If the thought of a sapphic romance with a giant spider woman—in a creepy gothic mansion filled with tarantulas no less—doesn’t make you want to burn down said mansion and move to another country, then sit down on a tuffet, and let me tell you more about this novella by Argentine-Brazilian writer Hache Pueyo, who also translated it to English.

It tells the story of Dália who is one of the servants looking after Miss Anatema, the mistress of The Capricious House. She is not exactly what you would call a great boss, given that Dália gets promoted at the start of the book because Anatema eats her predecessor. Dália is given the job of solving a mysterious theft, and there’s a high chance of getting eaten herself if she fails to do so, or is too bold with her employer.

Anatema is only vaguely anthropomorphic in that her human face is surface level camouflage over so many teeth, and she generally has a greater number of limbs than is strictly necessary. Still, Dália is not as traumatised by all this as many would be, and what starts off as more of a predator and prey situation turns into something more caring.

Things move very quickly in the relatively small number of pages of the book, and I would have preferred more length to really sell Dália falling for Anatema. There’s a distinct power imbalance as well which is not remarked upon either. Regardless, I enjoyed the characters and setting a lot, and the writing is delightful even when people are munching away on fried spider legs, or corralling rogue tarantulas like escaped kittens.

Eight legs out of ten! Thanks to Tor for the early review copy.

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