Kindle
$9.99
Available instantly
Audible Logo Audiobook
$0.00
with membership trial
Hardcover
from $114.99
Paperback
$10.96
Buy new:
-27% $10.96
FREE delivery Monday, May 13 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Ships from: Amazon
Sold by: WildeWestMercantile
$10.96 with 27 percent savings
List Price: $14.95

The List Price is the suggested retail price of a new product as provided by a manufacturer, supplier, or seller. Except for books, Amazon will display a List Price if the product was purchased by customers on Amazon or offered by other retailers at or above the List Price in at least the past 90 days. List prices may not necessarily reflect the product's prevailing market price.
Learn more
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns
FREE delivery Monday, May 13 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Or fastest delivery Wednesday, May 8. Order within 22 hrs 54 mins
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
$$10.96 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$10.96
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Ships from
Amazon
Ships from
Amazon
Returns
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Read full return policy
Returns
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Read full return policy
Payment
Secure transaction
Your transaction is secure
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
Payment
Secure transaction
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
$9.99
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns
Book is in good condition and may include underlining highlighting and minimal wear. The book can also include "From the library of" labels. May not contain miscellaneous items toys, dvds, etc. . We offer 100% money back guarantee and 24 7 customer service. Free 2-day shipping with Amazon Prime! Book is in good condition and may include underlining highlighting and minimal wear. The book can also include "From the library of" labels. May not contain miscellaneous items toys, dvds, etc. . We offer 100% money back guarantee and 24 7 customer service. Free 2-day shipping with Amazon Prime! See less
FREE delivery Monday, May 13 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Or fastest delivery Wednesday, May 8. Order within 22 hrs 54 mins
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
$$10.96 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$10.96
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.
Amazon book clubs early access
Loading your book clubs
There was a problem loading your book clubs. Please try again.
Not in a club? Learn more
Amazon book clubs early access

Join or create book clubs

Choose books together

Track your books
Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.
Explore Amazon Book Clubs
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the author

Naomi Booth
Follow
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

Sealed Paperback – July 2, 2019

by Naomi Booth (Author)
3.9 3.9 out of 5 stars 150 ratings
See all formats and editions
{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$10.96","priceAmount":10.96,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"10","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"96","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"YlOBjPHePfs5lHHa%2Fn0t2JIADu5MRlo0cJa4BSLZmEUhbjL%2BjkQcIJABL%2FlAjDLCxDazP8Yqa6HJFq%2FGmBTMUxNKArNqDBbb2MihF%2F6XCeWcXJaXtCbzPpVNP7habCj6makSu3t43RX%2BKcvKJYYt%2F3FDmol3xGUJjSY8aaJKJhHyagB%2FYWLZ2I%2Fr24SBZXbG","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}, {"displayPrice":"$9.99","priceAmount":9.99,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"9","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"99","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"YlOBjPHePfs5lHHa%2Fn0t2JIADu5MRlo0bDt9C1rq%2FgWG2h8AJyy%2BtmiW63VSZZniQAtH5DsbU4Lj0f%2Fd%2B%2BVdfuPuS%2Bf6wbsklAEEy4e5aLhNc6G9BY2shmMWuCE0Cdk5aEZwe%2Ff%2F02p0FUd7MGWL7YLLW3Cllc8yrOrYtRO2tUG%2FlsW17gm%2FMmt4EnKA51vf","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":1}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

Sealed is a gripping modern fable on motherhood, a terrifying portrait of ordinary people under threat from their own bodies

Heavily pregnant Alice and her partner Pete are done with the city. Alice is haunted by rumors of a skin-sealing epidemic starting to infect the urban population. She hopes their new remote mountain house will offer safety, a place to forget the nightmares and start their family. But the mountains and their people hold a different kind of danger. With their relationship under intolerable pressure, violence erupts and Alice is faced with the unthinkable as she fights to protect her unborn child.

Timely and suspenseful, Sealed is a gripping modern fable on motherhood, a terrifying portrait of ordinary people under threat from their own bodies and from the world around them.
Previous page
  1. Print length
    240 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Titan Books
  4. Publication date
    July 2, 2019
  5. Dimensions
    5.11 x 0.64 x 8.01 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1789091241
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1789091243
  8. See all details
Next page
The Amazon Book Review
The Amazon Book Review
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.

Frequently bought together

Sealed
$10.96
Get it as soon as Monday, May 13
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
Sold by WildeWestMercantile and ships from Amazon Fulfillment.
+
Fever Dream: A Novel
$10.69
Get it as soon as Monday, May 13
In Stock
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
+
Appleseed: A Novel
$12.99
Get it as soon as Sunday, May 12
Only 17 left in stock (more on the way).
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
Total price:
To see our price, add these items to your cart.
Details
Added to Cart
Some of these items ship sooner than the others.
Show details Hide details
Choose items to buy together.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Sealed refuses to be categorized: it is a pre-apocalyptic cautionary tale, an intense psychological thriller, a fable on motherhood, and pure body horror all wrapped in an unsettling package that will stay with readers long after they turn the final page." -- Booklist

“gloriously tense” - Barnes & Noble SFF Blog

"Horror doesn’t have to be over the top to be effective, and Booth’s measured approach brilliantly proves it." - Vol. 1 Brooklyn

“a disturbingly relevant story...of epidemics and the ways in which paranoia enables prejudice” - BookRiot

About the Author

Naomi Booth is a fiction writer and academic. Her novella, The Lost Art of Sinking, emerged from research into the literary history of swooning, and won the Saboteur Award for Best Novella 2016 as well as being selected for New Writing North's Read Regional campaign 2017. Her first novel, Sealed, is a gripping modern fable on motherhood. She is currently working on a new novel and collection of short stories, and an academic monograph on passing out.

In 2018 Naomi was named in the Guardian's 'Fresh Voices: 50 Writers to Read Now'. She was also picked for the 'Not the Booker' shortlist and was long-listed for the Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award.

Naomi grew up in West Yorkshire and now lives in York, where she lectures in Creative Writing and Literature at York St John University.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Titan Books (July 2, 2019)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 240 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1789091241
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1789091243
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 7.8 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.11 x 0.64 x 8.01 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.9 3.9 out of 5 stars 150 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Naomi Booth

Naomi Booth

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

Customer reviews

3.9 out of 5 stars
3.9 out of 5
150 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Elliot Harper
4.0 out of 5 stars A great read
Reviewed in the United States on May 9, 2020
Verified Purchase
A slow burn that’s build to an incredible climax. It’s blends body horror with psychological terror perfectly. The final chapters were genuine page turners.
Helpful
 Report
Kindle Customer
3.0 out of 5 stars I gotta tell ya ...
Reviewed in the United States on October 7, 2019
Verified Purchase
this protagonist is pretty loosely knit. She is unraveling through most of this novel. I tend to not particularly like people who can’t pick up a few stitches and pull themselves together. I do like books about the giant virus, germ, cough, or infection that is going to sneak up on us except for a chosen few. If you do too, you with like this story.
One person found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
andrew n-
3.0 out of 5 stars Average
Reviewed in the United States on July 15, 2019
Verified Purchase
A slog fest of banal details of characters i didnt really connect with. The pay off at the end only barely made it worth it.
Helpful
 Report
CKAg
2.0 out of 5 stars Didn't seem finished
Reviewed in the United States on April 14, 2021
Verified Purchase
This book read like a draft of a larger book for me. It was a horror but not a thriller or mystery because nothing is explained or resolved. The details felt misplaced. The credit I'll give is her ability to include current world problems.
Helpful
 Report
Mahathi
4.0 out of 5 stars Psychological thriller
Reviewed in the United States on March 30, 2020
Sealed is a psychological thriller. The suspense lies in many aspects - the plot, a disease with unknown reason, the narration of the story, the characters, the scenes, the environment etc., I really liked the narration. At a few places, the thoughts of the protagonist itself are spine chilling.

The story starts with Alice and Pete moving to the quiet mountain town away from city life, planning to start their new life with baby. But the fears of the past are not easy to forget.

Alice who used to work in a government office is haunted by the events, people and her investigations related to a disease 'Cutis' which seals some parts of the body making people die. The reason is not known, but Alice finds through her investigations that the disease might be due to air pollution, heat waves, chemicals etc., Wherever she goes, whatever she eats, she is concerned and scared about catching Cutis.

To add to the problems, she is heavily pregnant and there are no medical facilities in the place they move. Without even a working phone line or internet connection, she is isolated. Pete strikes off her anxiety as pregnancy hormones and she doesn't have anyone to clear her doubts about her current state of body and mind.

The story takes some unpredictable turns after this and there are shocking scenes in the climax. The ordeal she has to go through alone makes us numb with shock.

I liked the suspense and narration. I would have loved to read an epilogue or prologue about Cutis. If you love mystery and psychological fiction, you will love this.

My Rating : 4.5/ 5
Helpful
 Report
Brett Snyder
4.0 out of 5 stars Don’t read this book if you’re pregnant LOL
Reviewed in the United States on March 26, 2021
Found this book and bought it on a whim since the premise seemed interesting to me. A pregnant woman and her partner move to the mountains to escape the city, where a virus the seals the bodies orifices with more skin. This book is a slow burner but reads quickly, and the ending is quite explosive. The writing too is also really good in my opinion. Not sure why some people on here give her flak about that. Would definitely recommend checking this one out!
Helpful
 Report
Erika
3.0 out of 5 stars Three Stars
Reviewed in the United States on December 27, 2021
“I can still remember what it felt like to be that open, to be at that age when the world was new enough to be exciting, yet obscure enough not to be terrifying.” - Sealed.

Heavily pregnant Alice and her partner Pete are done with the city. Above all, Alice is haunted by the rumours of the skin sealing epidemic starting to infect the urban population. Surely their new remote mountain house will offer safety, a place to forget the nightmares and start their little family. But the mountains and their people hold a different kind of danger. With their relationship under intolerable pressure, violence erupts and Alice is faced with the unthinkable as she fights to protect her unborn child.

I don’t quite remember where I heard about this book, but I remember the synopsis grabbing my attention. Overall, it was a quick read about a couple who moves to a remote area due to a pandemic, but things aren’t as safe there as they seem. It was definitely a tense read and some parts were quite anxiety inducing. However, I could not stand the husband character in this book. I don’t think we were supposed to particularly like him, so the writing of his character was great, but it distracted me from other parts of the book. Also, I do wish we got a little more of the world and the state of things pandemic wise since I found it interesting. Overall, this is a unique book and is different than other pandemic-like books I have read. If you do pick this up, be aware that it gets a little gory towards the end, but not too much in my opinion.
Helpful
 Report
Ben F.
4.0 out of 5 stars Quiet, personal body horror
Reviewed in the United States on September 13, 2019
This book manages to be both gripping and quiet at the same time.

The setting is horrific. It's reality + a touch of sci-fi disaster + shocking body horror, all seen through one pregnant woman's experience.

I hated the characters I was supposed to, loved the main character, and got swept along the roller coaster of emotion in the climax.

(By the way, that's "body horror" as in Clive Barker or China Mieville, not SAW movie franchise torture porn "body horror.")
Helpful
 Report

Top reviews from other countries

Hilary Shepherd
4.0 out of 5 stars More than just a capable thriller
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 15, 2018
Verified Purchase
‘Sealed’ is set in Australia in a time to come but not so very far from where we are now, a time when all our present misdeeds are catching up with us.

Alice and her partner Pete are on the run from the horror of the new skin disease nobody will talk about, and the pollution that probably causes it. They run from the smog-shrouded city to the clean air of the sub-tropical mountains. Or is it clean? Have they merely run from one nightmare into another? Naomi Booth uses the heightened emotions of late pregnancy to powerful effect – the feeling of being taken over by an alien, the fear of corruption, the vulnerability of being too lumbering to run from danger – all this exacerbated by the fear of things outside herself, of the escalating heat of the sun and the risk of wildfires, and the hidden worry of poisoning by chemical pollution. On top of all this, the dread of your own body turning against you in the grip of this new disease, ‘cutis’, of eyes, ears or other orifices sealing over with crude growths of skin until you become blind or deaf, or asphyxiated, or starved. Or worse. This is not a book for the squeamish. Certainly not for the pregnant.
This could all make a very depressing read. Who wants to immerse themselves even deeper than we are already in everything going wrong and no solutions possible? But the writing is clear and powerful, and hypnotic, rising to a twist of an ending that is entirely believable.

My one quibble is the character of Pete. Booth has set herself the task of drawing his character entirely through Alice’s eyes and Alice’s eyes are not looking straight. There is a lot of warmth in this relationship, we do witness Pete’s loving protectiveness. It may have complex psychology in it and elements of muddle but I did believe in it. The trouble is, his character lacks depth and presence. We first meet him playing a part (loud affable guy in the hostile local bar) and he doesn’t really make his mark subsequently except in occasional glimpses. As a result he is not given enough substance to withstand the pressure of the storyline as it reaches its climax and this unbalances the ending of the book.

That said, ‘Sealed’ is a powerful read with a complexity of observation and an unexpected twist in the final pages that make it much more than just a capable but depressing thriller.
2 people found this helpful
 Report
Ted Curtis
5.0 out of 5 stars An all-too-credible set-up.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 2, 2019
Verified Purchase
In Sealed, Not the Booker nominee Naomi Booth presents us with an all too credible set-up, one that encompasses social commentary, environmental catastrophe, crap relationship diatribe, and sheer bloody horror. As heroine Alice’s racing thoughts overtake her, Sealed’s narrative accelerates to a breath-taking pace, the events leading up to the shocking denouement rapidly catching up with them.

Alice is a former housing officer in an unnamed Australian city. She’s recently lost her mother and is heavily pregnant; she doesn’t want to be, feels alienated within her own body, can’t imagine being a mother, it’s as if this is all happening to someone else. And she’s also thoroughly isolated from everyone and everything; there are intimations of an inability to make and keep friends, not quite expanded on. Together with partner Pete, she relocates out of the big city – almost to the bush – in order to escape the its toxicity, the civilisation she feels is poisoning us all, but finds instead a complete lack of social and practical infrastructure, a paucity of amenities (the hospital’s an hour’s drive away and they have no telephone). Everything in the world is as it is now, only a little bit worse; this is the best kind of dystopian fiction, one in which the reader inevitably feels grounded and trapped in the macro-events that will swallow us all up. There are unending extreme heat events, a government tending toward autocracy; corrupt displacement camps for migrants and internal refugees, run for profit by the private sector; an apathetic population, and a capricious media whose attention span easily matches that of its audience. Added to all this is the encroaching epidemic of the title, cutis. Cutis is a new phenomenon, one in which the skin grows over vital orifices to asphyxiate the victim, also fusing fingers and toes. Rudimentary cures are at first trumpeted as a triumph of man’s ingenuity, but are short-lived. The medical establishment is blasé about the spread of the disease – if only those dreadful poor people would look after themselves a little better, everything would be fine. Media interest quickly dissipates as the next story comes along. Alice encounters cutis via her work and, dismayed at the media’s rapid disinterest, starts blogging about it, a course of action which all but loses her her job. And so, they move. Surely the countryside will provide a relief from the horror, a fresh start?

Pete is a stereotypical Australian male, and the new friends he makes in the outback are the same or worse. Minimal time is spent on him because there’s little to observe: low level alcoholism, drugs, faithlessness, an aversion to work or any real responsibility; he likes a barbie and he likes to party. This leaves us only Alice and her isolation, her panic-stricken internal monologue, as real-world evidence incrementally stacks up to confirm her paranoia.

One does wonder occasionally about Alice’s freaking over almost every little facet of modern living – it almost puts one in mind of Polanski’s Repulsion; but no, that isn’t it. This is real. As with M Night Shyamalan’s The Happening, homo sapiens is a presented as a cancer visited upon the rest of the natural world, and the earth will protect itself any way it can; or maybe it’s just random, and we’ve had our time. I won’t give any more away. A great little read, five stars.
Report
Shells
3.0 out of 5 stars Weird.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 11, 2019
Verified Purchase
It was weird.
Weird.
Had a lot of potential I felt. But why the author felt they should focus on the couple the way they did, well I dont know.
The blurb kind of gave me the impression that when they reached their new home they would encounter some crazy towns folks. But...
I liked it. I hope the author revisits the world and gives the virus the book it deserves.
Report
Natalie Masento
4.0 out of 5 stars Gripping and disturbing
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 11, 2018
Verified Purchase
This book told a very simple yet troubling story. I wanted to jump into the book and rescue Alice from this world.
One person found this helpful
 Report
FionaT
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant - a story that will stay with you
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 20, 2018
Verified Purchase
My habit is to read before I go to sleep but this book demanded more attention than that (plus it might be tricky to sleep after reading this. A real page turner pulling you more and more into a future that is credible as we hurtle towards dystopia. Yet, like the very best of this genre, it is rooted in the familiar and it is in that plausibility that the horror lurks. This is a book you can just read for the sheer pleasure of reading - but it is a book to be read for the multi-layered demands it makes on us to question ourselves and our legacy, environmental, ideological, etc., and ask the question what responsibility do we have to each other and to our living, breathing world. Brilliant. (Declaration of interest - yes, I know the author. Makes no difference - this is a brilliant book).
2 people found this helpful
 Report