LIVING THINGS by Munir Hachemi

Translated by Julia Sanches

No horror is greater than the one firmly rooted in reality, where there are no jump scares and nothing you can easily dismiss as overtly fantastical. It’s why Misery is by far Stephen King’s best book (fight me, ItStanders). And while Living Things is not a horror story, as such, it is bloody scary in that what are we doing to our world, holy shit we’re all gonna die kind of way.

Four Spanish friends head to France for the grape harvest. They figure they’ll have some fun, earn easy money and enjoy the literal fruits of their labour. Upon their arrival, however, things take a turn for the weird and they end up employed by some creepy Monsantoesque super-corporation that treats their itinerant workers like crap and may well be up to some dastardly ecological terrorism. The glimpse we get into the industrial farming complex is nothing short of horrifying (kind of like Del Amo’s Animalia), and might have been oppressive if it weren’t for Hachemi’s engaging style. Flipping between angsty bravado, smart meta-textual digressions, and just plain fun banter, Living Things is a thoroughly entertaining novel that ushers in the end of the world with a shit-eating grin.

Living Things by Munir Hachemi (Tr. Julia Sanches)
Fitzcarraldo, 2024
114 pages