In Epiphyte, Hailey Spencer weaves classic fairytale elements into a meta-horror exploration of storytelling, queer awakening, and many kinds of hunger.
Olivia is struggling to finish her thesis on fairytales and forget her best friend Isabella when she wakes up somewhere new: a cottage where they live together, in the kingdom of a prince who needs a bride. When they decline an invitation to his ball, the day starts again…and again. A bird smashes itself into glass, people blur into archetypes, and Isabella begins to change: consumed by something called the Hunger, and then by unimaginable appetites.
To escape the story—and the teller who thinks she can control them with it—Olivia must obey, untangle, and break its narrative rules. But this fairytale has no simple moral, no way for her to avoid grim sacrifices and transformations of her own.