Spread Me - by Sarah Gailey (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Spread Me is a darkly seductive tale of survival from Sarah Gailey. A routine probe at a research station turns deadly when the team discovers a strange specimen in search of a warm place to stay...

An instant USA Today bestseller - An NPR Books We Love Pick - One of the Best Horror Books of 2025 (Vulture) - A GoodReads Editors' and Indie Next Pick!

Kinsey has her dream job as the team leader in a remote research outpost. She loves the isolation and the way the desert keeps temptations from the civilian world far out of reach.

When her crew discovers a mysterious specimen buried deep in the sand, Kinsey breaks quarantine and brings it inside. But the longer it's there, the more her carefully controlled life begins to unravel. Temptation has found her after all, and it can't be ignored any longer.

One by one, Kinsey's team realizes the thing they're studying is in search of a new host--and one of them is the perfect candidate....

Review Quotes

"A pure giddy delight of an erotic horror story. It will leave you scandalized, terrified, and delighted."
--Katee Robert, New York Times bestselling author

"John Carpenter's The Thing is back and it's sandier, and hornier, and wants to be inside of YOU! Made me blush so hard I cried."
--Grady Hendrix, New York Times bestselling author of Witchcraft for Wayward Girls

"Erotic horror isn't easy to pull off, but Sarah Gailey does so with flying colors here. ... [A] tense, creepy story where everyone could be something else - and desire is only the means to an end."
--Gabino Iglesias, NPR

"A sex-positive blend of John Carpenter's The Thing and '90s sexploitation sci-fi 'classic' Species.... It's a tour de force of weird fiction; a short novel full of body horror that asks important questions about sexual shame and consent, while gleefully provoking some distinctly uncomfortable arousal."
--Neil McRobert, Vulture

"Hot, messed-up horror that puts you in a maniacal 'sickos meme' state. The vivacious pace keeps the pages flying, while the core of Spread Me is a blooming flower, revealing its beauty petal by petal. Another reason Gailey is one of my favorite authors."
--Hailey Piper, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of A Game in Yellow

"Both a wonderful meditation on the faces of desire and the smuttiest version of John Carpenter's The Thing ever (absurdly complimentary)."
--Cassandra Khaw, USA Today bestselling author of Nothing But Blackened Teeth

"[A] sleek, sexy thriller...The creeping terror of things not being what they seem and people not being who they say they are keeps the suspense simmering. It's a fun, modern take on first encounter horror."
--Publishers Weekly

"Spread Me by Sarah Gailey is a poignant study of the complicated relationship between desire and shame, cleverly disguised as a very scary horror novella. A timely reminder that although we humans might have learned to fear nature, it remains always beautiful, and life will find a way."
--Hildur Knútsdóttir, author of The Night Guest

"Spread Me has it all. It's tense, tight, squicky, slippery, lusty, claustrophobic. Somehow it is both terrifying and tantalizing. This story, like what's in it, eagerly crawls inside you and replaces you with itself. Perhaps the true gift here, though, is Gailey's character work--these fully-realized individuals do not feel contained to the page, and truly feel alive."
--Chuck Wendig, New York Times bestselling author of Wanderers

"In the desert, no one can hear you moan. Spread Me glistens like John Carpenter's sexy The Thing, full of lusty lichen and creamed genes. Never has the end of the world been this sexy."
--Clay McLeod Chapman, author of Wake Up and Open Your Eyes

"For once the term 'Cronenbergian' is all too accurate, with its intimations of the horny, the monstrous, and the transgressive. Gailey comes in white-hot from the very first page and goes farther, faster, and deeper than you could ever imagine. Read it all in one night if you must, but you won't get much sleep once you're done."
--David Demchuck, co-author of The Butcher's Daughter

"A sexy, haunting, jaw-clenching ride of a story."
--Reactor

About the Author

Sarah Gailey is a Hugo Award and British Fantasy Award winning and bestselling author of speculative fiction, short stories, and essays. Their nonfiction has been published by dozens of venues internationally. Their fiction has been published in over seven different languages. They have written comics for Marvel, EC, and BOOM! Studios, including multiple original series. They are the editor and publisher of Stone Soup and Love Letters: Reasons To Be Alive. You can find links to their work at sarahgailey.com.