Woodworm

For fans of Mariana Enriquez, Samanta Schweblin, Fernanda Melchor and Ottessa Moshfegh, Layla Martinez's debut novel—with its mystical vision of justice for an unjust world—announces a terrifying new voice in international horror.

The house breathes.

The house contains bodies and secrets.

A house of women and shadows built from poetry and revenge - Mariana Enriquez

The house is visited by ghosts, by angels that line the roof like insects, and by saints that burn the bedsheets with their haloes.

It was built by a small-time hustler as a means of controlling his wife, and even after so many years, their daughter and her granddaughter can't leave.

They may be witches or they may just be angry, but when the mysterious disappearance of a young boy draws unwanted attention, the two isolated women, already subjects of public scorn, combine forces with the spirits that haunt them in pursuit of something that resembles justice.

Layla Martinez's eerie debut novel Woodworm is class-conscious horror that drags generations of monsters into the sun.

Translated by Sophie Hughes and Annie McDermott.