Tapeworm by A.P. Thayer

TL;DR: Not exactly the horror for me but I can see this working for others.
Source: NetGalley, so many thanks to the publisher!

Plot: Vic is meeting friends after a messy breakup and things get even messier.
Characters: They were all… alright. Mostly dislikable and fairly 2D.
Setting: A desert town that’s slowly disappearing. Or is it?
Horror: Eldritch, out of this world combined with bugs and some vampiric elements.

Summary:

It needs to feed.

After the recent separation from his wife Trish, Victor hopes his friends’ annual weekend retreat to the Californian desert town of Superstition will loosen him up and reforge the group’s fraying bonds. But something is waiting underneath Superstition, crawling its way into their group, and feeding into their desires.

Victor knows too well what it means to repress his desires. He’s always attempted to be the perfect partner, yet often found himself lacking. With Trish skipping the trip, he begins falling into the wild underbelly of Superstition in new ways. When the leader of the town’s Welcoming Committee approaches him with a romantic, sexually charged offer, Victor wonders if it’s too good to be true.

But the Welcoming Committee expects a price to be paid for its services. One that cannot be fulfilled by willing bodies alone. By the end of the weekend, group bonding will have developed a whole new meaning.

Because something is hungry for Victor and his friends.

Thoughts:

The cover of this one says a Vampire novel, and while I’ll agree to some extent I’d say this is a more ‘Horny cosmic horror worm’ horror. Though I suppose that doesn’t look great on a selling copy of a book.

Tapeworm follows Vic as he’s struggling after a messy breakup. He meets up with some friends for a group vacation after being told to go by his former wife. It’s clear pretty quick that his breakup has had some adverse affects on the dynamic of the group. Add to that his own mental instability and the growing uneasy feeling that something is wrong and we have the beginnings of a toxic horror soup.

From the jump we as the reader know there is something hunting these folks. For me I think that might have taken some of the ‘scare’ portion of this away. What was left was some intense body horror scenes at the end, but a somewhat predictable development of the plot as we were in on a lot of what was happening.

Tapeworm was fun, I don’t know if it’s going to be one I revisit but I can definitely see this working for a lot of folks. It’s queer, it’s horny, and it’s got some decent bug/worm horror so if that works for you? Try this one out.