As you should be aware by now, we’re currently co-sponsoring a horror contest with Inkshares aimed at discovering the next great horror novelists. We’re quickly approaching 80 submissions and are still hoping to break 100 this month.

In the meantime, Inkshares has announced the publication of Zac Thompson’s dystopian horror novel Weaponized on Halloween 2017 (Tuesday, October 31st), and you can learn more about it below.

Weaponized was the winner of the 2016 Crypt TV horror fiction contest. For fans of Clive Barker, David Cronenberg, and films like It Follows, Weaponized is a Kafka-esque Eighties throwback horror novel that subverts the slasher genre with a refreshing take on body horror and the twisted, violent, burgeoning sexuality that underpins the genre. It is the debut novel of Zac Thompson, a writer from Prince Edward Island. He is best known for his critically acclaimed comic book series The Dregs.

You can pre-order Weaponized here.

Synopsis:

Truog Island is a desolate place where sexual activity is outlawed. There lives Trip Yash, bored out of his mind. That was, until he met Cron…

After a night of passion, Cron disappears, taking Trip’s virginity with him. A few days later Trip develops a rash on his hand that eventually blooms into a gun made from his own flesh. It’s not long before Trip becomes a living weapon locked in a battle against an ancient virus that threatens to ruin his island home. As his body continues to change, terrifying forces emerge with the power to weaponize the dead.

Weaponized is a nerve-shattering exploration of sexual identity and people’s strange relationship with tools of death. It is a Kafka-esque horror take on sexual orientation and sexually transmitted infections and how we villainize those who are different.