Our Monstrous Bodies

An extraordinary literary horror debut from a rising star.

My eyes snapped open and I saw something else in the mirror, something else that wasn’t me…

After an ill-omened romance with a horror cinephile, Brooke travels to Vancouver to care for her estranged sister, Izzy, who is facing reproductive surgery.

Inside Izzy’s rapidly decaying apartment building, its halls stalked by an ominous crone known only as Medusa, new frictions emerge and old wounds reopen. Brooke soon finds traces of horror bleeding from the screen and into their reality.

As the lives of these three women kaleidoscope and knot together in supernatural exchange, each strives to claim her autonomy within the increasingly claustrophobic environment. And when Brooke herself begins to exhibit strange symptoms, Izzy’s care and concern for her sister soon turn to unhinged obsession, blurring boundaries until one question remains: who –– or what –– will survive when all has unravelled?

Through the dual lenses of art and horror cinema, Emma Cleary brilliantly dissects themes of loneliness, motherhood, and bodily autonomy in a haunting literary debut that blooms with the dark desires we suppress or to which we surrender.