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Helpmeet Paperback – May 24, 2022

by Naben Ruthnum (Author)
3.6 3.6 out of 5 stars 815 ratings
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It's 1900, and Louise Wilk is taking her dying husband home to Buffalo where he grew up. Dr. Edward Wilk is wasting away from an aggressive and debilitating malady. But it's becoming clearer that his condition isn't exactly a disease, but a phase of existence that seeks to transform and ultimately possess him.

“At the bitter end of the 19th century, a loyal wife cares tenderly for her dissolute husband as he nears his death from a mysterious, gruesomely corrosive disease. Helpmeet by Naben Ruthnum is a sumptuous excursion into surreal body horror and an unsparing exploration of the extreme frontiers of connubial devotion. Ruthnum delivers a uniquely unsettling Gothic love story—and it is first and foremost a love story—evoking the grisly Edwardian tales of W.W. Jacobs, William Hope Hodgson and Algernon Blackwood, while drawing in such modern masters as Barker, Del Toro and Cronenberg. Brief enough to be read in an evening, it holds certain images so grotesque that they will linger in your dreams for weeks.”
- David Demchuk, Award-winning author of The Bone Mother, and RED X

Naben Ruthnum is the author of Curry: Eating, Reading, and Race and A Hero of Our Time. He also writes thrillers as Nathan Ripley. His short fiction has won the Journey Prize and a National Magazine Award.

“Naben Ruthnum’s Helpmeet is a remarkable throwback. The style, the precise prose, the lush imagery, the dreadful sense of wheels turning just past the reader's sightline—I devoured it in a few delighted hours and it took me back to my teenage years, to afternoons squirreled away in the corner of my local library reading Clark Ashton Smith, Robert Chambers, Algernon Blackwood and the other great elder wordsmiths I cut my horror teeth on.”
- Craig Davidson, Author of The Saturday Night Ghost Club

“An everyday tragedy spirals into a medical mystery and then into something much darker and more disquieting, executed in prose that glitters like candlelight on an open wound. I loved this intensely claustrophobic study of a complicated marriage twisting itself into something monstrous.”
- Premee Mohamed, Author of the Beneath the Rising Trilogy

“In a wholly unique spot between the New York society novels of Henry James and Edith Wharton and the best body horror of David Cronenberg lurks the strange, disturbing and ultimately transcendent novella Helpmeet. Naben Ruthnum’s pitch-perfect pastiche is as all-consuming as the disease at its heart, a fever dream of a story as original, elegantly written and chilling as anything I’ve read in recent memory.”
- Pasha Malla, Author of Fugue States, and Kill the Mall

“Naben Ruthnum’s succinctly brilliant Helpmeet finds the thin line between intimacy and body horror, and blurs it to create a unique love story that is as moving as it is disturbing.”
- Indrapramit Das, Author of The Devourers
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Previous page
  1. Print length
    90 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publication date
    May 24, 2022
  4. Dimensions
    5.5 x 0.23 x 8.5 inches
  5. ISBN-10
    1988964385
  6. ISBN-13
    978-1988964386
  7. See all details
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Popular Highlights in this book
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Previous page
  1. That was my first power over him: that I knew that, knew his nature, while he still had to discover it.
    Highlighted by 137 Kindle readers
  2. Edward only knew the deep complaints of his entire dying body, an intermittent throbbing beacon calling death. It wasn’t pain as he had conceived of it in his career, Edward told Louise: not pain as a warning, but pain as a lament.
    Highlighted by 88 Kindle readers
  3. But she never tended to anyone who mattered, until she married someone who did.
    Highlighted by 81 Kindle readers
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"A grotesquely beautiful, deeply unsettling, and utterly beguiling Kafkaesque novella ... A reading experience that will linger long after the final page is turned."- Starred Review, Library Journal

"An odd, mysterious and at times revolting medley of body horror and weird fiction."


    Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Author of Mexican Gothic, and Velvet Was the Night.

    "Through hauntingly concise prose,     Helpmeet both acutely disturbs and captivates. This outstanding novella is a morbidly engrossing exploration of moral and physical decay and the shifting boundaries of love and devotion. The tight, incisive narrative is a chilling dive into mysterious forces that transcend the basic binary of good and evil, and the inherent depravity that humans themselves can't comprehend until it's too late." - Waubgeshig Rice, Author of Moon of the Crusted Snow

    "Naben Ruthnum's     Helpmeet is a remarkable throwback. The style, the precise prose, the lush imagery, the dreadful sense of wheels turning just past the reader's sightline-I devoured it in a few delighted hours and it took me back to my teenage years, to afternoons squirreled away in the corner of my local library reading Clark Ashton Smith, Robert Chambers, Algernon Blackwood and the other great elder wordsmiths I cut my horror teeth on."- Craig Davidson, Author of The Saturday Night Ghost Club

    "At the bitter end of the 19th century, a loyal wife cares tenderly for her dissolute husband as he nears his death from a mysterious, gruesomely corrosive disease.     Helpmeet by Naben Ruthnum is a sumptuous excursion into surreal body horror and an unsparing exploration of the extreme frontiers of connubial devotion. Ruthnum delivers a uniquely unsettling Gothic love story-and it is first and foremost a love story-evoking the grisly Edwardian tales of W.W. Jacobs, William Hope Hodgson and Algernon Blackwood, while drawing in such modern masters as Barker, Del Toro and Cronenberg. Brief enough to be read in an evening, it holds certain images so grotesque that they will linger in your dreams for weeks."- David Demchuk, Award-winning author of The Bone Mother, and RED X

    "An everyday tragedy spirals into a medical mystery and then into something much darker and more disquieting, executed in prose that glitters like candlelight on an open wound. I loved this intensely claustrophobic study of a complicated marriage twisting itself into something monstrous." -     Premee Mohamed, Author of the Beneath the Rising Trilogy

    About the Author

    Naben Ruthnum is the author of "A Hero of Our Time," and "Curry: Eating, Reading, and Race." He lives in Toronto and also writes thrillers as Nathan Ripley.

    Product details

    • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Undertow Publications (May 24, 2022)
    • Language ‏ : ‎ English
    • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 90 pages
    • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1988964385
    • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1988964386
    • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 4.5 ounces
    • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.23 x 8.5 inches
    • Customer Reviews:
      3.6 3.6 out of 5 stars 815 ratings

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    Customer reviews

    3.6 out of 5 stars
    3.6 out of 5
    815 global ratings
    Memorable Gothic Body Horror
    5 Stars
    Memorable Gothic Body Horror
    It’s the year 1900 and a nurse named Louise Wilk is traveling with her terminally ill husband to his childhood home. Louise’s husband is being consumed by a mysterious illness but is it more than meets the eye?Helpmeet is a fast uppercut of a body horror novella that I recommend to those not easily sickened by gross body horror — especially those with a fear of weird diseases. At its core, it explores themes of love and devotion in the framework of gothic body horror. It cuts surprisingly deep.A memorable read. Gross. Weird. Gory. Bizarre. And meditative in the end. I recommend this unique little novella. I read it in one sitting and it played out like an engrossing film.
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    Top reviews from the United States

    rosie
    3.0 out of 5 stars Loved the first half!
    Reviewed in the United States on March 26, 2024
    Verified Purchase
    The first half was great! Every chapter I read was like “EXCUSE ME WHAT!?” But then it gets weird and really confusing like the last 2 or 3 chapters. Mostly because I thought this was gonna be more of a realistic horror fiction that was just about people, I wasn’t really looking for a monster book or whatever this was lol. Not a bad book but I was a little disappointed.
    Helpful
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    Tadd Mecham
    4.0 out of 5 stars Gruesome
    Reviewed in the United States on February 18, 2024
    Verified Purchase
    The rare book that manages to feel both hopeless and hopeful, with an ending that is incredibly bizarre. A nice dose of body horror coupled with a controlled and elegant prose make the ideas in this short read resonate.
    Helpful
     Report
    Alexander
    5.0 out of 5 stars Short, chilling, fantastic.
    Reviewed in the United States on May 1, 2023
    Verified Purchase
    I quite enjoyed Helpmeet, I found it to be compelling and felt that the themes and topics it explored, while touched on perhaps only lightly due to the shortness of the story, were all intriguing and demonstrated depth and creativity.

    The main character's devotion and possessiveness, her husband's flawed nature and charm, they worked well together. I appreciated the distant, clinical take on the nature of their relationship, the events unfolding, and the horror that befalls their life together. So often we are forced into reading needless human drama. This was refreshing.
    One person found this helpful
    Helpful
     Report
    Heather Miller
    3.0 out of 5 stars Odd
    Reviewed in the United States on March 22, 2024
    Verified Purchase
    I just don't know what to think about this book. It wasn't a terrible read or anything, but at the end, I'm just kind of left thinking, "Huh." I don't regret reading it, but I'm not sure I'd sign off on recommending it.
    Helpful
     Report
    Alexandra Butterworth
    4.0 out of 5 stars Quick and Creepy
    Reviewed in the United States on April 26, 2024
    Verified Purchase
    A good short gothic horror story. The only reason it isn't 5 stars is because it was a little hard to comprehend at the end. I feel like it could have been described or explained a little better. Overall though, well worth the read.
    Helpful
     Report
    Kris Valentine
    2.0 out of 5 stars Very strange story...
    Reviewed in the United States on March 2, 2023
    Verified Purchase
    This was an incredibly fast read; I bought it based on a review in the newspaper that it was a riveting tale of horror but in the end it disappointed. Weird story that was hard to follow - started off well but veered off into the supernatural.
    4 people found this helpful
    Helpful
     Report
    Justin Day
    5.0 out of 5 stars Memorable Gothic Body Horror
    Reviewed in the United States on December 31, 2023
    Verified Purchase
    It’s the year 1900 and a nurse named Louise Wilk is traveling with her terminally ill husband to his childhood home. Louise’s husband is being consumed by a mysterious illness but is it more than meets the eye?

    Helpmeet is a fast uppercut of a body horror novella that I recommend to those not easily sickened by gross body horror — especially those with a fear of weird diseases. At its core, it explores themes of love and devotion in the framework of gothic body horror. It cuts surprisingly deep.

    A memorable read. Gross. Weird. Gory. Bizarre. And meditative in the end. I recommend this unique little novella. I read it in one sitting and it played out like an engrossing film.
    Customer image
    Justin Day
    5.0 out of 5 stars Memorable Gothic Body Horror
    Reviewed in the United States on December 31, 2023
    It’s the year 1900 and a nurse named Louise Wilk is traveling with her terminally ill husband to his childhood home. Louise’s husband is being consumed by a mysterious illness but is it more than meets the eye?

    Helpmeet is a fast uppercut of a body horror novella that I recommend to those not easily sickened by gross body horror — especially those with a fear of weird diseases. At its core, it explores themes of love and devotion in the framework of gothic body horror. It cuts surprisingly deep.

    A memorable read. Gross. Weird. Gory. Bizarre. And meditative in the end. I recommend this unique little novella. I read it in one sitting and it played out like an engrossing film.
    Images in this review
    Customer image
    Customer image
    Helpful
     Report
    Angelique
    1.0 out of 5 stars I don’t know
    Reviewed in the United States on December 27, 2023
    Verified Purchase
    I don’t know what I just read. I couldn’t even stay focused it’s a short story but very boring and I just skimmed the last chapter. I don’t even know what happened to be honest. It was all over the place I couldn’t even visualize what I was reading most of the time. And now oven roasted chicken is ruined for me. Iykyk
    Helpful
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    Top reviews from other countries

    Amazon Customer
    3.0 out of 5 stars Odd, unsettling
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 12, 2024
    Verified Purchase
    Others may actively like this story - it is well written and has a macabre plot (although it is more about atmosphere than plot). Ultimately I didn't think it had enough in its few characters to create empathy. The female lead is too noble, the husband too thinly drawn. The description of the husband's illness is unsettling but the denouement wasn't satisfactory for me. But that is only my take.
    Report
    K Green
    3.0 out of 5 stars So close, no cigar
    Reviewed in Australia on March 14, 2023
    Verified Purchase
    I wish it had ended 20 pages earlier than it did. It was so close to being perfect but the final twist was just a twist too far for me. The last reveal moved away from cool/interesting ideas into really dull, played out, ones.
    One person found this helpful
     Report
    MLH
    5.0 out of 5 stars 😳😳😳😳
    Reviewed in Canada on October 12, 2023
    Verified Purchase
    This book is wild from the start and gets progressively more disturbing. Outstanding!
    Report
    David Slater
    5.0 out of 5 stars Why's it called Helpmeet?
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 20, 2024
    Verified Purchase
    Helpmeet by Naben Ruthnum

    4.5/5

    Here's my spoiler free review of Helpmeet.

    This novella feels like Shirley Jackson having a bunk up with David Cronenberg in the supply room at an office Christmas party.

    It's full of dread and creaking, seeping, oozing weeping existential misery that feels both fantastical and painfully true to life.

    You don't want to be anyone in this story, but you almost certainly will. There's something so menacholy in caring for someone who's reached their end of life. Yet, that's scary too, because we hate to be reminded of the fragility of life.

    The prose is gorgeous and to be honest wouldn't be out of place in an Oscar Wilde book. It reads like something of its time, rather than something portraying a time period.

    So why did I have to keep back half a star? The ending. I'm afraid it didn't end quite how I'd hoped it would. I don't know exactly what I wanted from it and frankly, I wouldn't tell you if I did.

    It's still an excellent read and I can't wait to make people read it.
    Report
    Mac
    3.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful but not enough.
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 24, 2023
    Verified Purchase
    I don't really know how I feel about this one, and I'm honestly not sure how to rate it. I feel like anything more than 3 stars is too much, but at the same time I think this deserves better.

    This story was beautifully written, the story flowed well, it was strange and weird in all the right ways. But I found it so, I don't know, boring I guess. There just wasn't enough of a push in the horror direction for this to really hit hard enough.

    Worth a read, especially with how short it is, but needed more.
    Report