Perfect for beach reading
Happy summer! Today I’m celebrating the release of my newest horror novella, a mix of aquatic, eco and Slavic folk horror, It Eats Us From the Inside! To quote my fellow writer and friend, I’m “back on my bullshit”, with another queer horror novella. Someone else would say, I’m on brand.
I’m so happy this story exists. I was toying with the idea of aquatic horror ever since last summer, when I visited the town of Karlobag and swam in its very cold sea. The town is small, and isn’t a very popular tourist destination because it’s not on the highway, nor is it on the very popular islands. So I always felt there’s a certain depression clinging to it as a veil, especially since the first time I visited it was outside of the summer season. There’s nothing sadder than Croatian coastal places in the winter months. Pure, abandoned ghost towns.
I wrote the novella in a bit of a weird headspace, when I was so uncertain about everything. About our future, about the world, and most of all, my writing. But I persisted and the end result is now out and you can check it yourself to see how depressing, deeply sad or gross it is. Though it’s also bittersweet and nostalgic, as my editor and first arc reviewer noticed. I didn’t go full bleak, I believe.
I was also more than glad that Antonio Filipović wanted to do the cover art which adorns the book. I first learned about him during our collab with the Academy of Applied Arts in Rijeka, where he, as a student, did a few illustrations for my story The Lottery (published in the folk horror collection Mistress of Geese). He picked two of my very favorite scenes and did such an amazing job that I knew that the next time I need a cover artist, I’m definitely going to try to commission it from him. And he didn’t disappoint. I love how creepy and disgusting the art is and I hope it correctly represents what to expect from the novella.
And what’s it all about?
Well, it’s about a woman who comes back to her hometown with her wife in tow, to visit her estranged father, currently wrecked with a mysterious new illness. Doris is trying to make amends with her father, figure out what’s happening to his body, learn about this new bacteria infecting everything in the sea, and come to peace with her own past. Slavic folklore mixes with sci-fi apocalyptic eco horror in this tale of hidden regrets, complicated family matters, queer love, aquatic dread and changes from the outside and from within.
Taken at the tide of change, nothing and no one will stay the same.
If you liked The Beach House (2019) there’s a chance you’ll like this too. And if you didn’t like the movie, there’s still a chance you’ll like this novella. 😀
You can read it in paperback and ebook. It’s a perfect beach read, I promise.
Haunted Narratives 