Feast While You Can

In this tantalizing novel from married authors Clements and Datta (The View Was Exhausting), a horny lesbian is possessed by a monster. Angelina Sicco lives with her divorced friend Gemma and protective brother, Patrick, in “tiny ugly” Cadenze, a conservative Italian hamlet. The town only gets tourists during the summer months, when Angelina does what she can to satiate her libido. Her world is upended by the reappearance of “dykey” Jagvi, a childhood friend and Patrick’s ex, who, since her departure from Cadenze, has become smug and condescending. The Siccos joke about a folkloric soul-devouring monster called “the thing,” purported to live in the area’s caves, where they sometimes go to party. When the thing follows Angelina home one night, she becomes violently possessed by it. She turns for help to Jagvi, and the women reckon with their long-simmering mutual desire and resentment as they work to vanquish the evil spirit. With arresting body horror, electric suspense, and intense sex scenes, the story moves at a breakneck clip. This carefully calibrated tale of queer desire is a feast for the senses. (Oct.)