Synopsis
READERS LOVE GEMMA’S DARK, ITCHY WORLD 🐜
‘If you are after something that is both shocking and horrifically beautiful then take a journey and discover this little atrocity for yourself’ 🐜
‘I kept telling myself I really should turn off the light and get to bed now, eyes dry, head heavy, but every sentence in this book commands the reader keep turning the pages and press onward…’ 🐜
‘Gemma pulled me in with this compelling tale. Each page turned yielded me to another. I couldn’t stop. Seriously!’ 🐜
Josie is at rock bottom, living a haunted existence after returning to her isolated hometown on the edge of the Forest of Dean. When she stumbles across a decaying, ant-infested body in the woods, Josie plummets into a downward spiral, facing uncomfortable truths about the victim and her own past – all whilst battling a growing infestation of her mind . . . and her flesh.
Desperate to solve the case, Josie scratches the surface of an age-old mystery – a masked predator stalks the forest around Ellwood, a place deeply gripped by folklore. As the village prepares for its annual festival, Josie gets closer and closer to unveiling a monster, and begins to ask herself:
Are these dark crawling insects leading her to uncover the truth? Or is she their next victim? 🐜
Review
Bug horror. Mental illness. Murdered women left dumped in the woods. A small English village with an annual celebration of its pagan, folkloric customs to please the devil. Yeah, Gemma Amor’s ITCH! pretty much has it all and wastes little time getting into the nitty gritty.
Josie has a thing for bugs, you could say. An obsession. They live inside her, and inside others, too. Josie sees them regularly – moths fly from her ears, ants crawl under her skin seeking escape, and the old man at the tavern sneezes out snot and worms. She’s got an affliction, and the discovery of an old corpse covered in maggots and various other insects doesn’t do her much in the way of favors. Stumbling upon a dead woman in the woods only aggravates the bugs inside her and soon she’s scratching herself bloody trying to seek relief. She’s also drawn the intense scrutiny of a cop looking to make a name for herself. Life doesn’t get any easier for Josie when her abusive ex-girlfriend shows up in town, despite the restraining order, and she discovers the remains of yet another murdered girl left in the woods.
The village of Ellwood has a long history of killing women, and there are a lot of bodies buried in the surrounding Forest of Dean. Used to be, the townsfolk would sacrifice a girl to the devil during an annual festival to earn his favor and grant the small population a measure of safety and security against the hardships of daily life. Now, they just carry an effigy of a woman and toss that off a cliff to please their local deity. It’s all good fun, a local celebration filled with masked revelry, hot mulled wine or cocoa and beer, and a long cheery walk through the forest trails.
At least it was. Until somebody started donning a mask and killing girls. Girls who bear an uncanny resemblance to Josie, who is driven by the bugs inside her to learn more about these murders and the rituals and folklore of Ellwood.
Readers who need their women protagonists to be uncomplicated paragons of virtue would do well to avoid ITCH!, but for those of who prefer more defined portrayals Josie is a welcome wreck. She’s led a hard life, one that has beaten her down and left her meek. She’s scarred inside and out, the latter thanks to her former lover who struck her with a brick and left her briefly comatose. Josie’s a survivor, in spite of all her traumas and all the people who have tried to break her and grind her down. I found myself immediately sympathetic to her ordeals and loved watching her grow from a tragic victim into somebody stronger in the face of her struggles as the book progressed. She’s messy and complicated and her problems pile up around her like dirty laundry, but she develops a wonderful sense of agency and a burgeoning self-worth that’s downright heroic given where and who she’s been.
Amor has crafted a setting that’s every bit as intriguing, colored as it is by history and locale. Ellwood possesses a comfy, welcoming vibe, despite the damp cold, or maybe that’s just the King’s Arms tavern with its roaring fireplace and familiar faces. Regardless, there’s a Country Living appeal to this small hamlet tucked in the forest, and that’s even before you get into Old Jacob’s stories about the place’s history, culture, and customs. Ellwood charms with its lived-in warmth and attitudes.
Naturally, it’s not all sunshine and fairy tales. Ellwood has plenty of darkness beneath it, as does ITCH! overall. This is a book about trauma and abuse, gaslighting and manipulation, and the psychological toll that can be wreaked upon its survivors. Going into ITCH!, I was initially disappointed that the bug horror elements were a psychological manifestation rather than a more literal phenomenon, like in Gergory A. Douglas’s ‘80s classic, The Nest, but the more I read the more I grew to appreciate Amor’s aim. Josie’s symptoms are the result of the ills heaped upon her and traumas she’s been forced to repress for the sake of her own sanity, until she’s forced by circumstance to confront all that psychological damage slowly chewing its way to the surface. For the gorehounds hoping for plenty of bug horror nastiness, ITCH! may not be as immediately gratifying in purely visceral, violent, and vulgar ways than The Nest, but it is certainly meatier and deeper in its messaging and explorations of society and the treatment of women.
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