Like every other American metropolis, Chicago is a city built on a foundation of death. So when a couple in some low-rent apartment cannibalizes each other, it’s just another bizarre murder-suicide to the police. Local fixer and addict in recovery Cameron raises their hand to take up the case as a favor to the neighborhood, the 49th Ward.
It was a year ago when Cameron overdosed on the latest party drug. It was then they picked up an extra passenger, a strange entity that forces Cameron to perform weird blood rituals. Possession is now their new normal. As more cannibalized victims turn up, the doppelganger of Cameron’s old dealer begins hunting them in nightmares and vivid hallucinations.
A malicious growth is spreading in Chicago, promising to give the city a whole new shape. There’s a haunting in Cameron Ciris’s blood, and the city they live in is hungry for every drop. Problem is, they’re getting real goddamn hungry.
Why we’re excited about this book:
Somewhat new to the horror fiction scene, Rien Gray’s new horror novella looks like one you won’t want to miss. The author of Valerin the Fair, Double Exposure, Love Kills Twice, and The Scales of Seduction, Gray’s short fiction has graced the pages of such publications as Brute: Stories of Dark Desire, Masculinity, & Rough Trade, Heckin’ Lewd: Trans and Nonbinary Erotica, and Unreal Sex: An Anthology of Queer Erotic Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror among others. With their latest offering, Gray blends strange body horror with possession as a malevolent entity spreads throughout Chicago. Lindz McLeod (Sunbathers) says: “By the pricking of my thumbs, something ravenous this way comes. Lesser Hungers is no mere appetiser, it’s an entire feast comprised of beautiful, brutal imagery wrapped in a delicate spiderweb plot. Gorgeously written and as visceral as a vulture’s lunch, it’s how ‘Venom’ should have been written.”, and Judith Sonnet (The Home, Summer Never Ends) says: “Bold and unique, Lesser Hungers is a novella that oozes atmosphere and comes with a rapidly beating pulse.”
Releasing from Slashic Horror Press 15 November 2025, Lesser Hungers by Rien Gray is available for pre-order now.
BOB PASTORELLA