A Dark, Twisted Desert Find
3 out of 5 stars
Spread Me by Sarah Gailey (Narrated by Xe Sands) is one of those books where the title piques your curiosity, and the story takes you places you never quite expect. It’s creepy, atmospheric, and more than a little weird… in a way that pushes you out of your comfort zone but keeps you hooked.
Kinsey, as the lead character, is infuriating in that classic horror-movie fashion where you’re yelling at the screen not to do the thing you know they’re about to do. At times redeemable, at times maddening, she made for a tense listening experience.
What really kept me in it, though, was Xe Sands. She kills it here. Even within the first few seconds, she gives Kinsey such warmth and familiarity that I felt like I liked her, long before Kinsey herself started spiraling into terrible choices. Sands’s narration elevates the eerie tension and makes this short, unsettling story even more compelling.
The book straddles an odd line between macabre horror and something edging into splatterpunk mixed with erotica. That mix made it a wild, unsettling ride that I ended up finishing in one sitting.
If I had one gripe, it’s that the worldbuilding felt vague. I kept wanting to know more about the research station, the desert, and the strange specimen’s origins, but instead, the focus zeroed in on the consuming temptation at its core. That’s a me problem, though, it just means I’m showing my bias for the kind of sci-fi horror I prefer.
All in all, I flew through it, consumed it in one sitting, and it left me unsettled. All the things you want from a good book.
Book Description:
Spread Me is a darkly seductive tale of survival from Sarah Gailey, bestselling author of Just Like Home. A routine probe at a research station turns deadly when the team discovers a strange specimen in search of a warm place to stay.
“Creepy and atmospheric, Xe Sands’s narration perfectly matches this ethereal yet harrowing story.”—AudioFile on Just Like Home
Kinsey has the perfect job as the team lead in a remote research outpost. She loves the isolation and the way the desert keeps temptations from the civilian world far out of reach.
When her crew discovers a mysterious specimen buried deep in the sand, Kinsey breaks quarantine and brings it inside. But the longer it’s there, 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….
A Macmillan Audio production from Tor Nightfire
Spread Me by Sarah GaileyNarrator: Xe Sands
Length: 5 hrs and 11 mins
Published by Macmillan Audio on September 22nd 2025
Genres: Horror
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