I’ve been reading Gailey’s books for a while and this certainly surprised me. Spread Me is a book I was listening to while making a cake and my partner and I were both shocked. Keep reading this book review of Spread Me for my full thoughts.
Summary
Kinsey has the perfect job as the team lead in a remote research outpost. She loves the solitude, and the way the desert keeps her far away from the temptations teeming out in the civilian world.
When her crew discovers a mysterious specimen buried deep in the sand, Kinsey breaks quarantine and brings it into the hab. But the longer it’s inside, the more her carefully controlled life begins to unravel. Temptation has found her after all, and it can’t be ignored any longer.
One by one, Kinsey’s team realizes the thing they’re studying is in search of a new host—and one of them is the perfect candidate….
Review
(Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)
Spread Me defied any expectations I had of this recent novella. I’ve been reading Gailey’s works for years now. I always count on a unique world building premise and concise concept. While this fits the bill, it was not at all what I expected. It’s for anyone who wants a heavy dose of ‘out there’ with a combination of monster romance and also horror. There’s a dash of body horror, fixation with ‘monsters’ (and I use this term loosely), and wondering how long we can keep our desires hidden. With flashbacks of the past and how the crew came together, Spread Me explores what happens if we break down the walls between us.
It has this premise of an entity coming into a lab and spreading. And then Gailey adds a unique spin as Spread Me becomes about fixation and fear. The ways that we have these walls about what makes us ‘acceptable’ and our desires hidden, but do we really want someone who will see through that all? I listened to the audiobook and Xe Sands did a phenomenal job toeing the line between fascination and disgust. Spread Me is certainly perfect for a certain type of reader, but even if I didn’t fit quite neatly into that box, I appreciated the unique take on this mashup.
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Find Spread Me on Goodreads, Storygraph, Blackwells, & Libro. fm.