Brainwyrms

By: Alison Rumfitt

Narrated by: Nicky Endres

From Alison Rumfitt, the author of Tell Me I’m Worthless — “a triumph of transgressive queer horror” (Publishers Weekly) — comes Brainwyrms, a searing body horror novel of obsession, violence, and pleasure.

When a transphobic woman bombs Frankie’s workplace, she blows up Frankie’s life with it. As the media descends like vultures, Frankie tries to cope with the carnage: binge-drinking, sleeping with strangers, pushing away her friends. Then, she meets Vanya. Mysterious, beautiful, terrifying Vanya.

The two hit it off immediately, but as their relationship intensifies, so too does Frankie’s feeling that Vanya is hiding something from her. When Vanya’s secrets threaten to tear them apart, Frankie starts digging, and unearths a sinister, depraved conspiracy, the roots of which go deeper than she ever imagined.

Shocking, grotesque, and downright filthy, Brainwyrms confronts the creeping reality of political terrorism while exploring the depths of love, pain, and identity.

“Filthy, searing, and hideously intimate – a modern classic.” —Gretchen Felker-Martin, author of Manhunt

Also by Alison Rumfitt:
Tell Me I'm Worthless

A Macmillan Audio production from Tor Nightfire.

The most disturbing book I've ever read.

It is the book that made me wonder whether someone can get a PTSD from reading a book.

liked it

it is an interesting book, worth a read for horror fans. Not for the faint of heart

Amazing book! Hurt my mental health!

Truly not a book for the faint of heart. At one point I tried to look up trigger warnings for this book and everywhere I looked just said “all of them. Every trigger imaginable is in here”. The author even encourages you to take a break at one point.

A really interesting blend of storytelling methods, integration of real life politics, and outrageous fantasy. The audio performance is incredible. Truly. It felt like a fundamentally different experience in audio form and I doubt it would have affected me as much if I read it in written form. There are points when the author directly addresses the reader and hearing it spoken really makes it personal. Even though I was not affected by any of the horrific triggers present in the plot this is what finally got me.

A really devastating look at how easy it is to be manipulated- by sex, by bigotry, by capitalism, and how inescapable this manipulation can be. The irony of reading this book on audible, an Amazon company, really hammers this point home.

Not sure about narration

I didn’t like the narrators voices. I thought some of them were a little too silly but loved the story

Modern Erotic Horror Classic

Where do you even start with Brainwyrms? I think I'll start with the attention to erotic detail. Alison Rumfitt brings a deft, raw emotion to the underground fetish scene, and an inquisitive tactfulness to the birth of "what gets you off," in Vanya's words. You'll be hard pressed to find a horror story that approaches the terror and pleasure of fetish and kink like 'Brainwyrms.' The horror, too, is some of the best, most artfully written I've ever encountered. As is the mark of a brilliant piece of genre fiction, there is more here than meets the ears, and this one will sit with you long after the wrap-up.