The Upper Tentacle

Quotes

"The Upper Tentacle is short enough to consume in one sitting, and funny enough to linger over. It's an original and satisfying look at what can happen after the rich have been eaten. Murder mystery, corporate espionage, wit, wisdom, and Ak-Gorug, Wondrous and Terrible Greatest Supreme Level Five of the shelogol'gah; The Upper Tentacle has everything you need. All hail the shelogol'gah!"—Tanya Huff, Aurora Award-winning author of Direct Descendant and Saved by the Spell

“A terrific debut novel. Helms takes the amateur detective story, adds a side of alien post-invasion, and spices it up with an engaging duo of protagonists. A story worthy of consumption by the Wondrous and Terrible Greatest Supreme Ak-Gorug themselves. So you'll probably like it too.”—A. Lee Martinez, Alex Award-winning author of Gil’s All Fright Diner and Unbearable

“The Upper Tentacle takes a delightfully bonkers premise—the subordinate of our new alien overlord must solve a murder mystery at a corporate team-building retreat— and turns it into a surprisingly sweet and eminently funny reflection on empathy, humanity, and our dire need to eat the rich. You will be consumed! And you will be honored by the consumption!”—Samantha Mills, Nebula Award-winning author of The Wings Upon Her Back

“The Upper Tentacle engrossed me from the very first page. From the delightful narration by my new favorite alien to the visceral world-building to the anti-capitalist horror-comedy mash up, I consumed this novella in one sitting. Helms' debut is sure to burrow into your brain and make itself a home inside.”—S. Hati, author of And the Sky Bled

“The more you think about this book, the worse it gets (complimentary)! If you like your horror layered, funny, and anti-capitalist, with a central murder mystery, this is for you! Miss Marple with tentacles, 10/10.”—Eli Snow, author of The Divine Gardener's Handbook

“Every locked room mystery needs an eldrich hampster detective. Helms delivers one, and so much more, in this delightfully dark and cleverly comedic tour de force.”—Alex Shvartsman, author of The Best of All Possible Planets

"Helms deftly intersects the casual horrors we accept as banal in corporate culture with new, eldritch ones, using a cast of characters you simultaneously want to laugh at and root for. The Upper Tentacle is entertaining, hilarious, and witty, in the same vein as Knives Out and The Sheep Detectives, all while illuminating things about being human that only extraplanar entities could."—Craig Lincoln, co-author of The Formation Saga