Body horror, science fiction, psychological horror, and supernatural horror all blur together in a tale of revenge, regret, and transformation in the deeply haunting Head Like a Hole by Andrew Van Wey. It’s challenging to say much about this book without spoiling it, but I’ll do my best.

Something terrible washes ashore, a monstrous, inhuman thing with a hunger for revenge…and so much hunger altogether…bent on righting a wrong from years before. If they want any hope of surviving, a group of estranged friends must come together and solve a mystery that defies imagination…if they can survive that long. They’re hunted by a ghost from the past that is so much more than anyone could have bargained for.

Questions on the nature of identity, autonomy, and what defines a human being are deftly handled with Van Wey’s expert storytelling…and the slow reveal of a body horror nightmare unfolds in such a way that the reader is fully immersed and terrified that they’ve predicted the ending before it arrives, hoping that they’re wrong.

Tom Jordan’s narration of the story brings everything to life, a vivid unwholesome life.