Decomposition Book

An emotional, electrifying, and darkly hilarious debut about a woman who finds a dead body and can't give up its ghost, for fans of Mona Awad, Yellowjackets, and weird girl fiction.

Ava thought the great tragedy of her life would be getting stuck in a dead-end office job, but reality looks even grimmer when she goes on an ill-fated hike with two of her coworkers. Meanwhile, spiralling from a disastrous falling-out with her mercurial best friend, Savannah retreats to her parents' empty lake house in upstate New York.

Her days blend together in a hazy swirl of clinically concerning overthinking and alcohol—until she chases her nightly bottle of wine with an Ambien and wakes up in the woods behind her house... next to a dead body. Unfortunately, Savannah is so down bad that this well-preserved corpse offers some compelling friend potential; after all, a dead person can't judge you, they're amazing listeners, and they're not going to leave.

This particular dead person also comes with a handy journal detailing her last six months lost in the woods! Ava, as it turns out, is more than just a cold, lonely corpse. She was funny. She was smart.

And Savannah has finally found someone she can talk to... As Savannah spends more time with both the Ava in front of her and the Ava of the journal, she begins to feel something for Ava she hasn't felt for anyone else—and there's a good chance letting go would haunt her for the rest of her life. Is Savannah finally losing her grip? Or has she found what she's needed all along?