We Eat Our Own.

When a nameless, struggling actor in 1970s New York gets the call that an enigmatic director wants him for an art film set in the Amazon, he doesn’t hesitate: he flies to South America, no questions asked. He quickly realizes he’s made a mistake. He’s replacing another actor who quit after seeing the script—a script the director now claims doesn’t exist. The movie is over budget. The production team seems headed for a breakdown. The air is so wet that the celluloid film disintegrates.

But what the actor doesn’t realize is that the greatest threat might be the town itself, and the mysterious shadow economy that powers this remote jungle outpost. Entrepreneurial Americans, international drug traffickers, and M-19 guerillas are all fighting for South America’s future—and the groups aren’t as distinct as you might think. The actor thought this would be a role that would change his life. Now he’s worried if he’ll survive it.

This “gripping, ambitious...vivid, scary novel” (Publishers Weekly) is a thrilling journey behind the scenes of a shocking film and a thoughtful commentary on violence and its repercussions.

Selected praise for We Eat Our Own:

  • “A canny, funny, impressively detailed debut novel.” (The New York Times)

  • “This is the smartest kind of horror, one that understands and employs the trappings while making us squirmingly aware of the moral contortions required to enjoy them.” (Booklist, starred review)

  • “[A] gripping, ambitious debut novel…the story never flags thanks to the ferocious momentum of [Wilson’s] prose.” (Publishers Weekly)

  • “The tension of We Eat Our Own plays out in Wilson’s impressive structure…An exciting, impressive debut.” (St. Louis Post Dispatch)

  • “We Eat Our Own is a novel with a satisfying build and plenty to gnaw on for days afterward.” (Shelf Awareness) 

  • “Wilson has taken what could have easily been a pulpy horror novel and created a beautifully written and terrifying story populated by vivid and compelling characters...Like a jungle parasite, We Eat Our Own will worm its way into your psyche and terrorize you from the inside out. You won't be able to put it down.” -Johanna, Flyleaf Books (bookseller review)

  • “Kea Wilson writes in a sort of gauzy poeticism, the words dripping with the weight of humidity and desperation, as these bargain-basement artists try to convince themselves of anything but the ugly reality around them. I’m taking my time getting to the end, because the prose fairly undulates with a hypnotic pleasure all its own…a wonderful debut.” (AV Club) 

  • “Wilson shows impressive command of a narrative that weaves back and forth and back again in both time and locale…you wonder throughout whether you should trust whatever it is you’re told—and jumping to the end won’t help at all. You shouldn’t anyway, because Wilson’s writing style is hypnotic, tightly wound, and harrowingly evocative of the story’s stifling, bug-heavy atmosphere. Even the sunniest skies of this ill-starred shoot are thick with menace and portent.” (Kirkus)

  • “We Eat Our Own will impress you in numerous ways. From its well-researched horror film history, to its ability to casually weave together multiple storylines. We Eat Our Own should not be a debut novel. It should be the release of a horror veteran. But here you go. Here it is. Waiting to be consumed. So consume it.” (Lit Reactor)

  • “The jungle is alive and everywhere in Kea Wilson’s remarkable debut novel, gorgeous and indifferent, its ravening appetite the very real horror unleashed by human heedlessness and hubris. Denied all explanation of motivation by his Kurtz-like director, a young American actor finds himself on a harrowing journey, taking us with him—spellbound, resistless—into ‘one of the dark places of the earth.” —Kathryn Davis

Selected press:

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