Green Fuse Burning

The imagery in this book is stunning, you get a sense of the settings that's sprawling, primeval and majestic but also somehow oppressive and suffocating.

The prose is lovely, both evocative and contemplative. Morris really knows how to strike just the right balance between form and function so the prose never comes across as needlessly convoluted or as plain.

The structure is interesting, each chapter begins with a review of one of the paintings Rita made during her stay at the cabin and with our increasing understanding of the imagery and of Rita state of mind it becomes increasingly uncomfortable and anxiogenic.

I really liked Rita and found her struggle with grief, her relationship with her girlfriend and with her own sense of self highly relatable. Rita is not just mourning the loss of her father but that of her sense of belonging to a culture that's both hers and not at once, it's a grief that's nuanced, heavy and tremendously important, Morris managed to bring these topics to the page in a most elegant way.

While there is a lot of story in this novella nothing feels rushed and there's an almost gothic vibe to the horror.

4.5 rounded up, the only reason this one isn't a 5 is that at one point near the end it got a little hard to follow.

I received a digital ARC of this book for review consideration, many thanks to BookSirens and Stelliform Press.