REVIEW: Wolf Worm by T. Kingfisher
“I saw the devil in these woods.”
Sonia Wilson is a talented scientific illustrator—but she is only able to follow her dream because of her father’s reputation as a renowned scientist. Such is the lot in life for a woman in science in 1889. And after his death, she is left without work, prospects, or hope.
So when the reclusive Dr. Halder offers her a position illustrating his vast collection of insects, Sonia jumps at the chance to move to his North Carolina manor house and put her talents to use.
Once there though, she encounters dark happenings in the Carolina woods, and even darker questions come to light, like what happened to her predecessor? Why are animals acting so strangely, and what is behind the peculiar local whispers about “blood thiefs?”
With the aid of the housekeeper and a local healer, Sonia discovers that Halder’s entomological studies have taken him down a twisted road. His ground-breaking discoveries come with a cost—one that Halder is paying with human flesh.
If Sonia can’t find a way to stop the monstrosity, she may be next under the knife.
CW/TW – extreme body horror – I’m not kidding about this, imprisonment, and there’s an “eating” scene that will curl your hair.
“The Devil walks in these woods, Miss Wilson.”
Dear Ms. Kingfisher,
Last year I read a book called “The Salmon Cannon and the Levitating Frog” which talked about weird inventions and scientific discoveries. One of the items mentioned are screwworms and how they had been eradicated from the US down to Panama. Screwworms are awful but I’d never heard of them before because of the groundbreaking way that scientists eliminated them and all without pesticides. So yay that from reading this book, I knew a little bit about them and how horrible they are. Wolf worms and screwworms – horrible, invasive insects – feature in this book.
“Apparently the woods of central North Carolina were a hotbed of the supernatural.”
Miss Sonia Wilson, who seems to experience anxiety issues, is thrilled to have been hired as an illustrator for an entomologist. Insects aren’t her first illustrative love – that would be plants – but a young woman, alone in the world in the 1880s, has to take the work she can get. Arriving in Chatham Co, NC she realizes that her new employer hasn’t sent anyone to collect her at the train station. The station master rounds up someone to drive her the ten miles to the man’s isolated house where she meets the few servants there. The next day she meets Dr. Halder who is … challenging to work for as he’s an asshat with an explosive temper and an obsessive dedication to studying parasitic insects – those that live off of other animals.
“Oh, aye, nothing in these woods any scarier than that.” He paused, his smile slowly fading. “At least, not anymore.”
I raised an inquiring eyebrow at Jackson. He grimaced and shook his head, then leaned forward and poured me another thimbleful of moonshine. Even after the burn had faded, even after I sought the bed in the little room off the studio, the question stayed with me of what Jackson had been about to say, and why his wife had been so quick to stop him.
Sonia settles in and begins illustrating insects for the professor’s book-in-progress. After seeing the work of the woman who had the job before her, Sonia knows that woman was a genius. There are so many ways that watercolor illustrations can be ruined – Sonia knows all too well – but these images are spectacular. Sonia also quickly realizes that there are weird things going on and that weird things have happened in the past, things that many people are reluctant to talk about. Then she sees something she shouldn’t, goes somewhere she shouldn’t, and comes face to face with something no one should ever see. Will she live to survive it all?
He smiled crookedly. It was not a pleasant smile. “It is one of the few insects that we know of that prefers to devour the living but will feast on the dead as well. It is a delightfully efficient little beast.
First off, I loved so many of the characters in the book. It’s made clear how desperate Sonia is to get a job that isn’t the soul-sucking one of teaching watercolors to female students just because that’s a skill eligible females should have. Sonia has done illustrative work for her father before his death left her alone and penniless. To keep her new one, she’s prepared to overlook some things until she can’t overlook them anymore.
“Some people started to wonder if maybe there wasn’t a lot more of it happening than we knew about.”
Rose and Jackson Kent – a mixed race married couple in the 1880s South – have faced this dilemma, too, and as Sonia becomes aware of what they’ve had to ignore in the name of staying in an area and keeping jobs where such things aren’t easy, she can see the strain and toll on them. Luckily for her, Jackson is a born storyteller who can’t resist telling Sonia some things he knows even if Rose isn’t thrilled about it.
“Hmph,” said Dr. Halder, peering through his glasses at my captive. “Oh, a Cuterebra. Botfly. Also called ‘wolf worms.’ Parasitic on mammals.”
Ma Kersey is the best. What she doesn’t know about babies and childbirth or how to use native herbs isn’t worth knowing. Also a born storyteller, Ma fills Sonia in on some Dark Things that have occurred in the area and helps Sonia over a bout of malaria during which Sonia says some Pretty Weird Things. But in Sonia’s defense, she had just seen some Pretty Awful Things. So awful that Sonia talks herself into believing that what she couldn’t possibly have seen was just a fever dream. Only Sonia can’t stop herself from going back to be sure about her “fever dream” and what was horrible gets ten times worse.
Despite the twinkle in her eyes, I suspected that she hadn’t made up her mind about me. That was a trifle worrying. Women like Hezekiah Kersey are good to have on your side. The alternative doesn’t bear thinking about.
I will be honest and say that some parts of these scenes are very hard to read. I had to skip and skim over a paragraph here and there and even then – ::shudder:: Remember, screwworms and wolf worms are awful. Things that other parasitic insects can do to or get their host animals to do are awful. I had similar questions to ones Sonia has – this can’t be real because X, Y, and Z wouldn’t allow it. Ah, but that’s where some of the other Dark Things of the book get tied in. That’s why all that stuff that Ma Kersey told Sonia is important.
I still wasn’t exactly afraid, but prickles of unease went through me at the thought.
The terrifying scenes towards the end of the story had me mentally yelling at Sonia to Get Out Now. I will admit that as much as I’d like to think I’d be decisive and take-charge in this kind of situation, I’m betting that I’d actually freeze up and attempt to rationalize what I’m seeing just as she does. But she’s also a better person than I would be.
“It ain’t easy to swallow some things down. Makes you feel like maybe you aren’t who you thought you were.”
So readers be prepared for the things that occur in this book. The writing is great, the language is perhaps a bit too modern, the characters have depth, and the horror is horrific. B
~Jayne
If I lost my footing, if I stepped in a hole, I could hurt myself terribly, but at that moment, I think I would have crawled on a broken leg rather than spend an instant longer in the woods.
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Putting aside the horror (which was as gruesome as advertised), I don’t think this was T. Kingfisher’s strongest plot or characters. Although I guess those are secondary in this genre.
@SusanS: I told ya it was gruesome. ☺ I liked the characters more than the plot but (IMO) this is only the first book of hers I’ve read that falls more into horror although Nine Goblins had its moments.