Rhiannon
I won’t review the plot here as the book description does a good job of that, so just what did and didn’t work for me:
Pros: the set up and a strong first half, the body horror via the mycelium aspect, and the very obvious nod to Area X. The characters, some with intriguing haunted pasts, and their relationships with each other were (mostly) well done and interesting although I found the mysterious Brynn weirdly unlikeable and aggravating, even later as we get more of her backstory in the latter half of the book.
Cons: the second half was frustrating and chaotic as everything gets thrown in: in addition to mycelium body horror (which was plenty interesting for me as a horror trope and was carrying the story quite effectively) it throws in possible supernatural ghosty bits, murder, spirits that are fungi (or vice versa), unreliable narrators (are they crazy or did they really experience ‘all that’?), rabid scientists who will stop at nothing to observe the weird phenomena, including science experiments à la Resident Evil (it even has an Umbrella Corp secret ‘Nest’ in the woods that has experienced ‘containment breach’) but how those elements tie into the mycelium component gets a bit hazy… did Brynn summon it (aka, her ‘muse’) or did the ‘institute’ do that decades ago? It seemed like the author was tossing in a bunch of horror elements with tenuous links to the actual plot and really, I was starting to roll my eyes an awful lot.
The author’s writing was compelling in the creepy atmosphere depictions and some complex characterizations, and I enjoyed the initial mystery. I ultimately felt disappointed with the back half of the story and what felt like a free-for-all followed by an easy let down in the final chapter.
My thanks to NetGalley and Clash Books for the ARC. I am leaving this review voluntarily; all opinions are my own.
Originally posted at www.instagram.com.
I won’t review the plot here as the book description does a good job of that, so just what did and didn’t work for me:
Pros: the set up and a strong first half, the body horror via the mycelium aspect, and the very obvious nod to Area X. The characters, some with intriguing haunted pasts, and their relationships with each other were (mostly) well done and interesting although I found the mysterious Brynn weirdly unlikeable and aggravating, even later as we get more of her backstory in the latter half of the book.
Cons: the second half was frustrating and chaotic as everything gets thrown in: in addition to mycelium body horror (which was plenty interesting for me as a horror trope and was carrying the story quite effectively) it throws in possible supernatural ghosty bits, murder, spirits that are fungi (or vice versa), unreliable narrators (are they crazy or did they really experience ‘all that’?), rabid scientists who will stop at nothing to observe the weird phenomena, including science experiments à la Resident Evil (it even has an Umbrella Corp secret ‘Nest’ in the woods that has experienced ‘containment breach’) but how those elements tie into the mycelium component gets a bit hazy… did Brynn summon it (aka, her ‘muse’) or did the ‘institute’ do that decades ago? It seemed like the author was tossing in a bunch of horror elements with tenuous links to the actual plot and really, I was starting to roll my eyes an awful lot.
The author’s writing was compelling in the creepy atmosphere depictions and some complex characterizations, and I enjoyed the initial mystery. I ultimately felt disappointed with the back half of the story and what felt like a free-for-all followed by an easy let down in the final chapter.
My thanks to NetGalley and Clash Books for the ARC. I am leaving this review voluntarily; all opinions are my own.
Originally posted at www.instagram.com.