The Beetles in The Walls: and other short stories and poems

My mattress,

Once soft and welcoming,

Now threatened to swallow me whole.
The finely aged wine I had had earlier
Curdled into a pool of acid

Deep at the bottom of my stomach.“

• ‘Hotel, ’ The Beetles in the Walls

Imagine for a second that you could taste words. Sounds strange, doesn’t it?

But imagine, for a moment, that you had the ability to taste words and you could get a taste of the words written in this book.

This book would taste exactly like dark chocolate, bitter and sweet at the same time.

Bittersweet.

The Beetles in the Walls is a compilation of fiction and poetry, dealing with a variety of nuanced, contemporary themes such as coming of age, self-identity and human relationships, which will resonate with teenagers and adults alike.

Filled with rebellious poetry, occasionally with underlying social commentary, and short fiction that allows you to step into the skins of various unusual characters-from a woman planning her husband’s murder to a teenager caught in a strange encounter on a midnight joyride as they navigate the complex underbelly of the human experience, The Beetles in the Walls is thrilling, thought-provoking, and of course, bittersweet.