Leech

Starred review from July 4, 2022
Emotionally complex, wildly inventive, and full of squirming terror, Ennes’s debut begins when the doctor assigned to the Château de Verdira dies under mysterious circumstances. The Interprovincial Medical Institute sends another of their own to replace him. The nameless protagonist arrives on a mission to discover how the previous doctor died while harboring one of the biggest secrets in this postapocalyptic world: the Institute is not only a medical association. It’s a hivemind of parasites that have systemically taken over the minds and bodies of every human medical professional to fulfill a mandate to protect and care for the human race—who have proven incapable of doing so themselves. The death of the chateau’s previous doctor marks the first time the Institute’s lost a body without remembering how. As the protagonist discovers it’s not the only parasite within the chateau’s walls, both the health of the chateau’s residents and the ironclad hold the Institute has on its hosts begin to crumble. Ennes builds a postapocalyptic world with an expansive history and innumerable creeping horrors hiding in its shadows. The author’s greatest strength is in narrative voice, rendering the Institute’s hivemind with laser precision. This is a must-read for readers looking for something new from the horror genre. Agent: Alexander Cochran, C&W.