My list of authors I would read anything by begins and ends at T. Kingfisher. So if you have been following my reading journey, you would already know that Wolf Worm by T. Kingfisher was one of my most anticipated reads of the year.

The author’s exploration of soft horror rooted in folklore and expressed through body horror fascinates me and Wolf Worm ticked off all of those boxes for me. I expected bugs going in since it was in the title of the book but as usual, I went into the book completely blind. Here is some context for you to pique your interest in the book.

Sonia Wilson is recently orphaned. With her experience in working with her father as an illustrator of plants, she finds work at a girls’ school. But life there as a water colour teacher is drab and restricting. Sonia years for appreciation of her art and skills and a seat at the table of scientific illustrations. Working with her father, a naturalist, she had a taste of this life and now cut off from the community she is looking for a way back in.

To this end, she accepts a job for Dr. Halder to do illustrations for his bugs book. The story begins here and Sonia’s life takes a turn when she reaches the small town in North Carolina to work at the manor in the middle of nowhere.

Race and contemporary politics colour the narrative. Mrs. Kent, the housekeeper, is a Black woman married to a white man. The Kents work at the manor, Mr. Kent as the groundskeeper, along with the kitchen maid Sally. Including Dr. Halder, these three make up the residents of the manor with the Kents living in a cottage on the ground.

Sonia is irked to be working with the ill-tempered Halder. Sonia is suspicious of her predecessor who had started on the illustrations for Halder and lived in the studio room of the house where she has now moved in. Everyone is tight-lipped about the circumstances surrounding the previous illustrator but Sonia is nothing if not curious.

Miss Wilson goes on a mission to root out the secrets of the manor while she is not working. Mr. Kent, Ma Kersey, Mr. Phelps and Sally, all shed light onto the mysterious disappearance of the previous illustrator, her relation to Dr. Halder and brutal murders that took place in the woods three years ago.

Sonia quickly finds herself in more dirt that she had expected. While she is battling an inner turmoil about her morals and financial needs for the job, there are strange behaviours she is nothing in the animals of the forest. That is another mystery she is determined to get to the bottom of.

Bugs are ever-present in the plot, in the work, in the forest, in the water of the basin, in the animals. There is a cat and I love how cats are becoming part and parcel of Kingfisher books. There are family secrets, ancient folklore come to life and mad science experiments.

Even as I pride myself on seeing the plot twists coming from a mile away, this twist, I could not even begin to guess at.

This would be a good read for fans of body horror and if you have already liked Kingfisher’s Sworn Soldier series. This was a 5-star read for me as I had anticipated.

You can grab your copy of  here.

(I earn a small commission from every qualified purchase from the link to continue reading and reviewing)

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Have you read Wolf Worm by T. Kingfisher? What are your thoughts on it? What are your favourite T. Kingfisher books to this date?

Feel free to drop a comment or reach out to me across social media at @thecalcuttanbibliophile. I would love to hear from you.