From beloved horror maven Alma Katsu comes a terrifying reimagining of The Picture of Dorian Gray for the internet age.
Beauty doesn’t fade. It feeds.
Dorothy Wagner has spent her whole life wanting nothing more than to be seen. But after failing to make her mark as an influencer, she takes a job working for a brilliant coder whose company is focused on cutting-edge deepfake technology. And there, in secret, is where she creates her salvation.
Isabella. An impossibly gorgeous girl who takes social media by storm. Dorothy's artistry is brilliant, and Isabella seems so real that she garners millions of followers. But everybody knows overnight success doesn’t just happen. And when someone gets a little too close to the truth, a violent confrontation sends Dorothy on the run, forcing her to confront what she’s willing to sacrifice to keep her secrets.
A modern reimagining of a classic tale, Alma Katsu’s Incarnate is an illuminating, haunting tale of algorithmic worship and beauty that can kill.
“Incarnate shines a terrifying light on how scary modern technology is. It’s a shocking thriller that will dial your paranoia to eleven!” —Jonathan Maberry, New York Times bestselling author of Red Empire and NecroTek
"Alma Katsu's got her finger on the zeitgeist with Incarnate, where body horror meets AI, in a novel whose pages fly. What elevates her work is her research—even the most far-fetched genre plot points are utterly believable in Katsu's masterful hands." —Sarah Langan, author of Trad Wife
“Uncomfortable at every turn (including gnarly body horror), the real terror here comes when readers inevitably interrogate their own social media choices. Think the 2024 film The Substance, but with more substance. For readers who enjoy Faustian bargains like Grady Hendrix's We Sold Our Souls or Mona Awad's All's Well as well as the AI implications explored by Chuck Tingle in Bury Your Gays.” —Booklist
“Incarnate is a cautionary tale perfectly told by Alma Katsu. It’s a fast-paced read that quickly becomes addictive—not unlike the social media environment readers are being warned about.” —Bolo Books
Alma Katsu is the award-winning author of eleven novels, most recently Fiend, Red London, The Fervor, and Red Widow. Prior to the publication of her first novel, she had a thirty-five-year career as a senior intelligence analyst for several U.S. agencies, including the CIA and NSA, as well as RAND, the global policy think tank. Katsu is a graduate of the masters writing program at the Johns Hopkins University and received her bachelors degree from Brandeis University. She lives outside of Washington, DC, with her husband, where she is a consultant to government and private industry on future trends and analytic methods.
View titles by Alma Katsu
From beloved horror maven Alma Katsu comes a terrifying reimagining of The Picture of Dorian Gray for the internet age.
Beauty doesn’t fade. It feeds.
Dorothy Wagner has spent her whole life wanting nothing more than to be seen. But after failing to make her mark as an influencer, she takes a job working for a brilliant coder whose company is focused on cutting-edge deepfake technology. And there, in secret, is where she creates her salvation.
Isabella. An impossibly gorgeous girl who takes social media by storm. Dorothy's artistry is brilliant, and Isabella seems so real that she garners millions of followers. But everybody knows overnight success doesn’t just happen. And when someone gets a little too close to the truth, a violent confrontation sends Dorothy on the run, forcing her to confront what she’s willing to sacrifice to keep her secrets.
A modern reimagining of a classic tale, Alma Katsu’s Incarnate is an illuminating, haunting tale of algorithmic worship and beauty that can kill.
Praise
“Incarnate shines a terrifying light on how scary modern technology is. It’s a shocking thriller that will dial your paranoia to eleven!” —Jonathan Maberry, New York Times bestselling author of Red Empire and NecroTek
"Alma Katsu's got her finger on the zeitgeist with Incarnate, where body horror meets AI, in a novel whose pages fly. What elevates her work is her research—even the most far-fetched genre plot points are utterly believable in Katsu's masterful hands." —Sarah Langan, author of Trad Wife
“Uncomfortable at every turn (including gnarly body horror), the real terror here comes when readers inevitably interrogate their own social media choices. Think the 2024 film The Substance, but with more substance. For readers who enjoy Faustian bargains like Grady Hendrix's We Sold Our Souls or Mona Awad's All's Well as well as the AI implications explored by Chuck Tingle in Bury Your Gays.” —Booklist
“Incarnate is a cautionary tale perfectly told by Alma Katsu. It’s a fast-paced read that quickly becomes addictive—not unlike the social media environment readers are being warned about.” —Bolo Books
Alma Katsu is the award-winning author of eleven novels, most recently Fiend, Red London, The Fervor, and Red Widow. Prior to the publication of her first novel, she had a thirty-five-year career as a senior intelligence analyst for several U.S. agencies, including the CIA and NSA, as well as RAND, the global policy think tank. Katsu is a graduate of the masters writing program at the Johns Hopkins University and received her bachelors degree from Brandeis University. She lives outside of Washington, DC, with her husband, where she is a consultant to government and private industry on future trends and analytic methods.
View titles by Alma Katsu
