Epeolatry Book Review: Wolf Incarnate by Louise Worthington

Wolf Incarnate leads the reader to the darkest places of human nature. In pages dripping with atmosphere and an ever-present menace, we follow Scarlet’s arrival to Wolf Hotel where she has been employed to observe a research project’s treatment of patients with phobias and report on its safety and effectiveness.

And when I say this is atmospheric, I mean it. Death is never far away, in the dead and dying landscape of winter, in the stuffed animals (wolf and raven), the blood-streaked sky, the howling wolves, and the ‘arterial drapes’, curtains whose drop is a ‘bloody waterfall’: descriptions which layer on the sense of doom with a light, but continual, touch.

Scarlet, our protagonist, finds herself working with the most dysfunctional people you could imagine: Dr Bronwyn Vox, cold and clinical, scrawny, angular – ‘callous’ according to her ex-husband; Reg Gates, bankrolling the project, calls himself their ‘Sugar Daddy’ (that phrase alone making your skin crawl) and then you see him as arch-manipulator, as voyeur, as abuser; Melvin: lives with his mother, weak, pathetic in his dealings with women. The little touches Worthington uses to make these villains get under your skin are perfect.

Nor is Scarlet herself free from any failings, one of which forces her to remain tied to the project, yet she is not irredeemable. From arriving at the hotel in a position of weakness, and although bound to Vox because of this, she does embark on her own healing process.

The five patients themselves are like flies trapped in a spider’s web. Their sessions force them to confront their phobias in the most extreme and sadistic manner. These can be truly harrowing to the reader where the patient’s suffering spills off the page, and makes you feel as helpless as that person. With every turn of the page, you know it is all wrong, wrong, wrong. 

But then there are the other aspects of their therapy: nature walks and poetry. Such a contrast to those locked-door sessions. How could poetry sit alongside such monstrosity? An excellent juxtaposition but one which isn’t quite what it seems. Their words, supposedly private, are shared online, making them even more vulnerable and triggering unforeseen events. (The poems are truly poignant and are sprinkled through the book but have also been gathered together at the end for the reader to browse; a nice touch.) Poetry, rather than being therapy, has actually become a promotional tool for the programme.

As Scarlet discovers more and more about Wolf Hotel, and what awaits in those parts not yet opened, she compares it to the song Hotel California. ‘It was an evil place masquerading as a place of healing and health. Once here, guests wouldn’t be allowed to leave.’

Manipulation, isolation, and abuse makes this brutal and claustrophobic, and a compelling read. It is a page turner because you want and need to see the villains get their comeuppance. This is a harrowing, psychological horror, but not for the faint-hearted.

Declaration of interest: This is a book I first came across when I was a mentor for Louise as part of the HWA’s mentorship programme. I remember reading it then and wondering what on earth I could do that would help improve it as she requested – her quality of writing was that good. We worked together over a few months, tightening and refining. I am delighted that she found a home for it with Madness Heart Press. Regardless of that earlier input, my rating and review are for the end product after it went through her publisher’s editorial process. 

/5

Available from Amazon.