Leech is a gothic tale, featuring howling winter winds, a decrepit old mansion and a rotting noble family inside for our physician protagonist, "the Institute", to treat. As a secret, parasitic hivemind of doctors rather than a single person, the Institute makes for a fresh point of view for the genre. They are driven to untangle the mystery of what killed their predecessor (also part of their hivemind) by extreme curiosity, have little regard for personal safety, and can access expertise from their vast network of bodies at any time - a perfect Holmesian detective, until the situation begins to challenge those advantages.

Both setting and characters enjoyed depth and nuance. The noble son and his wife show their wounds as well as their cruelties, and their land has beautiful ice-monsters as well as lethal storms. It also supports a dwindling native culture of people who lived in caves, sported tails, and worshipped dog gods fallen from the sky. The baron's mute house boy, Emil, is one such descendant and a welcome, though mysterious, bright spot amidst all the rot.

It's a shame the focus drifts away from the Institute as the story unfolds. It leaves in its place a solid gothic mystery and tale of rebellion but these didn't quite fill the hole for me, since exploring such an unusual, morally-grey narrator was my main point of fascination. Learning that the author is a medical student frames the criticisms of the Institute in an interesting way, however; there is much to critisize. The book also continues to explore identity, just

less the Institute's and more its hosts.

Some lines will ring especially true to queer readers.

Recommended for fans of: classical gothic literature, Mexican Gothic, Pathologic (the game), Sherlock Holmes (specifically if you read the books because of the BBC show, not because this is like the BBC show but because if you were a big enough fan of the show to read the books, odds are you're in gay tumblr crowd that would also be into the identity exploration in the second half)