A claustrophobic slice of domestic horror… <b>With impressive economy and hurtling intensity,</b> <i>Woodworm</i> emits a howl of fury against entrenched inequality and enforced servitude, and the constraints they place on working-class women

Times Literary Supplement

<b>A house of women and shadows, built from poetry and revenge. </b>Layla Martínez’s <b>tense, chilling</b> novel tells a story of specters, class war, violence and loneliness, as naturally as if the witches had dictated this lucid, terrible nightmare to Martínez themselves.

- Mariana Enriquez, author of OUR SHARE OF THE NIGHT,

A modern fairytale.

Harper's Bazaar

If you’re in the mood to read a story about a haunted house that will make your skin crawl, then I cannot recommend <i>Woodworm </i>enough. <b>This book has everything</b>, from witches to saints to angels that look like praying mantises to some of the most unsettling portrayals of ghosts that I’ve come across in a long time.

Polygon

Martinez’s debut novel<b> takes cabin fever to the max </b>in this story of a grandmother, granddaughter, and their haunted house, set against the backdrop of the Spanish Civil War. As the story unfolds, so do the house’s secrets, the two women must learn to collaborate with the malevolent spirits living among them.

The Millions

<b>A sophisticated ghost story</b>…breathes new life into the classic haunted house motif through Martinez's vivid exploration of generational trauma, violence, misogyny, and class. Readers won’t soon forget this striking tale.

Publishers Weekly

Martínez’s prose is fairly straightforward with a menacing snarl.…There are interesting dynamics simmering underneath, not least the palpable sense of inherited trauma and the oppressive nature of inequality.…<b>A ghost story buried in a family closet laden with skeletons and sins.</b>

Kirkus Reviews

It <b>pounces on us from the first line and doesn’t let go until the last</b>, if it lets go. The Gothic revival continues to expand and produce great works.

- Edmundo Paz Soldán, author of NORTE,

<i>Woodworm </i>is a true literary event.

- Belén Gopegui, author of STAY THIS DAY AND NIGHT WITH ME,

This book is <b>the revenge of an intergenerational wound, the embrace of barbarity, the loss of morals when trying to protect your loved ones</b>. This book is the miserable and the wretched saying ‘enough is enough.’

- Alana S. Portero, author of BAD HABIT,