this darn book caused me to change my entire reading style for it! I usually read like 3+ books at once, but Leech commanded all my attention because it's so damn weird! I spent a solid two weeks reading nothing but this book and I don't regret it.

Think 'Wuthering Heights' mixed with Mira Grant's Parasite series. Twilight Zone and Mystery Diagnosis mixed with Unsolved Mysteries, but a little more fantasy. It's a genre buster, it's very wordy, and it's wonderfully weird. It's also full of gore, abuse of animals and humans and bleak as hell. I loved it and feel strangely smarter now, but also I'm a lil traumatized now.

The main character has multiple bodies and just one hive mind and once you wrap your measly human brain around that you can really sink into the story of brain worms.

Thanks for ruining my brain. 🪱🪱

Leech guides the reader through an atmospheric gothic tale of parasites and body horror. Ennes offers a unique concept with the main character being connected through a hive mind, and an attempt a solving the mystery of their predecessor's death. What begins as a simple puzzle escalates to a torrential downward spiral of autonomy and authority.

The prose within the first half of the novel is very dense and I really had to work to wrap my head around the concept of the characters. Once the plot began to pick up, I found myself able to read larger chunks at a time. The length of the chapters are a downside here on top of the density of language. This is one of those novels where I find myself asking whether I'm smart enough to understand it. While intrigued by the story and looking forward to the conclusion, I skimmed the final 30%.

This one is a not for me at this time but I would recommend for readers looking for a cerebral novel that blends aspects of science fiction and gothic horror.

I had to go it, I never do it but I had to. I DNF’d. I have no idea what’s going on, it’s extremely wordy and I’m sure that some people will love that, but it just isn’t for me. The cover drew me in as it is gorgeous. But I got 20% into it and it felt too much like a chore for me. I’m giving it a neutral 3 stars just because I didn’t finish it and it feels wrong to give it an overall rating.

Thanks to NetGalley for a copy of this book. I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This book was unlike anything I’ve ever read!
It had ups and downs, but over all I enjoyed it. I do think I would need to be in a very specific mood in order to read it…it’s a unique mixture of genres and I don’t quite know where to place it. Horror? Sci-fi? Dystopian? Medical textbook?
Mostly kidding on that last part, but one of the flaws with this is the heavy, heavy clinical language. The main character is a parasite/hive mind situation and is also a doctor. The text includes lots of anatomical descriptions and it sort of took me outside of the atmosphere a little bit. I glazed over some of it, had to google some, and that made it a little less enjoyable. The clinical language isn’t a bad aspect necessarily, but I think it was just overdone in parts and impacted my enjoyment? It felt a little more like studying than reading.
I did thoroughly LOVE the hive mind aspect and the world-building, as well as the creepy aura. The action and plot was past paced, even if the prose itself was slow in parts.
I do also think this should include some type of content warning(s), however readers who reach for this will be familiar with horror so they might be ready for anything. It will be a great spooky fall read for all the chilly, spine-tingling vibes! 3.5/5 stars! But rounding up to 4.

3.25 stars

This is a nice example of blended genres done well. It has many good elements like being creepy and emotional. The one downfall is the it requires full attention (which is nice in some cases), or you will miss important things that will not come up again.
It is not necessarily a leisure read, but it is a good one.

I have no idea how to talk about this book! I went in having read absolutely nothing about it, including the synopsis, and I think I enjoyed the experience all the more for it. But this book definitely isn't going to be for everyone, so I'll try to say something about it without saying anything about it.

Leech is a weird, literary, gothic sci-fi horror -- a stunning blend of genres -- that reminds me a little of Mary Shelley, a little of Jeff Vandermeer, a little of Sara A. Mueller and a little of Chana Porter.

It's a book that requires a lot of patience and attention to detail. If you skim any page, you're going to get lost real quick, because important information isn't repeated and the world-building is so subtle that most of it is seeded through conversation and one-off observations. Very little is explained (or answered), with the author trusting you to understand what's happening off of context clues -- refreshing for some, but potentially frustrating for others. And if you need characters and locations to be meticulously described, this isn't going to be the book for you.

But if you can deal with doing a little extra work as a reader, it's well worth the effort. Leech is spooky, strange, sad, gory and inventive as hell. I loved the time I spent with it, and I can tell it's going to live in my brain for a long time.

Content warnings for death in childbirth, sexual assault, emotional abuse, physical abuse, body horror and gore (all graphic).

In a distant future, in a ruined world, people survive in part due to the practitioners from the Interprovincial Medical Institute. The practitioners, a shared mind in many host bodies, perpetuate their own existence using unwitting humans as hosts. But these parasites have come up against a rival and their assured survival faces an unexpected threat.

Set far in the north in a dilapidated chateau, Leech combines a winter Gormenghast with hints of Dune. Something has killed one of the Institute's practitioners, and the "new" doctor must solve the mystery of what killed the previous host body, before the "new" doctor is itself taken over. In service to the (frankly awful) baron and his (frankly awful) son, the doctor tends to a household full of deeply disturbed characters. Haunted by new and old abuses of the bodies it has used, the "new" doctor faces a terrible reckoning: is its continued survival worth subjugating innocent people?

Leech is a deeply atmospheric and haunting read. Parasites are not a new concept, but parasite POV--and sympathetic POV, at that--is unusual, and this is a well-executed narrative that will be embraced (gingerly) by readers who like anything from John Christopher's The White Mountains trilogy to Gore Verbinski's The Cure for Wellness.

Thank you Netgalley and Publisher for this Arc!

This book has given me a way to touch on every emotion. I am so shocked by the ending and it's so desperately sad and also profound. It's amazing to think that this incredible journey through this book began with a new doctor at a chateau in the far North. She was looking at how the doctor she is replacing died... and it's gruesome and the beginning of a parasite horror. This mixes old gothic feels with a new angle on scifi and also *content warning* a very strong and long look at trauma and sexual assault. But it's done in such a sincere way that I really was right there feeling those same emotions.

This book is incredible! Remember the content warnings but I have to recommend this to fans of parasite horror and scifi!

Out September 27, 2022!

Officially a new favorite book! This book was wonderful in a dark way! The writing was stellar and the story had such a unique twist on something that could otherwise be seen as “typical”. Very creative! I enjoyed how this book made me think about certain topics but also on the surface was simply a fun read. I never wanted to put it down!

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Release date: September 27th Science Fiction Heavy, Gloomy Wuthering Heights Vibe, Gender Fluid Characters:

This story reminds me of an old black and white episode of The Twilight Zone. They were so delightfully odd. Even the main character's voice in this book reminds me of the Twilight Zone narration. 'Leech' by Hiron Ennes is one of those weird books that some people won't understand, others will outright hate and people like myself will love because of it's originality and novelty. I'd advise you to read the synopsis before starting. If not then you're in for some confusion.

Set in a post apocalyptic, gothic, steampunk world a "collective" (think Borg hive mind) entity that exists in many bodies as a physician from the Interprovincial Medical Institute discovers something it has never encountered before. Brought on by the death of one of it's hosts, the physician is obsessed with the mystery of what killed him. The voice of the Physician is so clear, his cold decisiveness and curiosity drives the plotline. The rest of the book is a relentless striving for escape. Abuse, grief, survival and ethics are all major themes.

I am absolutely in love with Hiron Ennes' unusual writing style. There are multiple narratives going on at the same time in parts of this book with no distinction. This will drive some readers crazy but it's necessary to truly be inside the physician's mind, so to speak. If you are a reader who has to quickly understand the plotline of a book then skip this one. You have to be willing to puzzle through chapters of confusion before you reach understanding.

A graphic novel version would be amazing. I don't know if this book is truly horror or gothic sci fi but I thoroughly enjoyed it's fresh take on dystopian life.

There is a lot to unpack in this book and I don't think I'm smart enough to grasp exactly what it was trying to do. I spent most of my time with it pretty bemused over what was happening. There is some fabulously creepy imagery at work here and the author's writing is great, but the story itself just didn't connect with me as much as I wanted it to. I thought the discussion around being present in your own body was interesting and there was a definite 'body-snatchers' vibe running throughout, which I appreciated. Overall, this book will definitely find its audience, but unfortunately, I don't think I'm it!
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I think this was undoubtedly one of the most unique takes on a gothic horror book I’ve read to date. I thoroughly enjoyed the take on it being told through the parasites perspective after an apocalypse. Ridiculously unique. I ejoyed the medical sci-fi type of vibes it had going too. And the world building? Sheesh. Fabulous.

4 stars.
the cover of the book is what hooked me right off the bat, I knew I had to read this.

This is such a unique book, I have not read anything like this before. Leech is part medical horror part sci-fi that reads like a gothic fever dream with a sprinkle of self discovery. The world building was fantastic, I was completely enveloped within. I feel the book ended too abruptly. I would have loved if there was another chapter or two to tie a few more things together and answer some of the questions I'm left with. I want to know more of this world and how it came to be. If you ask me, I think this book needs a sequel and I'd be first in line to read it.

Writing was a little dense, which isn't necessarily a bad thing because I felt it contributed to the overall atmosphere of the story but it left me confused at times and pausing to google the meaning of quite a few words.

This was my first book by Hiron Ennes but it will definitely not be my last.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Macmillan-Tor/Forge, and Hiron Ennes for sharing the digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my authentic review.

Every year tordotcom publishes something weird, spooky, and probably at least a little fucked up that takes me completely by surprise by how damn good it is and this year that book is Leech. A body-collecting parasite, a weird 18th-century creepy gothic house but in a post-post-apocalyptic setting, and creepy in-universe folk tales that slowly come to life. It’s really not a combination that should work but damn it does.

One of the comps to this book has been Ann Leckie’s Ancillary Justice, for the layers of characters in a hive-mind aspect. In Leech, instead of layers of AI, we have layers of parasites. I’ll just say right now that the parasite is my favorite character. Its weird imperfections that make it, well, not human but a flawed living being, its determination to be the best (and only) practitioner of medicine in this re-growing society, and its weirdly if hilariously inflated ego make it such a fun and compelling character to read.

Like Ancillary Justice, our hive-mind slowly finds itself fractured into smaller and smaller pieces, bringing about questions of self, and what it means to be human if you’re technically a parasite in a human-meatbag cosplay. Ennes does a phenomenal job tackling these questions without giving the readers the answer, but simply creating scenarios and outcomes that give the reader pause, to question motivations in a story where all the characters, frankly, are assholes.

On the other hand, I would love to see some slice-of-life short stories with just the parasite, maybe not in as threatening of a situation, just going about its day and doing parasite hive-mind things, performing flawless surgery, taking over a human body, etc, etc.

I must praise the atmosphere that Ennes creates throughout this story, because I don’t think it would have been half as good if the gothic aspect had not been nailed. The manor of rich assholes so unfamiliar with the needs of daily people, the unexplained horrific folk tales that show up (nuclear winters will do that), and just the delicious amount of body horror that gets squeezed in. For those that dislike violence against babies, I offer a gentle but stern warning to stay away.

Perhaps my only detractor to this book is the fact that I didn’t really like the ending, but that’s because I cheered for the wrong character and is therefore entirely on me.

Overall, I rate this book a 4.5/5. This was an absolutely phenomenal gothic read with hiveminded parasites, gothic atmosphere, fantastic use of body horror, and questions of self and humanity. An absolute must-read.

Gothic horror, medical, and sci-fi all come together in this story told from the parasite in a post-apocalyptic world in which doctors are connected to parasites who in turn helps create a co-dependent relationship between the human and the parasite. When Baron de Verdira’s doctor dies, our protagonist is sent to investigate the death of the doctor and finds a strange creature wtih probing black legs within the corpse. The doctor begins to investigate this new parasite and realizes that there is more infecting the residents of Verdira than just the parasites. This book was a complex and confusing one to read, it starts off as an interesting gothic mystery but then moves heavily into the medical and sci-fi elements. The story focuses on the two dueling parasites, the one within the doctor already and the one the doctor finds, and only one of them can win the human body. I liked how the story started off as a mystery with an interesting parasite but then the story lost me and my interest. I generally love gothic mystery but this one definitely is more for the horror sci-fi fans out there. The story is definitely written in an interesting way, especially as you get it from the perspective of the parasite and the horror aspect was cool, unfortunately it just didn’t work for me.

*Thanks Netgalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge, Tordotcom for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

3.5 stars

As a debut novel, this is a highly promising effort. It does, however, have its faults.

I loved the narrative voice that the novel opens with. Reading a horror or Gothic novel from the perspective of a parasite, and seeing the humanity within that parasite (as well as the total alien non-humanity of it) was absolutely enthralling.

The setting is post-apocalyptic, and done in a manner I hadn’t seen before. It was fascinating to see the way in which society re-structured, even as we only see a small slice of it (though get glimpses of the rest through our narrator’s other hosts). The staggering loss of information from our current era, and the way in which some information and technology is reclaimed or repurposed, is just so cool.

That said, I felt that the novel went a little off the rails in the second half, becoming both a more traditional and less interesting narrative (in terms of plot) and a more experimental and slightly confusing narrative (in terms of form/style). While I appreciate the themes the author explores in the second half of the book, I found it less enjoyable to read than the first half.

I’m certainly curious to see what Ennes does next; I will be keeping my eye on this author. They clearly have a lot of big ideas and a creative manner of exploring them, and I want to read more from their hand.

This was a horror book for sure. It was creepy and pretty much everything I wanted from a book. It was awesome and i really enjoyed reading it!

Super weird in the old-school uncanny sense of weird, but also fascinating and intriguing. It reminded me of Vernor Vinge's A FIRE UPON THE DEEP in some ways. And the physical ARC presentation was :: chef's kiss::

I requested this book on Netgalley because I saw Tamsyn Muir had blurbed it; as she is my guiding compass for strange and unusual science fiction, I was excited to read 'Leech'. I knew very little about what it was actually *about* going in, and honestly, that's what I recommend when reading this one: this book was a weird, creepy RIDE. I absolutely adored it. Thank you so much for the ARC, Netgalley and Tor!

I'm going to glaze over the plot a little, to preserve some of the book's best reveals: there is a strange death in a remote, snow-covered village. A doctor is investigating this death, as the dead person was the previous doctor for this village, and he's curious about what has happened to his predecessor. It becomes clear that something strange, unearthly, and horrifying is occurring within this freezing, hostile place.

This is medical horror and body horror done right. Ennes's writing style is perfect for the vaguely 19th century time period; those comparing this to Frankenstein are right on the money. The mystery is so bleak, the horror so creepy-crawly, and the central protagonist so interesting that I burned through this novel in three days. It's freakin' WEIRD, guys. Lovers of weird, existential body horror rise up! Your time is now with this book.

Weird science, parasitic symbiotes, personship and isolation all slam into each other in this deeply creepy gothic sci-fi novel.

Hiron Ennes delivers a world where parasites, known as The Institute work as doctors, connected via their minds. When one of their kind dies, the narrator (no-name because they don't *have* individual names) travels to the north where they investigate both the death, and the horrfying black goo of a parasite they find behind their predecessor's eye.

This book has so much going for it. Weird science, gothic vibes in a post-apocalyptic world that is trying to rebuild itself, medical creepiness, the unease of not knowing if something is just off or if the narrator is losing their mind.

Just when I thought I knew where this story was going, it took a hard left and had me reading the last 1/3 of the book in a frantic rush to see what happened next. I didn't see it coming and it smacked me in the face, as all the best books do.

The one caveat I will make is the lack of much of any TW or CWs going into reading this book. There is mostly on page CSA. Nothing beyond the pale, but I still would have liked to know about it before I ran into it on page.

Leech slams gothic horror and science fiction together with wonderfully horrific results.