27/03/2026
Just finished Barnaby by Dillon Demaine and holy hell… what a nightmare.
This book starts like a quiet, emotional family drama about a sick child and a desperate mother buying an old teddy bear in a creepy coastal shop… and then it slowly, relentlessly descends into one of the most viscerally disturbing body-horror stories I’ve read in years. The way the house itself becomes infected, the flaying scenes, the “unzipping” of skin, the grafting, the stolen voices; it’s all described with such sickening, tactile detail that I had to put it down multiple times just to breathe.
Barnaby isn’t just a cursed toy. It’s a predator that wants to wear your family like a skin suit and call it “love.” The final chapters in the kitchen are absolutely brutal.
If you love slow-burn cosmic/body horror with zero mercy (think early Clive Barker mixed with The House That Jack Built levels of grotesquery), this one is for you. Extremely well-written and deeply upsetting in the best way.
5/5 will probably never look at an old stuffed animal the same again. 🧸💀
