Canadian author Nick Cutter (aka Craig Davidson) really knows to deliver a tale that gets under your skin, and horrifies you, and he does it again with The Queen. Combining a coming-of-age tale with explicitly detailed body horror, this one was a page-turner from the beginning and is completely engrossing.

Cutter plunges readers right into it, opening the story almost at a truly disturbing climax. Delivering us a flashback, that begins a day earlier, Margaret Carpenter is battling depression following the disappearance of her best friend, Charity when the events of a high school party ended badly for her.

The town seems to have already let her disappearance as three young men have also disappeared. The same boys who were involved with Charity at the party.

Throw in a billionaire, Rudyard Crate, with horrific ideas and the money to make them happen, and you have a story that gets increasingly frightening as the reader delves deeper.

But, at its heart, it’s a tale of friendship, of growing up, growing apart. It puts one in mind of the line from Stand By Me, ‘I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone?’

Margaret and Charity know each other’s secrets, and have been through everything together, but Margaret is getting ready to leave town, a bright future ahead of her. Her family has gotten out of the trailer park, Charity is still there, and opportunity awaits.

But both women are going through changes, Charity’s just happens to be a lot scarier. But then again, aren’t all the changes we go through as teenagers scary? Life-changing?

I love how Cutter tells his story, compressing the entire narrative into two adrenaline-filled days, as Margaret begins receiving texts and .wav files that reveal everything that happened to Charity. With her friend Harry at her side, Margaret begins to discover what truly happened to her friend and St. Catherine’s, Ontario will never be the same.

And that’s the other thing! I loved how Cutter interwoven so many places, and names that are recognizable to Canadians.

Cutter’s tale is horrifying, brilliantly told, breathlessly paced, and taps into the innate fear that most people have when it comes to insects. And it works. It works so well. I loved The Troop, but The Queen tops that, this is arguably Cutter’s best work to date, and is absolutely terrifying.

Don’t take my word for it, pick up your copy starting next Tuesday, the 29th of October. Dig in, enjoy, and watch out for wasps.

The Queen is available from Galley Books a division of Simon & Schuster.