ITCH!

As fun as it is earnest, ITCH! is an unflinching tale of the grotesque side of humanity and the people who unearth its rotting remains. From the first page, this story is already under your skin, building a nest in your heart -- KYLIE LEE BAKER A chilling and tremendously disturbing examination of a wounded mind, of a fragile soul pushed to the limits of her very existence because of trauma, ritual, and obsession. Sinister and utterly fiendish, ITCH! is a shocking and truly surprising blend of mystery, folk horror, and body horror that will burrow deep in your softest places, into your tenderest, most unspoiled secret parts -- ERIC LAROCCA ITCH! places Gemma Amor firmly at the top of today's horror talent pool. It's as if a small village Tana French murder mystery turned into full on folk horror, with a constant buzz of body horror underneath. I couldn't have loved this more. It's under my skin now, and it itches! One of the year's absolute must-reads! -- CHRISTOPHER GOLDEN An exquisitely crafted, uniquely unnerving horror story told with stunning empathy. ITCH! is a visceral, astute, tense spiral into the lingering damage of abuse and violence. As unflinching and terrifying as it is gentle-hearted, it has all the makings of a horror classic -- RACHEL HARRISON ITCH! is a marvel: a suppurating mash-up of body horror and folk horror, with real-world atrocities buried at its oozing core. Fans of Pine by Francine Toon, or the Merrily Watkins books by Phil Rickman, will go wild for this fast-paced, smart, intensely female-voiced work from the bowels of the English countryside -- ALLY WILKES Gemma Amor masterfully weaves [...] a veritable tapestry of horror, building to an enormously gratifying climax that left my mouth agape. ITCH! is not for the squeamish, [but] is an immensely satisfying novel and another highlight in Gemma Amor's impressive body of literature * Grimdark Magazine * A wildly inventive and modern coming of age story about survival . . . and ants. This is the work of a genuine talent -- Sarah Langan Gut-churning yet inspired folk horror. Anyone who's grown up in the woods knows the endlessness Amor has painted here, vivid and tactile, and yet a place where dreams and nightmares come alive from every copse and hillock. A skin-crawling book of brutal secrets -- HAILEY PIPER A remarkable book - a fetid, crawling, infested feminist folk-horror that pulls zero punches on body horror or intellect. It's various orifices are full of things with too many legs, and you'll feel them scurry through your head. Class act! * Talking Scared * Gemma Amor leads us on a disturbing hike through a shadowy forest of a story, where taboo, trauma and ancient presences grow wild, and where human malevolence seems to know no limit. A story that immediately strikes the reader as mattering deeply to the author. Without that quality, there is always something missing -- ADAM NEVILL