 Eric sent me a signed copy of his novella Starving Ghosts in Every Thread in exchange for an honest review. Well, first things first Starving Ghosts is not an easy novella to describe, not for me anyway. It felt surreal a lot of the time and I’d definitely describe it as body horror, although not grotesque despite what is actually being described. Over a decade ago I read a short story called Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka. As I read Starving Ghosts I found myself thinking of it. Probably because of the rare insect The Devil’s Crown Beetle and the scorpions both of which seem to have symbolic significance. The mingling of the changing beetle with the arachnids seems to create a growing sense that the main character Teddy is changing into something else. The plot follows a young woman called Teddy and a small cast of characters surrounding her. Most notable are Mr Ridley, a back street rare and exotic animal dealer and Kiiara who seems to have powers of her own and befriends the isolated Teddy. There was a lot of surreal activity and images in Starving Ghosts, it felt as if it had been written to be analysed. There are multiple introduced themes to dig through under the pretty descriptions that themselves can be pulled apart and examined if the reader so wishes. If the reader doesn’t, well that doesn’t matter too much because it is still an entertaining story. What I liked about Starving Ghosts in Every Thread? I found Teddy sympathetic and I liked the mystery regarding the changes she goes through and what she will become. I liked most of the descriptions after the beginning, when I felt that the over descriptions made it hard to see what was actually happening. After the beginning I did enjoy the descriptions, especially of people changing and the contrast between the hideous things being described and the beauty of their description. Most of all I enjoyed reading it and I especially enjoyed the climax in Mr Ridley’s cellar. What I was less keen on? The beginning felt like description over load but improved as the story went on. As an animal lover I found the selling of the rare animals and the treatment of some of the animals unsettling but I like that the author chose to deal with such issues real world issues. Over all I enjoyed this book and I’d recommend it to someone wanting something they can sink their teeth or tail into.  Teddy has a secret. She's so consumed with guilt that it compels her body to literally unravel unless she feeds off the emotions of others. Teddy’s parasitic condition is usually tempered easily and is invisible to most, unless she feeds from them. However, her insatiable hunger has already begun to threaten her safety. Trapped in her tiny Connecticut hometown thanks to a careless mistake which cost her a prestigious scholarship, Teddy grieves her father’s death and cares for her neurotic mother, Mercy, who is convinced scorpion venom is the only remedy for her own peculiar skin ailment linked to her daughter’s sadness. Once an aspiring songwriter, Teddy now merely alternates between shifts at the local market and visits to the house of her eccentric neighbor, Mr. Ridley, for fresh scorpions to bring to her mother. It’s during one of her routine visits to Mr. Ridley’s subterranean grotto of exotic animals that Teddy meets an unusual young girl named Kiiara. Immediately enamored with one another, Teddy soon discovers that Kiiara is hiding a gruesome secret, too – a secret that will threaten to undo everything Teddy has ever known and loved, and violently touch all those who cross their path with disaster. astrid addams Hello, I am Astrid Addams. I am the author of the novella The Haunting of Hacket House and various other short stories including the charity Christmas short Zombie Santa Claus: Axe Murderer Edition. I live in Britain with an ever evolving mischief and I love animals. I had been debating getting into reviewing after reading about reviewers choosing to stop reviewing following the conduct of what I hope is a tiny minority of authors. As a writer I know the importance of reviews and the difficulty in getting reviewers to check out your work sometimes. Also when I saw I Jim’s post asking for volunteers to review for Gingernuts, I had just resolved to read more this year. So on a spur of the moment, a vague idea about maybe getting into reviewing became more concrete, so here we are. Enjoy my opinions and buy some books! Follow Astrid on Twitter here https://twitter.com/AddamsAstrid And Check out Astrid's books on Amazon by clicking here https://smarturl.it/yjkcmi   Comments are closed.
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