering hole to blow off some steam. But most of the time it’s just them in their abandoned space simulator base turned desert outpost.
Whereas The Last Cold Place only touches briefly on the possibility of romantic entanglements during the field season, Spread Me makes it clear: everyone is fucking. Everyone, except the boss and our narrator, Kinsey. Kinsey has told her team it wouldn’t be appropriate for her to sleep with any of them, because of the power dynamics. But the truth is that Kinsey really isn’t sexually attracted to people. Her true desires are hidden, but perhaps not as well-hidden as she thinks.
All I’ll say is that as I was reading this book, the Rumi quote “What you seek is seeking you” kept running through my mind.
There’s been a lot of discourse about sex in media these days. Is there too much, is there not enough, does Gen Z hate it (*sigh* I remember when it was Millennials everyone was doing think pieces about). More concerning, there’s a lot of efforts to quash sexualized media, and a lot of LGBTQIA+ works are getting lumped into that even if there’s no sexual content in the media in question. So in this toxic social and political landscape, it was really refreshing to see such a weird, queer, explicitly sexual book get published — and it seems to be selling well.
To be clear, Spread Me is not going to work for a lot of people. I’m not going to go around telling everyone they should read it. But if a short erotic horror sounds like just the thing to round out your October TBR, you should definitely pick it up.
CWs and TWs: Sexual content, strong language, alcohol abuse, violence, body horror (non-POV characters), illness, medical horror, death, dead animals, and general creepy vibes.
Source and Format: I borrowed the ebook from Seattle Public Library.
Reading Challenge Prompts
Nook & Cranny (Card 1): Daydreams & Nightmares. What’s a sexual fantasy if not a horny little daydream? And this whole thing quickly devolves into a nightmarish scenario.
Reading Challenge Progress
Nook & Cranny (Card 1): 16 of 25, no bingos.
Nook & Cranny (Card 2): 20 of 25, 2 bingos.
Book Riot: 16 of 24.
Physical TBR: 8 of 12.
World of Whimm: 21 of 24, 6 bingos.