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 althoughI don’t read a lot of horror, this novel captured my imagination and kept mestaying up way too late, turning the pages. It straddles the boundary betweenscience fiction and horror, with a nod to thriller pacing and suggestions offantastical elements. In a far, but not too far, dystopic future, Earth isbarely recognizable. Upheavals have overturned the layers of crust, so that thesurface is all but barren. Humans must mine the caverns for wheatrockfoodstock. Winters are bitterly cold and getting worse. Even so, settlementspersist. One such is an estate ruled by a grossly obese baron who relies onsophisticated machinery to stay alive. When his doctor dies, he sends to theelite Interprovincial Medical Institute for a replacement (the narrator). Butthis is no simple matter of sending another graduate of the same school. Thenameless narrator shares consciousness, knowledge, and memories with everyother 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 theformer physician turns out to be a second parasite arising deep in thecaverns. It’s not only deadly, it’s incredibly difficult to kill, and it’sspreading from one host to the next like wildfire.

I loved the medical neepery, the skillful way the authorintroduced the characters and plot elements, the rocketship ride of dramatictension, and the wildly inventive world-building.

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