Spread Me by Sarah Gailey
On a far-flung desert planet, research station life follows a predictable routine: days are for analyzing samples and tracking sandstorms. Nights are for drinking games and romantic entanglements. Or at least, that’s how the rest of the team lets off steam—head researcher Kinsey chose this assignment specifically for the isolation.
As a desert storm appears on the horizon, they discover the body of an alien lifeform buried in the sand. Kinsey breaks protocol and orders the specimen to be brought through the airlock and into the lab. Before they have time to examine it, the storm knocks out their comms and a team member falls mysteriously ill. Quarantined in their bunks, the team incubates unresolved conflict, an alien virus, and lingering questions like: is that specimen on the exam table as lifeless as it seemed?
Spread Me pays homage to classic space horror like Alien and The Thing, while also feeling entirely original. Sarah Gailey is a shapeshifter of genre fiction, and their latest foray into horror is suspenseful, erotic and viscerally unsettling.
Reviewed by Emma Radosevich, collection development librarian, Whatcom County Library System
(Originally published in Bellingham Alive February 2026 issue.)