Reviewed by Lee Murray
Released 11 August 2025, Torrid Waters Press
Triggers: Addiction, violence.
Kaliana Cook is a heroin addict who will do anything to get her parole agent off her back. She plans her escape and goes on the run but discovers too late she’s brought something monstrous along for the ride. With the parole agent on her tail, deadly cargo on board, and a craving for heroin coursing through her veins, Kali is trapped in the web of her own making and is desperate to get out.
Kali faces a harrowing truth—escape is not just about escaping her physical pursuers, but confronting the haunting spectres of her addiction and the supernatural horrors that they manifest.
Kali’s Web is a gripping journey into the heart of darkness, exploring the depths of addiction, the potency of the supernatural, and the enduring strength of the human spirit.
Supernatural horror with themes of addiction, obsession/paranoia/PTSD, and generational trauma intended for an adult readership, the novella is described as “if Cronenberg rewrote Trainspotting within the universe of Les Misérables after having read Charlotte’s Web to his daughter” and is scheduled for release by Crystal Lake Entertainment / Torrid Waters Press in 2025.
Fast-paced and gripping, Kali’s Web is a horror narrative in every respect, hitting all the points on King’s hierarchy of scares, and yet it also offers positive portrayals of mental illness and addiction. Matthews uses a number of techniques to achieve this, including a dual-narrator storytelling approach, because, while in essence the work tells of Kali’s spiral into the web of addiction and her desperate attempt to find redemption and safety, it’s also the tale of her antagonist, a self-righteous parole officer by the name of Mason Gerek, a man who has pupated in an indifferent foster system. Dogged and driven, Gerek has his own demons percolating at home in his basement, his secret obsession impinging on Kali’s plans to escape the tragic destiny that has already destroyed her mother and her sister. By immersing readers in the perspective of both protagonist and antagonist, Matthews gives us front-row seats to his characters’ innermost thoughts, including their motivations and their flaws, in a manner that resembles Poe’s “The Telltale Heart” and Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper.” For example, consider these internal monologues:
“And then I hear that voice in my head that has never left me: Why don’t you soften up our grind, grease your gears a bit? Heroin is what you need. The one thing you love that won’t let you down, won’t run away. Nothing else can make you feel the same, and nothing else ever will. You’re tired, Kali. You may escape Gerek, but you can’t escape me, your soulmate. Come to me, just like your mom did, just like you used to…”
“And I will get the Deputy Director job and sharpen the skills of all the other parole agents in this county. Who else is qualified but me? Nobody is, but not everybody can see a truth so clear. I will let them see it.”
Through these close perspectives, Kali and Gerek are lifted out of cliché to become nuanced rounded characters—more than simply manifestations of their respective diagnoses. We know something of their background, their hopes, and the things that drive them to act, these details suspending disbelief and lending the work an element of realism even in a supernatural context.
Matthews also uses symbolism to good effect, the eponymous spider held up as a symbol of childhood night terror with its venom-filled fangs and intractable web—imagery in perfect symbiosis with the nature of addiction.
No spoilers, but I also loved the way generational trauma is represented through metaphor in the story, the dark legacy becoming more and more monstrous as time passes, the ripples extending outward to impact families and communities.
In terms of authenticity, there is no doubt that this work is informed by a lifetime of lived experience and research. Author Mark Matthews has been open in various horror venues about his own battles with addiction, and, per his author bio, he is a graduate of the University of Michigan and a licensed professional counsellor who has worked in behavioural health for over 20 years, so one would expect him to have myriad observations to draw upon. Moreover, he has developed an impressive body of work dedicated to mental illness, addiction, and grief, including curated works, novels, and novellas, some of which have appeared on horror award lists.
Kali’s Web resonated for me personally for the unexpected empathy it evoked for almost every character, despite the violence and depravity infused throughout the narrative. We can’t help but feel for characters who have little or no power over their lives, whose decisions / options are shaped by poverty, abuse, neglect, and systemic prejudice. The story reminds us that mental illness and addiction often appear hand-in-hand, and when exacerbated by other environmental factors, sometimes a person’s decisions come down to how they might get through the next week, hour, or even the next minute. What is that person is a child? Or has a child? Kali’s Web is the kind of narrative that makes us think, what if things were different? If we were just a little kinder? Nevertheless, through it all, the story maintains a sense of hope and purpose with love and family at its core.
As well as being an entertaining and engaging read, I can’t think of a single tenet on the HWA’s Mental Health Initiative Charter that isn’t represented in some way by this novella. In my view, Kali’s Web provides a solid example of good practice for depicting mental illness / addiction in horror.
Lee Murray is an author, editor, poet, essayist and screenwriter from Aotearoa New Zealand, a USA Today bestselling author, a five-time Bram Stoker Award winner, Shirley Jackson Award winner, and recipient of her country’s Prime Minister’s Award for Literary Achievement in Fiction. Find her at https://www.leemurray.info/
Mark Matthews is a graduate of the University of Michigan and a licensed professional counselor who has worked in behavioral health for over 20 years. He is the author of On the Lips of Children, All Smoke Rises, Milk-Blood, and The Hobgoblin of Little Minds. He is also the editor of a trio of ‘addiction horror’ anthologies including Orphans of Bliss, Lullabies for Suffering and Garden of Fiends. In 2021, he was nominated for a Shirley Jackson Award. His next novel, To Those Willing to Drown, is expected in May, 2025, followed by the novella, Kali’s Web, in August, 2025.
