Review of Spread Me—Erotic Horror

They say that fear and arousal are remarkably similar sensations. Sarah Gailey, the multi-talented author of alt-history adventure books like River of Teeth and more traditional horror such as Just Like Home, exploits this overlap in their recent erotic horror novella Spread Me, which came out back in September. Part re-imagining of John Carpenter’s classic 1982 film The Thing, part post-Pandemic fever dream, Spread Me is guaranteed to be quite unlike anything you’ve ever read.

Kinsey loves her job at a remote desert research station and she loves her team—though not in the same way the rest of the crew all love each other, with their constant flirting, hookups, and interpersonal drama. Kinsey’s romantic and sexual interests lie somewhere much less … human. When the crew discover a strange specimen buried under the sands that looks like a mutated coyote, Kinsey finds herself irresistibly drawn to it and makes the questionable decision to bring it inside the lab and away from the approaching sandstorm. But, stuck inside while the storm rages, it’s not long before the crew falls sick with a mysterious disease and then one by one begin acting strangely. Something from the specimen has infected and overtaken them. But what is this thing and what does it want? And why does Kinsey so desperately want it?

I can’t say I’ve read much erotic horror before, but this struck me as a particularly compelling example of the subgenre. Far more than just a horror story with sex in it, in order to truly be erotic horror I feel the eroticism in the story must be itself horrific. This is certainly the case for Kinsey, who is erotically fixated on viruses—on the invasive way they infiltrate the body, their molecular structure, the way they multiply and spread. She knows this fixation isn’t healthy; if she gave into her temptation to court viruses, she could harm others through spreading disease. That’s why she fled to the desert in the first place. But now a virus has sought her out. The thing that infects her crewmates seems as obsessed with Kinsey as she is with it, eager to seduce her with its attempts to mimic her human comrades. But Kinsey’s attraction is mixed with revulsion as her desire for something alien and deadly wars with her love for humanity.

Spread Me is also a particularly unique take on the burgeoning trend of mushroom horror. Or, more accurately in this case, lichen horror. The thing infecting Kinsey’s crewmates turns out to be a symbiotic colony composed of a fungus and a virus. While the virus is the focus of Kinsey’s obsession, the fungus is the vehicle by which it moves and adapts. This combination is perfectly suited for horror, since both fungi and viruses are bizarre category-defying life forms (if one considers viruses to be alive, a matter of significant debate among scientists) that exist outside of our basic understanding of how the world works. They are also hidden from the naked eye, and in this case quite literally underground—Kinsey and her colleagues believe the lichen to have originated in the crypto-biotic crust, a layer of microscopic organisms that form networks beneath the soil in arid environments. Why look to space for alien beings when we can just look right beneath the surface of our own world?

If you’re in the mood for some utterly bizarre and yet oddly educational sci-fi horror, definitely check out Spread Me. You can find it on shelves now at your favorite local retailer, or buy it online and support The Gothic Library in the process using this Bookshop.org affiliate link. Once you’ve read it, let me know your thoughts in the comments!