Little Lugosi: A Love Story

From the author of Ape in the Ring and The Reattachment comes a tale of transgressive love and unnatural birth. When Madeline senses something missing from her life with Trevor, she tries to fill the gulf between them by ordering a leech from a medical supply company. Troubled by this new pet and the special feedings it requires, Trevor must also deal with his co-worker's Ahab-like obsession with killing a monstrous pig, a creature of myth known as "The Minister." Finding this creature brings Trevor to a reckoning with the truth behind the arcane beliefs and practices of a lost cult, as well as the meaning behind problems much closer to home. With undertones of folk horror, Little Lugosi: A Love Story, is a bizarro odyssey of blood and other bodily fluids.

"Little Lugosi is probably the sickest leech story ever written - as hilariously wrong as you'd expect in the hands of Douglas Ford - but the premise delivers so much more. Ford's plot is bizarrely riveting, as the author splashes as playful as a satanically-possessed piglet in the dark, bloody waters of neo-folk horror, spiraling deeper and darker than you'll want to go, but oh you will join him in the forest of gloom. The Minister beckons...dare you pray?" - Michael Arnzen, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Play Dead and Grave Markings

Winner of the Literary Nasties Long Fiction Award, 2023