A huge thank you to the author, NetGalley, and Blood Bound Books for providing this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

An interesting concept with the idea that all of human history and beliefs are actually one single entity that is attempting to take over the world. A very cosmic horror tale where you can't trust anyone, and need to watch your back from everyone.

The concept for this novel was fascinating, and I think overall the plot was well-done. Unfortunately, I did not like our main male character, nor did I like how every chapter randomly ended with a stanza from a song with no warning.

I understand this novel is called “earworm” but I don’t think this gimmick was necessary, as we already have multiple chapters where our main character is already spending the entire chapter with a song in his head. Also, many times it was hard to tell where the chapter ended and the song began, and it greatly disrupted the flow of my reading. There was also an irritating part where our main character gets the song “You Got a Friend in Me” stuck in his head, and instead of just a line or two we get a whole random paragraph of the entire song. Unnecessary.

Ripley was not a character I particularly liked, which isn’t necessary for me to like a book. However, many times it felt like the author was begging me to like him based on how “good” of a person he “really” was. There were multiple instances where Ripley would mentally go “I’m a feminist” or “I’m not sexist” or xyz before describing a woman in the most blatant sexist offensive terms ever. And to be honest, this wouldn’t have bothered me if it wasn’t POINTED OUT to me as a way of self-acknowledgement from him that he just HAS to describe this woman in this way, really, it’s nothing to do with sexism. Personally, I’d have rather he just be sexist than to read “I’m a feminist, so this isn’t being sexist, but *describes a woman in unnecessarily rude terms* but it’s okay, I’m married to a woman and thought another woman was attractive. It’s just a personal gripe of mine, but I feel I’d rather he be a flawed character with some sexist characteristics rather than a sexist character who keeps insisting he’s not “because he’s a feminist.”

In the same tune, I also didn’t like Bogart for many similar reasons. There’s an entire conversation between the two about him having sex with Ripley’s wife in VERY unflattering terms, and I was just like “really? Is this what I’m reading right now?” Also, he very much ruined a soft moment between him and Ripley where Bogart is trying to help Ripley’s self-esteem by going full “but no-homo” on him. Overall, I felt the two characters were kind of surface level with many jokes and exchanges that fell flat.

Complaints aside, the overall plot was short and sweet enough to give us a glimpse into this world with these parasites, and how humanity can try to defeat them. This was very much a cosmic horror novel, and it accomplishes its goal fairly well. If you were looking for a short cosmic horror novel and are fine with some cringy internal dialogue then I think this novel would work for you.

Well, this was fun. Ripley, our protagonist, is at the end of his life and just wants to go out in a high note with his estranged wife. Enter Bogart, his new companion/parasite. The relationship between those two comes with some fun banter and a good amount of snark. And even though this novel didn’t initially grab my attention from the get-go, it picked up quickly and brings you right into the fight for humanity. I liked Ripley. He’s likable, and the reader finds themselves rooting for him to believe in himself; his has pretty low self-esteem at the start of the book. He has a nice character arc and ultimately fulfilling journey. Bogart is the sidekick we all hope for, and is a devoted “friend” to Ripley. The monsters are hideous, the secondary characters are a beneficial addition, and the book, as a whole, is written well and cohesively. An enjoyable book overall.

The last few years I’ve realised that I really like reading horror and I’m out to explore that genres in as many ways as I can. The premise for this book sounded interesting and funny.

I feel like it had a very promising start, but I grew bored quite quickly and I don’t really see where the horror elements were. It read more like a type of a low sci-fi book to me.

But it always good to broaden one’s horizons!

This is a weird book to review. The tone is blunt and snarky. It walks a very thin line between being acceptable vs offensive (especially early in the book). The main character is a bit of jerk, not lovable, but also not irredeemable. And the target audience for this book is definitely male. ...And yet, despite all this, I was unable to put the book down. And the longer I read it, the more it grew on me.

There was a surprising amount to love about this book. It has a compelling story, with tension, action and intrigue. The secondary character is one of the most unique that I've come across. I couldn't help but love him, despite his very unusual (and not entirely healthy) relationship with the main character. And, something which I found equally delightful, is that this book has some very intriguing and obscure points of knowledge that tie in nicely with the plot of the book. You get a bit of esoteric education to go along with the pure entertainment value of the book.

All in all, this one was a winner.

Sometimes I like my horror to be edgy but this one was a tad much. Splatterpunk can be good but most of the time it comes off as try hard "look at how brutal I am" nonsense. That's what this book ends up being for me at least.

Got this book for review on netgally.

It was definitely a weird story. It's an easy read though, very humurous (a lot of below the belt jokes), and the characters are likable and easy to root for.
It did not 100% click for me but I still had a really nice time.

Definitely has a unique plot, point of view, and pacing!

Ripley and Bogart had great, funny interactions with one another, and it was interesting reading their stories intertwined as we unfolded the plot. There is quite a bit of raunchy, crude humor throughout the book, as the POV is more of a stream of thoughts directly from Ripley.
The plot moved quickly, had some gross parts, and the ending kicked it up.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC, all opinions are my own!

Chaotic and weird and I love that normally but here it fell kinda flat xomparatively ? Idek. 3.5ish rounded up thanks for the arc.

Got this book for review on netgally.

It was definitely a weird story but unfortunately not really working for me. It was interesting but it just felt off somehow and I couldn't really get invested. It was around 2.5 stars rounded up.

We jump right into the first-person narrative of Ripley – a less-than-motivated middle-aged white guy living in his estranged wife's pool house – just after he's been diagnosed with a rare degenerative brain disease and given only weeks to live.
Wow, that is one heavy kickoff! But you know what? Most of it is actually hilarious! It starts off like a murder mystery, then things get a little crazy, but we're still hoping for a second chance at romance. And before we know it, we're right in the middle of a battle for humanity, with only an earworm, burn-out, and conspiracy theorist as our allies.
Overall, this was a quick and fun read with a few perfectly timed WTF moments. The plot moves at a rapid pace, which I found mostly positive, but some scenes felt a bit neglected. And you know what? I couldn't decide if I enjoyed the sheer amount of pop-culture references. Seriously, they're so funny. But after a while, I couldn't tell if they were being used ironically, satirically, or for real.
If I divide this story into 4 parts, I'd say the first half is pretty solid, the final quarter wraps up nicely and gives enough closure. It's around the 3/4 mark where I started to feel like something wasn't quite clicking.
I vote ‘read it’ for this one!

Such a weird and quirky read!

'Earworm' has a lot of weird sexual / toilet humour, with a lot of crude refrences, something that just isn't really up my street, but I get why people would enjoy it– it's dark, a bit gross, and just all-round weird!

This is a wildly entertaining, funny, and dark novella about a man and his alien parasite who lives in his brain.

Our protagonist has been dealt a bad hand in life. He's separated from his wife and daughter, he works in pest control, and he's found out that he has a very rare brain disease that will leave him in pain and agony until he dies (which could only be days to weeks away).

Through a series of events, he "meets" Bogart, an alien creature who enters through his ear and bonds with his brain. And Bogart tells him there's going to be a race of big nasty aliens who will wipe out the human race.

Yes, this sounds like a "b" sci-fi movie but it's really a great story that serves its dark narrative with a tremendous helping of humor and heart along the way. The relationship between our protagonist and Bogart is shaky at first but it becomes apparent that Bogart might be his only true friend when it's all said and done.

It's easy to root for the protagonist here. He's a sympathetic character whose life has taken a severe downturn. His observations and insights are ones a lot of people will recognize and he does this with a sense of self depreciation and willingness to place the blame on himself when necessary.

This is the sort of horror weirdness I love and have a fondness for and I highly recommend this novella if you're looking for something sharp, funny, and different.

This is definitely the most unusual book I’ve read this year! I found parts of this book hard to relate to and was not very invested at the start. I did however enjoy the rest of the novel a lot more and the humorous parts along the way. I would recommend this if you are looking for something different and unexpected that I found aligned more with a sci-fi than horror genre like what I was expecting.