Wife Shaped Bodies - Paperback

by Laura Cranehill (Author)

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A Most Anticipated Book of 2026: Goodreads - LitHub - Chicago Review of Books - Debutiful - Metastellar - The Literary Grind - Books, Bones & Buffy - Cats Luv Coffee - Macabre Daily

Sorrowland meets Manhunt in this literary horror debut in which an isolated newlywed, covered in fungal fruiting bodies, strikes a precarious balance between following her husband's strict rules and pursuing an intense connection with a woman who makes her question everything

Forbidden from leaving her house from girlhood until marriage, Nicole has only her mother's lessons and what she can see from her bedroom window to draw on in forming her view of the world, and of herself. Taught that the mushrooms which cover the women in her village are repulsive and dangerous, she conforms to a rigid set of rules to protect herself and those around her.

When her wedding day arrives, Nicole moves from one prison to another--an empty mansion on the very outskirts of town belonging to the husband she's been promised to since birth. As she haunts the edges of Silas's unknowable life and decaying home, maintaining control over her own transforming body becomes increasingly impossible. And when another wife with rebellious tendencies pays Nicole an unexpected visit, something within her cracks open. Their furtive explorations yield confusing answers, unearthing the long-buried secrets of the generations of resentful brides that came before. Unmoored, angry, and at last awakened, Nicole must reckon with who she really is, and perhaps, give in to what she truly wants.

Raw, visceral, and relentless, Wife Shaped Bodies is an exploration of gender, power, and community through the lens of mycological body horror and an ode to the unsettling beauty of the natural world.

Author Biography

Laura Cranehill is an amalgamation of horrific faceless things who lives in the Pacific Northwest with her spouse and three children. She is a writer and poet whose work has been published in Strange Horizons, Vastarien, ergot., PANK, and multiple award-winning anthologies. Wife Shaped Bodies is her debut novel.