I'm a recovering Catholic and an epidemiologist, so this book really spoke to me. What a combo, eh?! If you like The Walking Dead or The Last of Us (specifically, the relationship between Joel and Ellie), I think you'll enjoy this book. The characters are all experiencing a lot of the same things the characters do in those shows except here, we have excellent commentary (and context) of religion and sexuality/purity culture. I thought Leede did a great job with the relationship between Sophie and Ben but wish there had been a bit more with Maro. There are a lot of thing that happen in this story and as is the case with good horror, you get suckered punched and pulled in by the non-human factor and then you continue to get pummeled and be horrified by the humans in the story. The ending is WILD and very well-executed by Leede.

I don't tend to mention trigger warnings, especially because if you're reading horror, you pretty much expect it to be a potentially rough read. However, there is an absolutely horrific dog death in this story that is really hard to get through. You'll see it coming so you might consider skimming over that section.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Nightfire for the digital ARC. Leede is an auto-buy author for our household and I know we'll be purchasing a copy, but it's always nice to read the book ahead of publication!