First published back in February 2025, ‘The Woodlice’ formed the debut novella from British author G.P. Nedloh.
The village of Bramblehurst is nestled at the foot of the South Downs in rural East Sussex. However, the once picturesque rural landscape was under threat from the encroachment of the modern world. The multinational conglomerate, Genetech, had already snapped up pockets of land around the Bramblehurst Estate, repurposing the land to build new bio-industrial research facilities along with housing developments to house the many workers. Genetech now had further ambitions to expand upon its bio-industrial research centre which sat at the edge of the village.
The recent developments had not gone down well with the local residents within Bramblehurst. Some of the Bramblehurst Estate’s land butted up against one of the proposed new housing developments. Firmly against the developments, Bramblehurst Estate’s wealthy owner, Mr Eversfields, had employed a freelance surveyor and biology lecturer from Brighton – Dr Sarah Brapples – to undertake a series of ecological surveys, in the hope something of ecological interest might help the case against the development.
However, it’s the estate’s gamekeeper, Jack Fuller, who stumbles across something which could halt the course of Genetech’s proposed developments around the village, once and for all. Now in his mid-40s, the gamekeeper had spent most of his life working the land. He was a true poacher-turned-gamekeeper. Nevertheless, in all his time spent in the fields and woodlands around Bramblehurst, Jack had never seen anything like what he’d discovered in the hedges of North Woods. The carcass of a cow, tangled up in barbed wire, its head and body partially devoured overnight.
When he and Dr Brapples return to examine the cow’s carcass, they find a mass of large woodlice crawling over the remains of its head. The situation is perplexing. Despite Dr Sarah Brapples’ extensive knowledge and speciality in isopoda, she’d never seen anything like this. Woodlice are herbivores. They shouldn’t be anywhere near a cow in such a state. But here they are, unusually oversized woodlice, gorging on the dead heffer’s flesh.
The discovery of the dead cow is the start of something which will tear the small village apart and has the potential to escalate to astronomically disastrous proportions. It emerges that Genetech have been developing a synthetic hormone in an attempt to revolutionise pest control, ultimately to save crops from devastation. But now the outcome of these experiments was spiralling into something far more dangerous.
Overnight the woodlice had increased in size, developing stronger mandibles and a venomous secretion which they produced from their mouths. Dr Sarah Brapples had spent most of her career in quiet, rural villages like Bramblehurst, studying ecosystems and advising on environmental impacts. Now it appeared, that specialist knowledge was being tested in ways she could never have imagined.
It's only a matter of days before the woodlice have their first taste of human flesh. Suddenly, the once quaint rural village of Bramblehurst is faced with a plague of skittering mutant woodlice. As the bodies pile up, realisation hits that the plague of mutant woodlice could be just the beginning. Unless they act fast, this horrific situation could get, far, far worse…
DLS Review:
At the start of the novella, you’re greeted by a short dedication which (amongst a couple of others), states “Thanks to Guy N Smith for inspiration”. This inspiration is wholly evident throughout the entirety of novella. Honestly, it’s almost akin to a homage to the great scribbler himself. A story which basks in the warm rural glow of Smith’s classic pulp horror creature features, utilising numerous plot twists and grisly tropes, all of which are instantly recognisable in the majority of Smith’s work. Author Graham Nedloh does this all in a plainly respectful way, almost like a tribute to the great master of the pulp horror genre.
Indeed, the whole plot reads like something Smith would have penned. A small, quaint rural village, sporting a quintessentially British name – Bramblehurst – where we have a rich cast of characters, included an ex-poacher turned gamekeeper, a shrewd scientist, and a load of local human fodder for the woodlice to munch through. We even have a failing marriage which reveals a deceitful cheating wife. Another classic trope of Smith’s, resulting in a slice of grisly comeuppance for all those involved.
We have two main characters amongst these, who form the novella’s principal protagonists. We’re first introduced to Jack Fuller, the gamekeeper of Bramblehurst Estate. He’s a rough, hard-working spit-and-sawdust kinda fella, who’s somewhat reticent and taciturn and naturally blunt with everything he says. Then you have, Dr Sarah Brapples, who’s pretty much the equivalent of Cliff Davenport (from Smith’s ‘Crabs’ novels), only younger and female. She may at first appear to be quite timid in the presence of Fuller et al, however, as the novella progresses, the young biologist soon finds her feet and starts taking no crap.
The story’s also very quick to throw us into the escalating drama, with the discovery of the cow carcass appearing within the initial handful of pages. From there on, the first stages of the ecological disaster start to build up momentum. Each attack sees the woodlice that little bit bigger. Their swarming hordes like a blanket of squirming, skittering grey, enveloping their victims, and pouring down their throats whilst chomping on their flesh.
There’s plenty of these gruesome woodlice attacks throughout the novella. Characters are introduced then quickly killed off within the same chapter – again, textbook Smith! These are often almost like miniature vignettes, setting the scene for why these characters are where they are when the woodlice emerge and do their thing. Some of these woodlice attacks are superb, with the reader knowing what the outcome will invariably be, but pulled along with the mounting suspense until our grey friends suddenly strike en masse.
I guess the only slight disappointment was with some of the rather stunted death sequences we’re given. Often in these woodlice attacks, there’s only a few brief sentences before the woodlice envelop their victims, then there’s a few bites here and there, and then it’s all pretty much over, leaving the horrific deaths feeling if anything, a tad censored. Although, that’s not with all the gruesome deaths. That said, there are a good few where Nedloh goes to town with the pulp horror, delivering a handful of gruesome death sequences which will undoubtedly satisfy the pulp horror gorehounds amongst us!
With the bodies stacking up, Nedloh brings in a potential solution to the ecological threat, which harks back to that of ‘Night Of The Crabs’ (1976) in its use of science to try to combat the woodlice. I’ll not ruin the ending for you, however, what I will say is I was surprised with how downbeat it turned out, in some ways almost akin to pulpy creature feature take on ‘Threads’ (1984). The ending does purposefully leave the door open for a sequel, which was clearly on Nedloh’s to-do-list as he closed out the novella.
All in all, ‘The Woodlice’ is nothing short of a wild and over-the-top critter creature feature, packed with continuously escalating eco-horror and almost a non-stop barrage of gruesome death sequences. Guy N Smith would definitely have approved!
The novella runs for a total of 131 pages.
© DLS Reviews
