Decomposition Book, Sara van Os
Decomposition Book, Sara van Os
List: $28.99 | Sale: $20.29
Club: $14.49

Decomposition Book

Author: Sara van Os

Narrator: Jess Nahikian, Gail Shalan

Unabridged: 8 hr 49 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 05/19/2026

Categories: Fiction, Horror, Lgbtq+


Synopsis

"A slippery page-turner that's as profoundly beautiful as it is totally unhinged."
—Rachel Harrison, New York Times bestselling author of Play Nice and So Thirsty

"Intense, irreverent, surprising, raw."
—Natalia Theodoridou, author of Sour Cherry

An emotional, electrifying, and darkly hilarious debut about a woman who finds a dead body and can’t give up its ghost, for fans of Mona Awad, Yellowjackets, and weird girl fiction.

Spiraling from a disastrous falling-out with her best friend, Savannah retreats to her parents’ empty lake house in upstate New York to tend her wounds. Isolated and reeling from rejection, she spends her days in a fog, drinking and overthinking in equal worrisome measure. Until she wakes up one morning in the woods behind the house—next to a dead body.

Instead of calling the police, Savannah reads the journal she finds nearby, reliving the last desperate months of this woman’s life lost in the wilderness, fighting for survival. Ava, as it turns out, is more than just a cold, lonely corpse. She was funny. She was smart. And Savannah has finally found someone she can talk to…

As she pushes deeper into Ava’s harrowing story, Savannah notices a change, a shift in her reality. Each page brings her closer to the Ava from the journal…and the ghost before her now. Before long, Savannah feels something for Ava she hasn’t felt for anyone else—and there’s a good chance letting go would haunt her for the rest of her life.

Is Savannah finally losing her grip? Or has she found the friend she’s needed all along?

About Sara van Os

Sara van Os is a Mexican-American decomposition nerd who lives in Harlem with her wife and two cats. She has a bachelor’s degree from NYU in English and German and a minor in Clarinet Performance, because she loves a good side quest. Since college, she has been working in hospitality as everyone’s favorite manager and lives to gather stories of weird happenings at work. Decomposition Book is her debut novel.


Reviews

Goodreads review by luceski on December 29, 2025

Nothing says “self‑care” like waking up beside a corpse and accidentally gaining a free therapist. Decomposition Book is one of those stories that sneaks up on you - darkly funny, deliciously descriptive and quietly devastating. It opens with a hike gone wrong and spirals into a reality‑bending duet......more

Goodreads review by Nikki on May 02, 2026

4 ⭐️ RTC. Audio is great......more

Goodreads review by Clara on January 15, 2026

This is THE novel for fans of Yellowjackets, especially if you’re looking for homoerotic hauntings, a compelling survival narrative, lesbian repression, and mentally ill young woman coping. Von Os’s stunning debut follows Savannah, a 21 year old on a semester off collage due to a dramatic fall out w......more

Goodreads review by Erin on January 30, 2026

To put it as eloquently as I can, this book is a major cringefest and not the good kind......more

Goodreads review by Casey Bee on April 28, 2026

I went into this book blind, all I knew was that the cover had me sold. I didn't know what to expect, but what I didn't expect was such an emotionally intense story. It's really weird, and simultaneously really sad. It has occasional humorous moments with some of the references to Twilight and Findi......more