Match BookThe Worm In Every Heart
Gemma Files
2006 · 278 pages · Horror
How it reads
The Worm In Every Heart is horror (literary horror, specifically), and its dominant mood is eerie. It's atmospheric and uncanny, with a sense that something is wrong. The pace is moderate — neither a page-turner nor a slow burn — so it holds up whether you read it in long sittings or short ones.
It's set in several locations, in no single period, told in the third person across several viewpoints. Its central concerns are identity, loss and grief and secrets. In weight it's heavy and literary — denser, more serious, and more demanding of you.
It stands alone, so there's nothing else you need to read first or after. The ending is left open, for you to argue about. At 278 pages it's a quick read. It's moderately known: read by plenty of people, but not a household name.
Pick it up if…
- you're in the mood for something eerie
- you want something to chew on
- you want a complete story in one book
Maybe not if…
- you need something cosy or heartwarming
All 15 dimensions
- Genre
- horror
- Author gender
- female
- Author experience
- established
- Setting: place
- multiple locations
- Setting: time
- timeless or multiple
- Mood / feeling
- eerie
- Pace
- moderate
- Tone / weight
- heavy and literary
- Length
- short
- Narrative style
- third person, several viewpoints
- Publication era
- modern classic
- Popularity
- moderately known
- Series vs standalone
- standalone
- Themes
- identity, loss and grief, secrets
- Ending style
- ambiguous
What these mean: the 15 dimensions of a book.
Books with a similar reading
The closest books in Match Book's catalogue across the same dimensions, and what they share.
- The Shadow at the Bottom of the WorldThomas LigottiShares: horror, eerie mood, heavy and literary tone, literary horror
- I'll Bring You the Birds from Out of the SkyBrian HodgeShares: horror, eerie mood, heavy and literary tone, literary horror
- The Ghost WomenJennifer MurphyShares: horror, eerie mood, heavy and literary tone, moderate pace
The drowning GirlCaitlín R. KiernanShares: horror, eerie mood, heavy and literary tone, ambiguous ending- The Wingspan of Severed HandsJoanna KochShares: horror, eerie mood, heavy and literary tone, ambiguous ending
- They Were Here Before Us: A Novella in PiecesEric LaRoccaShares: horror, eerie mood, heavy and literary tone, set in multiple locations
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