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ITCH!

Josie finds an ant-infested corpse near her hometown and fears something has burrowed beneath her skin. A masked predator prowls the woods as she investigates an old mystery.

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Something moves on the forest floor . . .

Josie is at rock bottom. Burned out and heartbroken, she lives a haunted existence after returning to her isolated hometown on the edge of the Forest of Dean.

When she stumbles across a decaying, ant-infested body in the woods, Josie plummets into a downward spiral, facing uncomfortable truths about the victim and her own past - all whilst battling an infestation that seems to have burrowed into her mind . . . and her flesh.

Desperate for absolution, Josie scratches the surface of an age-old mystery - a masked predator stalks the forest around Ellwood, a place deeply gripped by folklore. So when the village prepares for its annual festival, and Josie gets closer and closer to unveiling a monster, she begins to ask herself:

Are these dark crawling insects leading her to uncover the truth? . . . Or is she their next victim?

First published: 2025
Publisher: Hodder
Pages: 352
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Book tags

Content warnings

No content warnings are recorded. Missing warnings do not mean the book is warning-free.

Horror profile

Scary: 3 out of 5
Creepy: 4 out of 5
Gore: 4 out of 5
Disturbing: 4 out of 5
Weird: 3 out of 5

How we calculate this

These are editorial estimates of intensity, informed by reading and review evidence, then checked before publication. They aren't star ratings, reader-vote averages or a measure of quality.

Each dimension runs from 1 (low) to 5 (exceptionally intense). A 5 is reserved for strongly consistent evidence. People experience horror differently.

Scary: Fear, tension and immediate threat.
Creepy: Unease, dread and an uncanny atmosphere.
Gore: Graphic injury, blood and bodily detail.
Disturbing: Upsetting ideas and lingering psychological impact.
Weird: Surreal, strange and reality-bending elements.

We draw a filled profile only when all five scores have been reviewed. Unrated does not mean mild. Missing scores are not estimated from genre tags or your saved taste. This profile isn't a complete content-warning guide.