What Feeds Below

Instant USA Today Bestseller and Indie Bestseller

STARRED PUBLISHERS WEEKLY REVIEW: "Astounding, inventive."

STARRED KIRKUS REVIEW: "Lush and innovative worldbuilding, gruesome body horror . . . A nail-biting tale set in a beautifully rendered world of darkness and danger"

The darkness isn’t empty. It’s hungry.

At the edge of the City of the Void, a massive chasm extends miles into the earth, its treacherous terrain overrun with vicious monsters and carnivorous plants. For orphaned best friends Petra and Jade, guiding treasure-seeking tourists down into the Void is the only way to earn enough to pull themselves up out of the slums for good.

Petra prefers to play it safe and take jobs only in the Void’s upper levels, where the dangers are better understood, while Jade wants to risk a descent to the deepest and most mysterious Sixth Layer. Because the deeper they go, the better the payout, and the sooner their dreams can become reality. Their friendship is Petra’s whole world, and Jade’s approval means everything—so Petra agrees to do it Jade’s way.

When their job goes wrong and Jade is lost in the Void, Petra must plunge deeper than she’s ever dared to save her friend. But she doesn’t know the truth of the Void . . . or what really waits for her in its depths.

"This gory novel moves at a fast pace, and its strengths include its lush and innovative worldbuilding, gruesome body horror, and unflinching commitment to the bleakness of its narrative. A nail-biting tale set in a beautifully rendered world of darkness and danger."—Kirkus, *Starred Review*

"Intricate worldbuilding and astounding, inventive horror elements distinguish this immersive dystopian fantasy novel... a gruesome, standout portrait of survival."—Publishers Weekly, *Starred Review*

"Gory, claustrophobic, and very dark—this is a book best read in sunlit places, breathing fresh air, under an unobstructed blue sky."—Nick Cutter, bestselling author of The Troop and The Deep

"Lush, terrifying, and utterly consuming. What Feeds Below is a fever-dream descent into a world where wonder and horror share the same breath. Schlote-Bonne crafts a friendship as fierce as the abyss is hungry, asking how far we''ll go for love—and what we''re willing to become in the dark."—Aiden Thomas, New York Times bestselling author of The Sunbearer duology

"A gorgeously vivid and viciously entrancing nightmare of a story that had me hooked. With fantastical toxic plants, horrifying monsters, and a high-stakes quest, it''s the perfect mix of surreal, addictive, and creepy. A must read for anyone obsessed with botanical horror."—CG Drews, New York Times bestselling author of Don''t Let the Forest In and Hazelthorn

"Dense, disturbing, and disgusting, this manages to be entirely new and horrifically familiar at the same time. It was exactly the length it needed to be, and yet I can''t help hoping for a return to the Void to see what other terrors might be waiting in its depths. This is something that I just read, and I hope the author is prepared to come and rock me to sleep tonight."—Mira Grant, New York Times bestselling author of Overgrowth

"Tatiana Schlote-Bonne is a horror-genre alchemist, a mixologist able to blend together niche subgenres and cultural hyperfixations to create wildly satisfying stories that hit on so many levels. What Feeds Below is a horror-fantasy hybrid centering an opposites-attract friend dynamic, plunging the characters into an anime-style quest set in a horror landscape with high-fantasy elements. This is addictive brain candy. I could live in this book."—Sadie Hartmann, Bram Stoker Award