tamaranth | 2026/024: Wolf Worm — T Kingfisher (Reply)

2026/024: Wolf Worm — T Kingfisher

Some thoughts burrow into your mind as thoroughly as a wasp larva burrows into an unsuspecting caterpillar. [loc. 3387]

Set in North Carolina in 1899, this novel taught me more than I ever wanted to know about various parasitic insects. The narrator, Sonia Wilson, is a scientific illustrator who's accepted a position with the reclusive Dr Halder, who lives in an isolated, decaying house in the woods. En route, Sonia's local guide warns darkly that he's seen the Devil in these woods, but Sonia has been raised by a scientist and discounts this as mere superstition.

She's not wholly charmed by her new employer, who won't tell her about the artist who painted half of his collection but wants her to finish the job. Sally, the maid, has a nice line in lurid tales of blood thieves, and local Native midwife Hezekiah Kersey says darkly that the land is 'alive and all of a piece'. But despite the Gothic ambience and Dr Halder's paranoia ('Are you spying on me, girl?') Sonia is determined to work hard, painting botfly larvae and certainly not following her employer as he sneaks out to the woods at night.

Sonia is an excellent protagonist. The author's afterword mentions that she was formerly a scientific illustrator, and that depth of knowledge shows in the descriptions of Sonia's work: how to blend watercolours, depict an insect's eye, and use a patented caterpillar inflator. I won't go into the specifics of the creeping horror pervading this novel, because I don't want to think too closely about that. But I will say that it's extremely effective, refreshingly unusual and thoroughly revolting. Ah, nature in her manifold glories!

Kingfisher's prose is smooth and readable, and often very funny: her imagination is ... unsettling, and her characters odd and interesting. I really enjoyed Wolf Worm, while simultaneously wanting to stop reading because ewww. Happy endings for many, though!

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the advance review copy, in exchange for this full honest review. UK Publication Date is 26th March 2026.