Spread Me

by Sarah Gailey

Spread Me is a darkly seductive tale of survival from Sarah Gailey, after a routine probe at a research station turns deadly when the team discovers a strange specimen in search of a warm place to stay.

Kinsey has the perfect job as the team lead in a remote research outpost. She loves the solitude, and the way the desert keeps her far away from the temptations teeming out in the civilian world.

When her crew discovers a mysterious specimen buried deep in the sand, Kinsey breaks quarantine and brings it into the hab. But the longer it's inside, the more her carefully controlled life begins to unravel. Temptation has found her after all, and it can't be ignored any longer.

One by one, Kinsey's team realizes the thing they're studying is in search of a new host—and one of them is the perfect candidate....

Genres: Horror, Science Fiction, Adult, Fiction, Audiobook, Thriller, Novella

208 pages, Hardcover

Expected publication September 23, 2025

Reviews

[Brandon Baker · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one is for the freaks. It’s like The Thing but 600% hornier.

[luv2read · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you enjoy stories that mix the weird with a dose of erotica, this one will be right up your alley. With a touch of sci-fi, it gets even more unique. I really liked the premise, the setting, and the fact that it was a shorter read.

The “freaky” side of the erotica wasn’t really my thing, but that’s just personal taste. What did surprise me was how well the characters were developed, especially for such a short book.

Thank you for the ARC — definitely an interesting and different read!

[Emily C. C. · Rating 5 out of 5]

HOOTING AND HOLLERING, THIS ONE’S FOR THE TRUE FREAKS

[A Mac · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kinsey leads a team of scientists at a remote research outpost in the desert. She and her crew discover an odd specimen buried in the sand, and Kinsey breaks their quarantine rules to bring it into their habitation. But the longer it’s in their lives, the more things seem to unravel. Something isn’t right, Kinsey is at the center of it, and she’s soon unsure if anyone will make it out alive.

This book starts off right in the middle of the action, which was well done. It also includes several chapters set in the past when the characters were arriving or recently arrived at the research station, which helped to provide some good background for them. However, I would have liked a little more background relating to the research station and their goals and maybe even a bit more relating to the protagonist to add a little depth.

The protagonist is difficult to like from the beginning. The two main things that happen when we’re introduced to her are:
1. Her putting her colleagues in danger for no good reason and going against protocol, and
2. Her masturbating while she sexualizes a virus taking over a host.
This made it difficult to relate to her or to get in her head and figure out her motivations. All of the characters were decent, but I would have liked more depth/development from all of them. But this is a short work, and the author did a decent job with the short number of pages.

Honestly, I had no idea how sexual this work was going to be. I went back to read the blurb to see if I just missed it, but there’s no warning beyond some subtle word use. If I’d known, I wouldn’t have chosen to read this as highly sexual content isn’t my preference especially in horror reads. I’m not intentionally lowering my rating of the book based on this, but it really made it difficult to enjoy this as much as I wanted to. It also ended up being more focused on sexual desire/interactions than on the horror aspects, which was additionally disappointing.

I’m not sure how I feel about this one. It was decently written, but I wanted more horror and less erotica. If you like environmental horror reads and don’t mind a lot of sexual content, you might end up loving this. My thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for allowing me to read this work, which will be published 23 September 2025. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.

[Rachel Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yes. This is exactly the kind of weird shit I needed in my life. The suffocating factor of isolation intensifies every aspect of this horrifying and, strangely enough, erotica gem of a novella.

Beyond the pure entertaining scope of analysis, this novella cleverly explores the relationship of shame and sexual desire which I found to be rather thought provoking.

Think Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer...but with like...parasitical sex monsters. Or S.A. Barnes space horror, but on land...and with parasitcal sex monsters lol

[JaymeO · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am a huge fan of Sarah Gailey’s brand of psychological horror…but this book is super odd.

In order to escape a pandemic, Kinsey joins a research team in the desert to study the cryobiotic crust. When they discover a mysterious specimen buried in the sand, it is brought into the lab to study. Unbeknownst to the researchers, the specimen is in search of a new host, putting all of them in danger.

I alternated between listening to the audiobook and reading the Ebook. I initially found Xe Sands’ breathy tone really strange until I realized it was supposed to be a seductive novel. She definitely nailed that. Ha!

I think Gailey created their own genre with this one…seductive horror! Think Alien meets Orlando by Virginia Woolf. It’s too long to be a novella and too short to be a full novel at 208 pages. Most of the characters are gender neutral, using them as their pronoun. All are incredibly horny and graphic language is used to express their desires, which is a little off-putting. Gailey is expressing a clear agenda and message through this wild plot…but I will let readers discover it for themselves!

I have really enjoyed Gailey’s previous novels, but Spread Me just fell a little short. I’m still a fan of her writing and plan to read her next offering.

3.25/5 stars rounded down

Expected publication date: 9/23/25

Thank you to NetGalley, Edelweiss, Macmillan Audio and Tor Nightfire publishing for the ARC of Spread Me in exchange for an honest review.

[Stacy (Gotham City Librarian) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don’t know what kind of sense of humor author Sarah Gailey has, so she may not find it amusing that this was the 69th book I finished reading in 2025. But I do!

I absolutely loved this. It was basically "The Thing" except in the desert, super erotic, with a touch of David Cronenberg and just a sprinkle of "Annihilation." The body horror was on point and it even sort of had a message about staying true to your own sexuality. Main character Kinsey had one of the most unusual kinks I've seen in a hot minute, and it worked so well for the plot.

My only complaints: The shifts back and forth in time were a bit jarring, but my digital copy was missing chapter headings so that probably contributed to the confusion. Every chapter alternates between the present timeline and a memory centered around one of the characters, and having a past section every other chapter was distracting because I was so invested in the current storyline. Also, the John Carpenter reference swear jar was a bit too cute for me, too much of a wink to the audience. I get that it was a loving tribute, so this is just a minor nitpick.

A quick read, somewhat predictable but I loved the ending and found the horror very satisfying. 5 stars, and highly recommended for anyone else who likes their stuff weird and kind of gross!

Thanks so much to Netgalley and to the Publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

[Char · Rating 4 out of 5]

At a remote, isolated research facility in the desert, a scientific team discovers a strange specimen in the desert. Due to an approaching sandstorm they decide, against regulations, to bring the specimen inside. It was a mistake that many crew members will not live to regret.

Sounds great, right? In fact, maybe it sounds a bit like John Carpenter's The Thing, or perhaps the novella it was based on Who Goes There by John Campbell? You'd be correct on that. Instead of the snow and ice we have a desert and heat, but the bare bones of the stories are very similar. What makes this book stand out is the characters and what the specimen does to them. To be blunt? It makes them horny!

With a group of characters cooped up in a small place for a long period of time, one could see how relationships would develop or hell, even sex would develop between them. With characters as diverse and open as these, that could mean a lot of partner swapping and sometimes even two or threesomes. Take that type of sexual tension and ramp it up with an unknown being and that being's desires and you have SPREAD ME. (A nice little double entendre of a title, don't you think?)

I listened to the audiobook, narrated by the excellent Xe Sands. (I've listened to her work before and loved her narration of Chuck Wendig's The Staircase in the Woods.) She did a superb job of narrating the escalating tensions of the crew as well as their inner thoughts, desires and needs. The book was written in such a way that it speeds by almost with the listener even noticing...each chapter just led to the next and before I knew it the whole thing was over. With all the similarities to The Thing, I was interested to see if the end would be similar as well. Was it? You'll have to read this, or listen, to find out!

Highly recommended!

Available September 23, 2025

*ARC from publisher

[Dennis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was so excited to start Sarah Gailey’s newest book, SPREAD ME, because it sounds bonkers AF. Say what you want, but Sarah Gailey comes up with some unique horror stories for us!

At around 200 pages, I’ll keep it brief: Kinsey thrives as the team lead at a remote desert research outpost, far from the temptations of the outside world—until her crew uncovers a strange specimen buried in the sand. Breaking quarantine to study it, she soon finds her orderly life unraveling as the organism’s influence grows. Now the team realizes it’s searching for a new host—and one of them is the perfect choice.

SPREAD ME is a horny horror tale, to say the least. The dynamics of the story were very interesting and fun, but the build up takes too long for the momentum to get going. I felt that there could’ve been less story in the first half and double the story in the second half. I can see this being a series of some sort. I just noticed that I’ve read three of this author’s books and they’ve all been 3 stars, so although I continue to want to read this author’s stories, I tend to be a bit critical of them. I do recommend reading SPREAD ME because it’s so short you can read it very quickly.

[Trisha]

OMG this COVER!

I can't wait to read this!!

[Michael Hicks · Rating 4 out of 5]

This review was originally published at FanFiAddict on Monday, Aug. 15, 2025.

If you’re the kind of sex-positive horror reader who sees a title like Spread Me and automatically thinks of double-entendres, you’re Sarah Gailey’s target audience.

Spread Me is Gailey’s riff on The Thing, with a few important distinctions. Instead of being set in the Antarctic, Spread Me’s research station is desert-based, and the shape-shifting alien creature that can be anyone is, here, an Earth-based virus living a few feet below the shifting sands in the desert’s cryptobiotic soil. The researchers themselves are diverse, as are their sexual partnerships with one another. Gailey’s is a slow-burn modern-day update to the classic John Carpenter flick (and John W. Campbell’s 1938 novella, Who Goes There, which inspired it and Carpenter’s filmic predecessor, The Thing from Another World), with one other key difference – Spread Me is horny as fuck.

If there’s one genetic imperative driving all life on Earth, it is to reproduce. From the mitosis of single-celled organisms to us sex-having mammals, we all gotta do it like they do on the Discovery Channel. Gailey’s ancient (or perhaps newly evolved?) cryptobiotic virus seizes control of the humans it infects, causing rampant, unquenchable desire with occasional sides of body horror. It’s a nice touch that our lead heroine is named Kinsey, no doubt after famed sex researcher Alfred Kinsey. Sadly, there are no Dr. Ruth’s at this desert research lab.

Although it’s set in a desert, there are certainly no dry spells happening inside this scientific habitat, even before these researchers are introduced to this sexed-up virus. While Gailey stops well short of Spread Me being a straight-up monster porn spoof, the eroticism is likely not of one’s usual expectations. In one instance, Kinsey masturbates imagining the penetration of cellular walls by a virus and keeps a poster of cellular organisms close at hand the way a teenager hides copies of Playboy. In another, while taking a biopsy, the act of puncturing skin with a needle is described the way one might write of sexual penetration. In order to gain her patient’s consent, Kinsey must assure assure the patient that this procedure really turns her on, transforming a rote medical exam into a pseudo-sexual ritual. Readers are forced to question consent and issues of control — and who, exactly, is manipulating whom — in this twisted dynamic.

Gailey knows that, despite the focus on the sexual predilections of her scientists and the virus they are forced to contend with, comparisons to The Thing are inevitable and she establishes early on that the movie is a favorite of these researchers, as it is for all good taste-having movie lovers. Even the characters are not immune to drawing parallels between their ordeal and the seminal, iconic 1982 film. “It’s impossible not to make John Carpenter references when you work at a research station in the middle of fucking nowhere,” one character intones at the start. Instead of a swear jar, they have a John Carpenter jar and every time somebody references the movie they have to pony up some cash. Another researcher wears a Baby Slut shirt in a deep cut reference to a Kurt Russell meme.

One might find it easy to view Spread Me in the context of covid. While it’s not directly a book about covid – Spread Me is set in a near-future where pandemics have become routine staples in daily life – it’s hard not to draw those parallels. The single-celled kinks at the heart of Gailey’s book recall the loud pro-COVID-19 forces that reared their ugly heads, demanding an end to masking protocols and for everyone to put themselves in danger for their own anti-masking comfort, delirious with a desire not only to be infected but to freely infect others even as they gussied it up under the guise of civil rights and freedom. These mask scofflaws were intent on doing the virus’s work for it, as if they were themselves some kind of Ur-virus wrapped up in the cellular walls of their flag and loud-mouthed ignorance. The mounting paranoia of who is infected parallels that of Carpenter’s The Thing, only instead of Cold War concerns, Spread Me has more recent worries that echo our period of isolation and sickness during the pandemic — who is infected, who is hiding it or lying about it, and who can be trusted when the masks, not to mention the clothes, come off?

Spread Me plays around a lot with sexual identity, too. Wanting to love, and to be loved, on one’s own terms as their own unique individual, warts or mutant limbs and all, are predominate themes. Kinsey and her staff of researchers defy heteronormativity, with Kinsey going a step further with her infatuation for single-celled organisms and their methods of replication. Isolated with only each other, the researchers pair off with fluid abandon for both same- and opposite-sex pairings and hints of threesomes behind closed doors, in their need for connection. Replication drives our genes, but it’s our need for understanding and camaraderie that unites us. All we need is love, be it platonic or romantic, but finding that love can be an ordeal, fraught with peril and complications, and maybe a little bit of murder here and there. As Johnny Cash once sang, love is a burning thing, but in Spread Me, nothing’s hotter than the desert…or what lies beneath.

[Becca · Rating 4 out of 5]

This might be one of the most unhinged books I've read so far this year. And that's not a bad thing. This is basically The Thing but make is a LOT more sexual. I knew going in to this that it was going to be a wild ride, and I now agree with that statement. I don't think this book is going to work for everyone, but my favorite horror movie is The Thing so this kind of worked for me.

[Vanessa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was absolutely bizarre. It's horror, it's erotica, it's both?

Kinsey wants to fuck viruses and this book is about what happens when the virus wants to fuck her too

[John Wiswell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another fun spine-tingler from Sarah Gailey! Here we have researchers who are way too informal already dealing with a strange organism they've discovered at a facility in the middle of nowhere. Libidos surge, and you wonder if that's a telltale sign. Body Horror starts to ripple through the crew, and again, you wonder just what the creature wants. Is it just to kill them? Or something weirder?

What hits the hardest is the voice--both on page and in the audiobook. I got the chance to listen to Xe Sands's narration. Sands is to Gailey what John Williams is to Stephen Spielberg. A perfect match, every time.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio for the early copy!

[Delia Anderson-Colson]

if i had a nickel for every time i had picked up a supernatural horror novel only to realize it’s about a virus that makes people super horny…i would have two nickels. which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice and in such a short period of time. this one was wayyyy better than the other though, and bonus points for it being the only book i know of where the protagonist is sexually attracted to viruses 🧍‍♀️

[Danger]

Horny and weird, like me.

[Casey Bee · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were a lot of things about this short book that I did like, like the research and specimen harvesting and the whole science aspect. I knew this was erotic horror going in, so I wasn’t surprised nor bothered by it. I’m good with weird sex stuff and things that may be uncomfortable or unusual, but I like it when it serves a purpose. I didn’t really understand the message behind this book. And maybe that’s on me! Maybe I missed it entirely, but it seemed kind of like transgressive horror just to be discomforting and make people squirm. The line between pleasure and discomfort, being weirdly drawn to things, knowing it’s weird, but embracing it. Maybe that is the point? Didn’t hate it at all, but also didn’t love it. Didn’t feel a strong reason or message behind it all. Again, maybe that’s on me, maybe my head wasn’t in the right place to receive it. 3 stars feels right.

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan audio for the ALC. Book releases 9/23/25. I think it will definitely find its audience!

[Megthereader · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was such a “what did I just read” kind of a book but in the best way! I had such a fun time reading this and flew through the audiobook! It was the perfect combination of sci-fi and horror and I loved the length of the book since it was not too short but also not too long. This book was wild.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio and Netgalley for sending me an advanced copy of the audiobook!

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVED THIS BOOK, EVERY MINUTE.

Imagine being Just a Girl minding her own business in a sandstorm-ridden desert’s makeshift research pod with the same six total of you all on top of each other (literally and figuratively 😏).

Imagine wanting so desperately to be known you feel it deeply in the core parts of you that you’d give it all up for someone to just see you, understand you, love you, and be loved by you?

This book is an excellent meditation on isolation, both physical and mental/emotional, and I’m profoundly delighted by it.

Lowkey the biggest compliment I can give a book?: I think Eric LaRocca would like this one.

What a dream, what a beautiful and grotesque and horrifying and fantastic commentary on what it’s like to seek connection while feeling alien, while feeling *aching*. Just wonderful.

Also erotic and weird as hell. We love to see it!!!

[Sierra| HooksxBooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 rounded up.

This was a horror mixed with dark romance.

Baby, this book scary, spooky & freak nasty. I def didn’t read the blurb I saw the cover & semi read the title and said HORROR - SIGN ME UP.

Now, I knew this was kind of different when everyone got sick & Kinsey you know. Well..

I’ll say this; this was a different type of freaky scary story. I have no idea how Gailey came up with a story like this, but my goodness.

This is definitely for the nasties! The ending!? Had my eyes WIDE!


I got an ARC audio copy of this book through NetGalley. Zero complaints about the narrator.

[Sarah Wilson-Davis Hamil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC of Spread Me by Sarah Gailey.
Rating: 3.8
If you like sci-fi body horror AND erotica, then boy, do I have a book for you. I was not expecting the latter, but upon further inspection of the title...it makes sense (virus, STD, legs, etc...). The audiobook narrator even has a husky, sultry voice.
As other reviewers mentioned, the references to The Thing are there--isolated team of scientists encounter alien specimen, everything else is downhill from there. Most of the charcters are gender fluid, and all of them are incredibly horny. This story is invasive and alien and proves that thinking with the parts between your legs will get you into trouble. I felt the need to step into a decomtamination chamber after reading.

[Rowen H. · Rating 4 out of 5]

We will likely never know how much science has been fueled by unfathomable horniness, but I choose to believe it's a lot. Go off, Gailey.

[Tabitha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan audio for the advanced copy.

I was not prepared for this. I read that it's like The Thing, which is my favorite horror film, and I love body horror (to a degree) but I was not prepared for how... horny this novel is for body horror.

Nauseatingly well written, Gailey will make you ill but you won't be able to turn away. Spooky, gross, well written, this is a hell of a story.

Just a warning: I do recommend planning your reading/listening of this outside of meal times because it is likely to make you feel a bit ill.

For fans of: body horror, sexy horror, The Thing, Sister, Maiden, Monster, Maeve Fly

[Bella is busy w uni · Rating 4 out of 5]

A freaky lady who's attracted to aliens. Erotic sci-fi horror. What more could you ask for? And yes I did enjoy it, don't ask me any more questions beyond that thanks

[iam · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my most anticipated releases of 2025 - SciFi horror about something looking for a host, with the tagline Man is the wettest place to hide, written by Sarah Gailey? I was incredibly excited. I also saw some other reviewers say this is "The Thing but hornier" and I was even more hooked.

I will admit that the marketing and cover gave me a slightly skewed expectation that didn't entirely match with what the book actually was, though I fault myself and my preconceived notions for that much more than the book.

I expected more hard SciFi with an alien specimen, but the book takes place entirely on earth, just on a remote desert research station, and from what I can tell not even that far (if at all) in the future. The specimen they find therefore is not alien, even if it's something that hasn't yet been discovered by anyone else.

My other expectation was about the nature of the speciment, the thing that causes the book to escalate. I do not want to go into to much detail as that goes into spoiler territory. It's not exactly something I've never read before, but the way the book presented it, and particularly through the lense of the protagonist, it became something entirely new, horrifying, and, strangely... erotic?

The book markets itself as sensual, and it definitely is. Kinsey, the research station leader has some.... interesting... sexual fantasies, and the book runs with it no matter how uncomfortable it gets.

While the plot of a thing getting lose on a remote research station is nothing new, the way Kinsey's particular fantasies and her interactions with the thing affect what's happening makes it something fresh, new, and very, very freaky. It's as fascinating as it is horrifying.

Throughout the book there are flashbacks to moments of the team getting together, which connects the reader to the characters and makes the things happening to them even more terrifying. I overall enjoyed the cast and their dynamics a lot!

It did leave me with a whole bunch of questions, mainly surrounding the exact timeline of some events, as well as the whys and hows, but overall I did not find my suspense of disbelief broken.

I received an ARC and reviewed honestly and voluntarily.

[Lori · Rating 3 out of 5]

Phew! Viral erotica anyone?

I love Sarah Gailey. I’ve genuinely enjoyed everything I’ve read by them, and this book was one of my most anticipated of the year. But… it’s uhm… a little too kinky for me. And if you read the title and jacket copy closely, you’ll see they’re not exactly hiding it.

This one’s far steamier than Gailey’s previous work—but in the strangest ways. Set at a remote research station in the middle of a desert, in a near-future world reeling from yet another pandemic, Kinsey and her team make a thrilling, and deeply unsettling, discovery: there’s life out there in the sand. And now that it’s been disturbed, it’s looking for a way in… and it’s fixated on Kinsey.

It doesn’t help that the virus has an uncanny ability to mimic and replicate. Before long, the team begins to suspect that one—or all—of them have become infected.

Expect heavy nods to The Thing, a generous helping of masturbation, and some truly inventive body horror. It’s weird, it’s wild, and it’s definitely not shy.

I feel like the marketing team missed out on a great tagline (coughcough). "It wants in. And it's learning how to turn you on."

[jess · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sometimes, when you are finally faced with your deepest, darkest desires, it can be simultaneously amazing and absolutely horrific.

In Spread Me, scientist Kinsey has landed her dream job leading a small research team in the remote reaches of the desert. Things quickly change when a strange specimen is discovered in the sand, and the unusual decision is made to bring it into the research station. When members of the small group begin to get sick, Kinsey is forced to face much more than just the threat of a novel illness.

Truly, this one is for the true freaks, and I can't lie that I fully loved this absolutely bonkers erotic horror even if it did hit uncomfortably close to home as a virologist. The audiobook production is excellent, and the narrator Xe Sands does a great job giving voice to the eclectic group of desert researchers.

Many thanks to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for providing me with an ALC in exchange for my honest review.

[Kat · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my anticipated new releases for this year. In Spread Me, biologist Kinsey is the lead of a close-knit team in a remote desert monitoring station. When Kinsey breaks quarantine by bringing a mysterious specimen into the lab, the team finds out too late that it's a parasite seeking a new host...

This novella is a testament to Gailey's ability to commit to the bit. It reads like erotica designed for a very specific fetish--namely the protagonist's, as a microbiologist who solely masturbates to an artsy electron microscope image of a virus. Spread Me is about Kinsey's desire to be invaded and utterly obliterated by a virus, and the horror of forbidden attraction: her darkest secret is that she wants to be infected by The Thing. Gailey does an excellent job at viscerally portraying a rather abstract monstrous attraction, which is not an easy thing to pull off, and I never doubted it for a second.

A dark and sexually charged horror novella which doesn't outstay its welcome at a brisk two hundred pages. Due to being mostly about freaky sex, this won't be a good fit for everyone, but I expect it will be a big hit with certain parts of Tumblr.

[Alicia · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars. This was such a weird book for the true freaks. 6 people in a remote research pod in the desert. They discover a strange creature in the sand, Kinsey, feels drawn to it and decides to break quarentine to examine it. Think a virus that makes you so horny you can’t handle it. This was creepy and the isolation part made it that much more intense. I did an audiobook and really enjoyed it. As always thank you Macmillan Audio for the earc.

[Teeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have not stopped thinking about this book for an entire month and for that alone it deserves five stars