“This chilling debut pulls from Keane’s experiences as well as the ancient and creepy Ohio woods with a relatable tale of insidious corporate greed grown wild.”
Since her parents always had backbreaking jobs with poor pay, Lou did what she needed to do and pulled up her bootstraps, attended college, then got a job. Sure, it’s an office gig, and her coworkers drone on and on about their multilevel marketing scheme, but it’s a job.
Then Lou accepts an appraisal assignment in the hills of rural Ohio. This is her last chance to save her job and make rent, so this has to count. Soon, she finds herself, and her dog, stranded literally in the middle of nowhere, her truck sabotaged, and someone—or something—stalking her deep in the Appalachian woods.
If she can’t escape the woods in time, she’ll see firsthand that her job isn’t the only thing that wants to eat her alive.
Why we’re excited about this book:
2026 is already proving to be a stellar year for debut horror novels, and this one from Carter Keane is no exception. Keane hails from Ohio, where their debut novel is set. This chilling debut pulls from Keane’s experiences as well as the ancient and creepy Ohio woods with a relatable tale of insidious corporate greed grown wild. Wendy N. Wagner (Girl in the Creek) says Morsel is “Equal parts folk horror and pyramid scheme … a propulsive read with complex, believable characters―and one very good dog. Keane has proven that the Ohio woods are supremely scary.” Matthew Lyons (A Mask of Flies) says: “A fantastically vicious anticapitalist fable about the things that consume us all when we’re not looking―and sometimes when we are. By turns bloody, terrifying, and nightmarishly heart-wrenching, Keane’s delightful debut takes no prisoners and gives no shits. Make no mistake about it: this book has teeth to spare.”, and Johnny Compton (The Spite House, Midnight Somewhere) says: “A gripping and biting work of cult, social horror. Morsel feels like Intensity and Pumpkinhead had a deadly standoff on a mountain road.”
Forthcoming from Tor Nightfire 14 April 2026, Morsel by Carter Keane is available for pre-order now.
BOB PASTORELLA
