Wonderfully bizarre and ceaselessly creepy…an exceptionally gloomy tale of anger and isolation, filled with strangeness, and delivered with sharp and fast prose. Through it all, Martínez explores larger topics of class resentment and the lingering effects of evil. Intergenerational trauma and monsters share the spotlight in this terrific debut.”
—Gabino Iglesias, The New York Times
“A house of women and shadows, built from poetry and revenge. Layla Martínez' tense, chilling novel tells a story of specters, class war, violence, and loneliness, as naturally as if the witches had dictated this lucid, terrible nightmare to Martínez themselves.”
—Mariana Enriquez, author of Our Share of Night
“An incredible reinvention of the haunted house as a place marked by history’s ghosts, in this case dating back to Franco’s dictatorship.”—Financial Times
“What gives Woodworm its spark is its balanced complexity. So much is packed in and all of it unfurls like a silk ribbon. It’s a mystery. It’s a political commentary. It’s a genre-pleasing paranormal tale. Never is it too busy or distracted from its purpose. Every word is charged with menacing magic and readers will willingly fall victim to its curse.”
—Fangoria
“If you’re in the mood to read a story about a haunted house that will make your skin crawl, then I cannot recommend Woodworm by Layla Martínez enough. This book has everything, from witches to saints to angels that look like praying mantises to some of the most unsettling portrayals of ghosts that I’ve come across in a long time.”
—Polygon
“Martinez’s debut novel takes cabin fever to the max in this story of a grandmother, granddaughter, and their haunted house, set against the backdrop of the Spanish Civil War. As the story unfolds, so do the house’s secrets, the two women must learn to collaborate with the malevolent spirits living among them.”
—The Millions
“Woodworm pays homage to genre icons like Edgar Allan Poe and Shirley Jackson, yet remains a deeply Spanish novel, deriving from considerations of social class and political history that are specific to twentieth-century Spain but universal enough to resonate with international audiences.”
—Southwest Review
“Martinez debuts with a sophisticated ghost story about a former nanny suspected of involvement in a child’s disappearance…breathes new life into the classic haunted house motif through her vivid exploration of generational trauma, violence, misogyny, and class. Readers won’t soon forget this striking tale.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Spanish author Martínez’s fiction debut, succinctly co-translated by award-winning Hughes and McDermott, draws on her maternal grandmother’s stories of surviving Franco’s Spanish Civil War. Here, Martínez deftly alchemizes male entitlement, class privilege, and casual violence into damnable attributes.”
—Booklist
“Martínez’s prose is fairly straightforward with a menacing snarl.…There are interesting dynamics simmering underneath, not least the palpable sense of inherited trauma and the oppressive nature of inequality.…A ghost story buried in a family closet laden with skeletons and sins.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“It pounces on us from the first line and doesn't let go until the last, if it lets go. The Gothic revival continues to expand and produce great works.”
—Edmundo Paz Soldán, author of Norte
“Woodworm is a true literary event.”
—Belén Gopegui, author of Stay This Day and Night with Me
“This book is the revenge of an intergenerational would, the embrace of barbarity, the loss of morels when trying to protect your loved ones. This book is the miserable and the wretched saying ‘enough is enough.’”
—Alana S. Portero, author of Bad Habit
