Voracious

Voracious is Belicia Rhea's debut novella, published by Dark Matter INK in June 2024. It follows sixteen-year-old Lila Morales — pregnant, battling an eating disorder, and convinced that a doomsday of insect plagues is coming for humanity. No one around her believes it: her fears are written off as a severe phobia, she has no one to confide in, and her boyfriend has vanished under circumstances no one will explain.

When Lila's mother forces her into therapy, her sessions begin to unravel in unexpected ways as the psychological toll of her visions starts to spread to those around her. Rhea builds a story as much about trauma, toxic masculinity, and imposed belief as it is about body horror and impending apocalypse, rendered in vivid, unsettling imagery.

The edition also collects two additional short stories by Rhea. Voracious has been praised by horror author Christa Carmen as "sharp as the sting of a wasp" — a fast, disturbing debut.