[REVIEW] Dear Laura – by Gemma Amor

5 / 5

Quid pro quo, you suffer, I suffer…

Rather suddenly, Gemma Amor – author of 2018’s Cruel Works of Nature – has released a short novella circling our addiction to answers. On a personal level, this alone speaks to me deeply, as I am also the kind of person to obsess on the “why” of things. As such, Dear Laura immediately had me hooked, sitting upright or twisting in place (squirming for release, if you will), as I eagerly followed the story along. It’s suspenseful, disturbing, and absolutely realistic (making the tale even more haunting); these things happen and more regularly than we care to admit. People of this grotesque nature surround us, and it’s fucking terrifying to spare it thought.

Dear Laura had me breathless, compelled, and clammy from start to finish. My hunger for another Amor release was palpable – having found Cruel Works of Nature to be one of the best collections I’ve yet to read – so maybe some of that excitement spilled over here. But if so, then shouldn’t I have felt some sort of disappointment, as is my desires hadn’t been met? The answer is a firm NO; Dear Laura is a fantastic observation into the mind of someone in suffering, tortured by the person withholding the answers they desperately crave.

Dear Laura seals it for me – Gemma Amor is the new shit, and I mean that positively. If you haven’t read her yet, you have two excellent releases currently available (and two on the way this year yet). If you like King, Tremblay, Barton, or Kepnes, then you have even more reason to put her name in the search bar right away.

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