Leech

This may change to 5. I feel only a little torn around the 80%ish mark. While my hardcover ed. comes in at only 322pgs the font is very small which lead to a much larger story than I had anticipated. And while I write this review please note that I heard very little of this novel before picking it up. All I had known was sci fi/gothic and I never read the synopsis and still haven't, so anytime something was revealed my mind was furiously at work but as a reader it is a refreshing experience to pick at a knot of a book and see it's story unfurl. I'll keep my initial thoughts as non spoiler as possible with spoilers at the end.

This is not a book you can rush. I satiated over every word and immersed myself within the pages slowly. I re-read a few paragraphs here and there to fully comprehend the scene laid out in some chapters but that further excited me on to keep reading. Regardless of my couple small story-structure gripes for the end this was a very rewarding read for me. I was awe struck in a way by what was happening and what I was reading, a new book to fulfill some of my niche interests - akin to maybe (my fav novel probably ever) The Luminous Dead and (another absolute fav novel) The Ruins. And very heavy Lakewood vibes happening. I was completely ecstatic at some parts having a sense that this is the kind of mind fuckery goodness my mind belonged in.

Ennes doesn't rush anything. I plan on a reread some day and I can't wait to pick it apart more and see what implications I may have missed to hint for the grand plot. Many reviewers are saying it's like nothing they've read before and I heartily agree. Many of the over arching themes are subtle and not outright messaging but once you pick up on these threads it adds in a separate kind of horror, the horror we know in our every day lives. Ennes also does a great job tackling many separate ideas but making it feel at one with the story. Nothing in here felt over explained, each new discovery in the book having its own place. But that changed sort of me as I got towards the end. I couldn't help but wonder what if these last remaining pages had more of a focus in the 3rd quarter of the novel, or earlier. Further onto what I mean in spoilers down below.

Before the spoiler part I just wanted to say if you wanted to give something weird and unique a try I say give Leech a chance. In my opinion it's not terribly heavy in horror, more fantasy and def gothic with darkness elements. Interest in anything medical-parasite based and that alone would ensure a good time for you.



SPOILERS INCOMING

Please do not read further if you are not wanting spoilers.


To my last point, the part that I think could of been introduced a bit better was ‘Simones' reckoning. We get hints, plenty of them, Ennes crafting a pathway for a solid conclusion that Simone's mind had finally split out of The Institute's, and became as one with her body as she could of. But this didn't flow the best for me because while we know The Institute is symbiotic with its hosts - (PS: if you like the idea of a foreign entity with a symbiotic nature to it I highly rec the Russian movie Sputnik) - the body that we know as Simone at the end, we don't really understand that Simone was at The Institute in hopes to fix their epilepsy but instead was injected by the parasite known as The Institute, our hive-mind collective in hundreds of what used to be reg. Humans. Some flashbacks that The Institute drudges up as Simone is started to fray with them in her mind brings images of a kid but it's never clear until later that it's her. We get other parts that provides some context as to how the Institute gets new bodies to inhabit but for Simone this felt like a disservice to her at the end and not as impactful for me seeing her become herself as I never even got to see her for a very long time. I was quite attached initially to the Doctor, The Institute and felt Simone came a bit too late for a proper relationship for me to engage with. Not only that but when Simone starts hearing both of her mothers voices in her head it's just such a disconnect with no seemingly sense of purpose in its placements. In my opinion for how crafted of a novel this is, maybe just maybe this could of interwoven with the overall plot of the story instead of being info dumped in its own way at the end. However, perhaps I missed the glaring signs of it being told indirectly in the snippets we had.

Might have a small gripe with how Emiles story unfolded as well. It wasn't until Simone in a fragmented haze with the Institute tries to take over Emiles body that we see the signs that Emile being there was something nefarious in purpose for the Chateu's occupants. We have a snippet of the Priest discussing that the son around our Butler Emile is probably as sinister as father Baron but it takes till just the end to realize how their lives interwove, and the punishment/rape/grooming Emile endured. He is mute, completely enigmatic, and I just wished we got more sprinkling throughout earlier on for all of the twists on who he is/why he's there had connected a bit more beautifully. Because otherwise he was just there for a huge part of this novel.