BOOK REVIEW | ITCH | GEMMA AMOR

 

Intro:

Gemma Amor’s books have been on my radar for quite a while. Especially after thoroughly enjoying her collaboration with Allison Brandt, S.H. Cooper, Desdymona Howard, Victoria Juan, and Charlotte Norup on the podcast Calling Darkness. However, as usual twenty million other books get in the way, and I never got around to them.

Author of 11 books, Amor has been nominated for a number of awards; including the Bram Stoker Award for Superior achievement in a first novel (for her debut published novel Dear Laura), Best Horror Novel (the August Derleth Award), British Fantasy Awards Shortlist (for her book Full Immersion, published by Angry Robot), This is Horror Awards Nominee 2019, for ‘Novella of the Year’ (for dear laura) and finally the Indie Horror Book Awards for her collection of short stories Cruel Works of Nature which was originally released in 2018.

In addition to being a writer and podcaster, she illustrates her own work, narrates audiobooks and has written a short film in 2022.

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Something moves on the forest floor . . .

Josie is at rock bottom. Burned out, heartbroken and recovering from an abusive relationship, she lives a haunted existence after returning to her isolated hometown on the edge of the Forest of Dean.

But the tall, dense pine trees are not the only things casting shadows across her skin.

Josie's hopes of a fresh start are horribly derailed when she stumbles across a dead woman's decaying, ant-infested body in the woods. The grim discovery sends her into a downward spiral, forcing her to face uncomfortable truths about the victim and her own past - all whilst battling the swarming black ants that seem to have burrowed into her mind . . . and her flesh.

As Josie struggles with infestations of all kinds, she scratches the surface of an age-old mystery - a masked predator stalks the forest around Ellwood, a place deeply gripped by ancient folklore and strange customs. So when the village dresses up for its annual festival, Josie gets closer and closer to unveiling a monster, and begins to ask

Are these dark crawling insects leading her to uncover the truth?

Or is she their next victim?

REVIEW

Escaping an abusive relationship, Josie has returned to her father’s house to recoup following a head injury caused by her partner, Lena, that subsequently put Josie in a coma. 

In an attempt to rebuild her life, Josie is living in her father’s holiday cottage. She is working in the local pub, living a shade of an existence in the village that she grew up in. 

Whilst walking through a short cut called The Knoll, the staging ground for a traditional event called The Devil’s March, Josie stumbles over the body of a young girl. Not believing it at first, she investigates and finds that the body has been there for a while and has subsequently been devoured by the local insects. 

The grisly discovery has a tragic effect on Josie. She believes that the insects have subsequently taken residence in her body and are leading her to uncover both her past and the secrets of The Devil’s March.

Folk horror is having a bit of a resurgence in popularity in recent years. Well, not particularly a resurgence as it is something that has never gone away, but it is definitely increased in popularity of late and Gemma Amor attacks the genre with an original take on the genre. 

Mixing crime thriller with folk horror, Itch is a fantastic tale that explores violence against women, same sex abuse and ultimately how trauma has a lasting impression on the psyche and can dominate how a person interacts with the world. 

Amor skillfully uses disparate narratives, such as Jodie’s increasingly chaotic downward spiral in response to the stress that she has endured, the pervasiveness of the secrets that she uncovers and the weight of tradition to good effect steadily weaving a claustrophobic sense of inevitability. 

For the most part, quite a lot of the characters are pretty unlikeable, but as we get further into the book, threads of light start to shine through. Particularly in the form of Angela, the no nonsense pub landlord who doesn’t stand for any crap.

In fact, that is one of the defining aspects of book, that there are those shreds of light through the strangling darkness of Josie’s trauma.

Visceral and brutal at times, Itch is a fantastic story that firmly crawls its way under your skin.

Itch is Out Now, published by Hodder & Stoughton