Brainwyrms

by Alison Rumfitt

Overview

“Smart, seething social horror…Rumfitt gives her worms the grotesque and triumphant glory they demand.” —The New York Times Book Review

From Alison Rumfitt, the author of Tell Me I’m Worthless — “a triumph of transgressive queer horror” (Publishers Weekly) — comes Brainwyrms, a searing body horror novel of obsession, violence, and pleasure.

A Shirley Jackson Award finalist • A Best Book of 2023 (Reactor)

“Alison is like the twisted daughter of Clive Barker and Shirley Jackson.” —Joe Hill, New York Times bestselling author on Tell Me I'm Worthless

When a transphobic woman bombs Frankie’s workplace, she blows up Frankie’s life with it. As the media descends like vultures, Frankie tries to cope with the carnage: binge-drinking, sleeping with strangers, pushing away her friends. Then, she meets Vanya. Mysterious, beautiful, terrifying Vanya.

The two hit it off immediately, but as their relationship intensifies, so too does Frankie’s feeling that Vanya is hiding something from her. When Vanya’s secrets threaten to tear them apart, Frankie starts digging, and unearths a sinister, depraved conspiracy, the roots of which go deeper than she ever imagined.

Shocking, grotesque, and downright filthy, Brainwyrms confronts the creeping reality of political terrorism while exploring the depths of love, pain, and identity.

“[An] intimate, vulnerable triumph.” —Library Journal, STARRED review

“Rumfitt’s talent for portraying the deplorable, disgusting, and grotesque shines throughout her masterful sophomore horror outing.” —Publishers Weekly, STARRED review

Also by Alison Rumfitt:
Tell Me I'm Worthless

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250866264
Publisher:	Tor Publishing Group
Publication date:	10/10/2023
Sold by:	Macmillan
Format:	eBook
Pages:	272
Sales rank:	228,916
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

ALISON RUMFITT is a writer, semi-professional trans woman, and the author of Tell Me I'm Worthless. Her debut pamphlet of poetry, The T(y)ranny, was a critical deconstruction of Margaret Atwood’s work through the lens of a trans woman navigating her own misogynistic dystopia. Her work has appeared in countless publications such as SPORAZINE, datableed, The Final Girls, Burning House Press, SOFT CARTEL, Glass Poetry and more. Her poetry was nominated for the Rhysling Award in 2018. She loves her friends.
ALISON RUMFITT is a writer, semi-professional trans woman, and the author of Tell Me I'm Worthless. Her debut pamphlet of poetry, The T(y)ranny, was a critical deconstruction of Margaret Atwood’s work through the lens of a trans woman navigating her own misogynistic dystopia. Tell Me I’m Worthless is her debut novel. Her work has appeared in countless publications such as SPORAZINE, datableed, The Final Girls, Burning House Press, SOFT CARTEL, Glass Poetry and more. Her poetry was nominated for the Rhysling Award in 2018. She loves her friends.

Editorial Reviews

★ 08/28/2023

Rumfitt’s talent for portraying the deplorable, disgusting, and grotesque shines throughout her masterful sophomore horror outing (after 2021’s Tell Me I’m Worthless). In a too-close-for-comfort near-future U.K., protagonist Frankie is a trans woman increasingly under threat from the rise in militant transphobia, spearheaded by such figures as Jennifer Caldwell, a beloved children’s author turned unrepentant bigot. Frankie enters into a relationship with nonbinary Vanya, whose fetish for parasites leads to the crux of the story: the reveal that there are parasites—the eponymous “brainwyrms”—inhabiting the so-called “gender-critical,” proponents of anti-trans ideology. The ensuing body horror is often viscerally disgusting, including multiple lengthy sex scenes involving parasitic worms, but the gross-out factor never feels gratuitous: it’s an incendiary response to what is already an incendiary stance. Rumfitt has a point to make and she makes it with passion and nuance, without ever getting in the way of good storytelling. The characters are memorable and realistically flawed, and the horrors feel all too real. Readers will need strong stomachs to get through this, but those who do will be rewarded by the thoughtful intensity of Rumfitt’s voice. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

Smart, seething social horror…Made up of terse, glowering prose and grimy sex scenes, the novel is perhaps best described as “The Last of Us” dunked in the toilet bowl of Samuel R. Delany’s impressively foul, taboo-shattering “Hogg.”” —The New York Times Book Review

“[An] intimate, vulnerable triumph.…With biting, abrasive commentary, Rumfitt’s bold prose pulls no punches and refuses to relent....Rumfitt’s tour-de-force work of queer body horror is a must-read for fans of Gretchen Felker-Martin, Eric LaRocca, and Hailey Piper.” —Library Journal, STARRED review

“Rumfitt’s talent for portraying the deplorable, disgusting, and grotesque shines throughout her masterful sophomore horror outing.” —Publishers Weekly, STARRED review

“Filthy, searing, and hideously intimate – a modern classic.” —Gretchen Felker-Martin, author of Manhunt

“The literary equivalent of swallowing a mouthful of maggots and liking it. Rumfitt is a master of disgust, twisting the horrors of transphobia into a hellish masterpiece, and you won’t be able to look away.” —Andrew Joseph White, New York Times bestselling author of Hell Followed With Us

“Brainwyrms solidifies Alison Rumfitt as one of the most stunning voices in modern queer lit.” —Pride.com

“A gut-churning infestation mixing extreme depravity with a hive of obsessive violence. Rumfitt consistently has her finger to the societal pulse.” —Hailey Piper, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of No Gods for Drowning

“Brutal and terrifyingly visceral, Brainwyrms will slither inside unsuspecting readers and lay eggs there—an infection that can never be cured, a book that refuses to be ignored.” —Eric LaRocca, author of Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke and Other Misfortunes

“Rumfitt’s follow-up to Tell Me I’m Worthless is positively filthy. It is also angry, hateful, sexual, heartbreaking, and searingly relatable.” —Booklist

“Brainwyrms cements Rumfitt's reputation as horror's rising star of the dark, disgusting, and subversive. She writes with compassion and lyricism about the most fucked-up subjects, making her readers complicit in the vile and uncanny.” —Ally Wilkes, author of All the White Spaces

“Rumfitt’s work is extreme body horror that expertly wields the genre like a ritual knife….a challenging but wholly captivating example of how perfectly horror is a vehicle for transformation and self-realization.” —Tor.com

Praise for Tell Me I'm Worthless

“Alison is like the twisted daughter of Clive Barker and Shirley Jackson. Tell Me I’m Worthless is an intense read full of shocks and buckets of gore. It’s brilliant.” —Joe Hill, New York Times bestselling author

“A triumph of transgressive queer horror.” —Publishers Weekly, STARRED review

“Easily one of the strongest horror debuts in recent memory.” —Booklist, STARRED review

“A gripping, hallucinogenic haunted house novel as righteously angry as it is horrifying, Tell Me I'm Worthless unflinchingly lays bare the personal and cultural scars we wear, endure, and inflict.” —Paul Tremblay, author of The Cabin at the End of the World and The Pallbearers Club

“A lush masterpiece. Each page crackles with unnerving texture and unsettling sensation, and I felt chewed and digested by the end. Albion is the scariest haunted house since Hill House.” —Hailey Piper, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Queen of Teeth

“Chilling, bone-deep horror as humane as it is hideous. Tell Me I’m Worthless is ambitious, brutal, and brilliant.” —Gretchen Felker-Martin, author of Manhunt

“An utterly harrowing experience. Like all iconic masterworks of horror fiction, Tell Me I'm Worthless rips you apart and then tenderly pieces you together until you're something entirely new.” —Eric LaRocca, author of Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke

“Horrifying, provocative, and empathetic yet unflinching.” —Vulture

“A hallucinogenic, powerful, transgressive novel that uncompromisingly goes into uncomfortable territory and then wallows there, digging deeper and deeper into the things that make us human, and eventually posits that love might be the way out of the things that trap us the hardest.” —Locus

“This amazing work of trans fiction about houses, hauntings, and horrors is going to be the horror book everyone is discussing next year.” —Book Riot

“Intense…Rumfitt uses body horror and the tropes of the haunted house skillfully to explore the trans experience in an England full of terfs.” —CrimeReads

“Tell Me I'm Worthless is a defiant love letter to the lost, reminding us that win or lose, live or die, we can still save our souls by choosing love.” —Maya Deane, author of Wrath Goddess Sing

“This debut is a fantastic and disorienting take on the haunted house trope, but it is also a compelling and emotional story about trauma, fascism, and the hard truth of living an openly trans life in the 21st century.” —Library Journal

“An important book, as transgressive and trans as they come.” —Isabel Waidner, author of Sterling Karat Gold and We Are Made of Diamond Stuff

“A sharp and visceral novel which bends the horror genre to its will. Tell Me I’m Worthless holds a gruesome mirror up to the way it feels to live now. I absolutely tore through this book” —Julia Armfield, author of Salt Slow and Our Wives Under the Sea

“Punk in every sense of the word, this is a debut unlike anything you’ve read before. Rumfitt’s horrifying talent shrieks out from every page and rings in your ears for days.” —Eliza Clark, author of Boy Parts

“The most startlingly original haunted house story I have read, this is intense, multi-layered and very, very creepy.” —Lucie McKnight Hardy, author of Water Shall Refuse Them

“Gripping, unsettling, compulsive, spicy, and, in the end, deeply moving. I loved it.” —Molly Smith, co-author of Revolting Prostitutes

“An exquisitely terrifying journey.... Alison Rumfitt’s astute observations of today’s violent cultural landscape work only too well as a tale of gothic horror. But Tell Me I’m Worthless is also full of beauty, empathy and, ultimately, love. I’ll never forget this book.” —Frankie Miren, author of The Service

“A deeply affecting and sharp-eyed book, Tell Me I’m Worthless collages and distorts the horror genre to create something truly unique, vastly compelling and very, very frightening.” —Alice Ash, author of Paradise Block

“Alison Rumfitt’s superlative trans horror picks a fight with the poisonous state of modernity and fearlessly attacks it head on. Vital, thrilling, utterly alive.” —Gary Budden, author of London Incognita

From the Publisher

★ 08/11/2023

Visceral and at times shocking, this intimate, vulnerable triumph isn't for the squeamish, but the experience won't be regretted. In an undated future that feels closer than not, Frankie lives with the trauma inflicted upon her after the gender-identity clinic where she works was bombed by a transphobic woman. She is in a spiral of self-medication and reckless living when she meets Vanya at a fetish club. The two are quickly entangled, their relationship intensified by Frankie's deep desires and fantasies and Vanya's reckoning with a painful past and their search for identity. All the while, around them an ideological war is raging, and metaphor becomes manifest with brilliantly visceral and grotesque depiction, as thought worms and literal worms infest citizens, spreading hate, fear, and bigotry. With biting, abrasive commentary, Rumfitt's bold prose pulls no punches and refuses to relent as readers are pulled deeper into Frankie and Vanya's fears regarding safety, love, and a darkness creeping closer and closer. VERDICT Rumfitt's (Tell Me I'm Worthless) tour-de-force work of queer body horror is a must-read for fans of Gretchen Felker-Martin, Eric LaRocca, and Hailey Piper.—Emily Vinci

Library Journal