WORMS GONE WILD! It’s 1998, and the town of Demise, North Dakota, is recovering from the Meteor Murders, hundreds of deaths caused by alien worms but blamed on a mass poisoning by a doomsday cult. While nineteen-year-old Realene’s heroic actions saved the lives of many, she wants nothing more than to hide from the world and mourn the ones she couldn’t save. When a second half of the meteor is found north of the border where her best friend Nate is on a spring break trip, she’ll have to face her fears and venture into Canada to find him. The only thing standing in her way are rampant alien worms, a covert military op, and the cold snap of the century.
Dark bleatings, my lovelies! I don’t often read sequels, but when I heard about this one, I simply had to. I loved the first book, Frost Bite, and I think I might love this one even more.
Realene (first book) lived with her mother, who had dementia, and cared for her. She had a lot of responsibilities stacked on her shoulders for someone that’s barely an adult, and things only get worse when a meteor crashes locally, bringing a parasite with it. I can’t even explain my delight when the crazed, murderous prairie dogs showed up. She and her best friend had to survive during these bizarre circumstances.
Now, it seems that the parasites were not as…gone…as she thought they were, following the events of the first novel. Her bestie goes for a spring break vacation with his new girlfriend, but Realene follows them there when she gets wind of something dangerous, something familiar, something…kind of wormy and squirmy. Parasitey, you might say.
And oh my god, is that an infected, raging beaver?! YES IT IS!!!!! HURRAH!
In this instalment, our group is a bit bigger, the stakes somehow feel higher, and things become much more complicated because of classics like deception, lies, and betrayal.
Firstly, the story is as fun as the first one, but with even more emotional depth, which balances it out in terms of the horror. Crazy beavers are a hoot but the author often reminds us that this is horror, with scenes exploring the complexities for the characters, and how all of this affects them. I love her writing and found it easy to be fully engaged, and honestly, it was hard to put the book down.
I think my favourite thing about this story is the platonic relationships and, in general, the character dynamics. It’s so rare that friendship is fleshed out in horror like this (maybe because often, we’re dealing with one person trying to overcome something extraordinary – I’m not saying we never get friendships, just that lone wolf/isolated individual stories seem to be much more common). What makes it even better is that Realene’s best friend is a guy, and the author doesn’t even seem remotely tempted to try to force this into a romance. And this isn’t even the only different sex platonic bond in the book. Everything feels natural.
Side note: The typical lack of this type of relationship puts a bee in my bonnet a little bit because I think forgetting to represent these friendships often doesn’t help in perpetuating a sort of male/female divide, and I think we’re all a bit socially conditioned this way. Men and women together in stories are most frequently depicted as a couple, exes, going to be a couple, siblings, or that of a (typically male) predator and (typically female) victim. It’s not a criticism of any particular authors but I think that it makes me quite uncomfortable that as a general rule, genuine friendship between men and women is the very last dynamic thought of.
This is a really fun, layered story with complex characters, great dynamics, very fun killer animals, some zombie tropes without feeling at all like a zombie narrative (somehow, I don’t know how she’s done that, it feels more like a contagion story), and great settings. The overall atmosphere is tense and only climbs in intensity as we progress through the story. I’d definitely read a third book!
If you’d like to check out the book or the author, I’ve popped some links below for you. The book is currently available on KU, and in the UK the paperback will be available in April.
Bleeeeat!
Happy Goat Horror 
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