Review: Carnalis by Tiffany Morris - a horror novella

Genre: horror novella Published: Nictitating Books, March 1st 2026 My Rating: 4/5 stars

“Humans are meat that dreams. Impulses of flesh within flesh, sinew and gristle, movement and longing, electric and chemical signals that create an experience called human.”

There are a few tropes that I’d consider my “buzz-kill-words” in books. They are basically the opposite of buzz-words, meaning that if I hear your book contains one of these tropes, I will almost instantly lose interest. A few examples include “amnesia” for mystery, “fae” for fantasy and “cannibalism” for horror.

Carnalis therefore should’ve been a hard miss for me, but I’ll take the occasional risk for my favourite authors and am so happy I did in this case. Tiffany Morris, I think you’ve just written the first/only cannibal-horror-story that I love.

The Story:

In this horror novella we follow the toxic, codependent and potentially dangerous relationship between wealthy party-girl Lauren, and her underprivileged girlfriend Alex, a ballet-dancer recovering from a recent career-threatening injury. Increasingly codependent and toxic, their relationship spirals as Alex uncovers the truth about the exclusive dinner-parties Lauren hosts, and the coop she resources her “ethically sourced meat” from.

What I loved:

Tiffany Morris, in her signature lush, poetic and sensory prose, weaves a remarkably layered tale of consumption and hunger in its various forms, in just over 150 pages. She uses the cannibalism-trope as a vehicle to explore themes of social- racial and class-inequality, relational power dynamics, eating-disorders, the female body and obsession. Rather than becoming oversaturated, Morris makes these various themes sing synergistically into a balanced and impactful whole.

The story will take you on an emotional and sensory rollercoaster, ranging in tone from sexy to disgusting, and from unsettling to dreadful. All three classical pillars of fear (timor, terror, horror) are engaged. Specifically the tense dread and suspense kept me on the edge of my seat, as I finished this novella in a single sitting. A lot of that dread comes from the intimate way that Morris makes us inhabit the manipulative, obsessive and depraved mind of Lauren, giving the reader that feeling of watching a car-wreck happening in slow motion, from the perspective of the driver themselves.

Speaking of car-wrecks; without spoiling anything, I cannot stop thinking about that final scene...

If anything, this proves that in the hands (and words) of the correct author, you can make any trope work for me. Tiffany Morris surely proved herself to be such an author with this novella.

You can find this book here on Goodreads.