Wolf Worm

In Wolf Worm, T. Kingfisher is once again giving me everything I want from one of her horror novels: a strong, funny female hero, science doing unexpected things, and Gothic elements.

It’s 1899, and Sonia Wilson is a scientific illustrator who takes a job in central North Carolina, far from her home in Wilmington, after her father dies for Dr. Halder who is writing an academic book on insects.

Even before she arrives at the doctor’s home, she hears stories about “blood demons” in the woods, and things only get creepier when she arrives at the manor and strange things start happening. Her boss wanders around outside in the middle of the night, no one wants to talk about what happened to her predecessor, and local wildlife is behaving super strangely. Could all these things be connected?

Wolf Worm is primarily a quiet Gothic horror as Sonia investigates the rumors and mysterious events, but in true Kingfisher fashion evolves into something darker with body horror and sci-fi elements as Dr. Halder’s insect experiments come to light.

Sonia is a classic feminist Kingfisher heroine, narrating her story with plenty of snark, and Wolf Worm is another example of why T. Kingfisher is an automatic read for me.

I listened to the audiobook which had excellent production quality. Mary Robinette Kowal embodied Sonia and did a good job differentiating the voices and bringing life to the other characters.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the advanced copy for my unbiased review.