Man Eater

'A feminist fever dream told in gorgeous, shimmering prose. Original, compelling and beautifully written, it swallowed me whole - a Venus flytrap of a novel.' Emilia Hart, NYT bestselling author of Weyward and The Sirens

From the Stoker-nominated author of Where the Dead Wait and All the White Spaces comes a feminist Gothic horror novel in which a botanist searching for a rare orchid encounters an inhuman presence lurking in the jungle shadows…

1901. Minerva Sandford is an adventure-seeker, a botanist—and a reluctant wife. Part of a family of exotic plant-hunters, she chafes at the lack of autonomy in her chilly marriage and is horrified by her sole “purpose” being to produce a male heir. She leaps on the rare opportunity to accompany her husband Guy and cousin Dickon into the fevered Amazonian jungle, searching for the fabled “Man Eater” orchids. No matter what the cost.

As the search for the orchids—and the sinister tendrils of the rubber industry—drive the group deeper into the remote wilderness, Minerva begins to see things amongst the trees. A ghostly woman in green, impossible artifacts, plants moving in all-too-human ways…

Driven by her unquenchable ambition and guided by a secret map, Minerva draws the expedition into uncharted territory, only to encounter untold dangers from without and within. Under the canopy of eerie vines, her lifelong fight for control over her own body takes on ever-more horrific implications. The jungle is alive, and it seems...hungry.

'A feverish jungle nightmare with an unforgettable antiheroine. I savoured every poisonous word.' Sam Beckbessinger, author of Femme Feral

'A gripping, propulsive read... fiercely relevant, this is also a passionate, feminist critique of colonisation, marginalisation, and consumption.' Tracy Fahey, author of Queens of the Crone Age

'Holy sh*t. Ally Wilkes conducts an orchestra of terrors... breathtakingly brilliant... A must-read for anyone interested in seeing what a horror novel can be.' Christopher Golden, NYT bestselling author of Carry Me to my Grave and Road of Bones

'A horrific and uncanny tale that crackles with energy' Lucie McKnight Hardy