Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of this book. This was truly a bizarre and disorienting book. I don't know that I really understood what was going on some of the time, but it held my interest and kept me reading. I would recommend this book to someone looking for a creepy, surreal semi-horror read.

Thank you netgalley for allowing me early access to this book. This was a very well done horror, I felt like there were things crawling under my skin. Shudders.

Root Rot is a quiet, unsettling novella that buries you under the feeling of dread until, you too, are swallowed up by the earth and changed.

In this short novella, we follow a family taking their first trip in many years back to a family cabin after their grandmother’s death. All the children are introduced without names and more with nicknames that symbolize who they are and how they react to situations, I.e., “The Baby,” who is younger than two, “The Girl Twin and Boy Twin,” “The Crybaby,” and “The One with the Beautiful Voice,” just to name a few.

Slowly, we begin to see odd things begin to happen and a lot of the time we are left questioning what is happening as much as the children, like did we see what we thought we saw? Or are we simply explaining it away because the logical conclusion is just too much?

One of my favorite aspects of this book is the slow psychological look at the denial and explanation that humans do to try and make sense of what they’re seeing. There’s still a specific scene in the woods with The Crybaby, The Girl Twin, and The Liar that has stayed with me simply because I’m not sure what I read and if it was explained away by The Oldest in this fashion because the horror of what was done to something real needed to be mentally blocked off. Another key point I appreciated was the small body horror the author took on anatomy; the pieces we were able to get descriptions of that really set in the complete wrongness of a body part like feet or something simple like eyelids blinking in the wrong direction.

Thank you to Netgalley and Creature Publishing for this arc!!

What an unsettling book this was. I feel honoured to have read this as an ARC, and I can confidently say that it needs a whole lot more recognition than it gets.

After the death of their grandmother, nine children are reunited in their grandfather’s vacation property, where they soon discover a sinister ploy afoot.

I have never read a book that used the specific point of view that Root Rot has. At first, it kept me guessing, confused by who our narrator truly was. By the time you realize that it’s not your typical horror book about a cabin getaway in the woods, things have already taken a wild turn.

There were moments that sent shivers down my spine, and I really, really ought to stop reading horror past midnight, because the bizarreness of this novel had wormed its way into my dreams at some point. Truly speaking, I still do not know what I read, but I loved it all the same. I would have enjoyed it much better if it had been a full-length novel, though.

This little novella read is quick, quite bizarre, and downright creepy. The basic idea is that you have 9 grandchildren who go to visit their grandfather after their grandmother dies, and while they visit, they start seeing weird and strange things that they instantly forget. The author furthers the quirky feel of the book by not giving the children names, but rather, identifiers like "The Liar." The prose is good, the scenes are scary, and you are left finishing the end of this book thinking that you are going as mad as the grandchildren are.

Ambitious and Visceral, but Ultimately Disorienting...

The prose in Root Rot is beautiful—lush, unsettling, and full of striking body horror. Unfortunately, I struggled to connect with it. The characters, referred to only by titles instead of names, blurred together, and the mushroom-centric horror felt like well-trodden territory. While the atmosphere was eerie and immersive, the story left me more confused than compelled. If you love surreal, dreamlike horror and don’t mind sacrificing clarity for style, this might hit the mark. For me, it was more fog than fascination.

Thank you Creature Publishing and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book. This was delightfully creepy. There were many moments where I wanted to look away but I could not put it down.

Firstly, I did not finish reading this book.

The synopsis was intriguing, although not original. For horror fans, especially in the “mushroom” “rotten” subgenre, this could be a fun read.

The reason why I did not keep reading is because of the unnamed characters (The Liar, The Crybaby, etc). It wad extremely confusing and I just could not keep up. It’s really a matter of preference!

You know the video of the cat with the little Santa hat on its head, waving it back & forth trying to bite the hat with the most perplexed look on its face? That’s how this book made me feel.

This book was the epitome of a fever dream. You look up wild fungi fever dream, it just has the title to this book! Don’t get me wrong, I totally enjoyed it because that’s right up my alley. I did question myself mentally saying “what the hell is going on?!” multiple times. If this book ever turns into a motion picture, it gives A24 vibes.
If you like being confused, in awe, and weirded out…get this book.

Thank you NetGalley, publishers & author for this ARC.

3.5 stars rounded up

"that's someone else's sky. it's not for us."
reading this novella felt like trying to piece together a confusing, scattered fever dream.

the lack of names and collective 'we' used through the story make the reader an almost unwilling part of the exploration of the blurred lines between family, self, home and the body. the unconventional writing style made it a little difficult for me to be absorbed into the story right away, but once i was in, it was like being transported right to the house, to the lake.

i am not usually one for horror in books but this story truly did make me want to explore the genre to discover more unsettling, eerie stories and more unconventional storytellers weaving their tales in surprising ways!

— thank you to NetGalley for providing a free ARC.

Thank you, NetGalley, for the ARC!

I enjoyed this even though at times the writing threw me off a little. Overall, a fun, creepy story that will have you questioning “what did I just read?”

A big family divided between adults and children visits their grandfather’s house. The kids, being cousins and siblings of different ages, try to get along and explore the surroundings. Everything seems to be going well and everyone’s enjoying themselves. Until they aren’t. Faces start to look weird, strange shadows and sounds start to appear, time feels different than it’s supposed to, and for some reason everyone is acting really weird.

~~~

A quick read that turns very dark fast. A little off putting that no one had actual names (The Oldest, The Baby, The Boy Twin, The Liar, The One Who Runs Away, etc.). But you get used to it at some point. Some scenes are actually terrifying. Like the one with the feet turned around backwards, or the animals literally eating The Secret Keeper (who willingly gave them her eyes, teeth, tongue , hair, and literally her entire body.

Overall I gave this 3.5 starts rounded up to 4!
A quick body horror/ nature horror read

It felt like being at a family lunch, sitting at the kids' table chatting with cousins about scary stories until weird things start happening.
I loved it.
I would definitely reread it

I was so excited for Root Rot but I just don't think it really landed for me.

This is about a group of young cousins staying at their grandfathers lakehouse and the weird/creepy things that occur there. The characters aren't given names but instead are referred to as "The Liar," "The Crybaby," "The Twin," etc. I liked this concept but there were too many characters for that to work for me. I think this whole book is supposed to feel fever dreamy which that contributes to, but too much of my energy was spent trying to figure out who was who and what had happened to which character and it took me out of the experience.

Some of the horror scenes in isolation were AMAZING. I love plant/mushroom/nature body horror and Nislow does that immaculately. It was simultaneously beautiful and horrifying which is truly difficult to execute. For me, these scenes/elements where great on their own but didn't really amount to anything impactful as a whole.

If you are someone who appreciates vibes & atmosphere > characters & plot, this might be for you!

*Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the free digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

this is some of my favourite horror description i’ve ever read it absolutely nailed the ghastly, morbid energy.

brilliantly and earth-shatteringly grotesque, this book explores toxic familial bonds in a way i haven’t seen tackled in horror for a very long time. the collective “we” of the children employs a delightfully eerie element to this fever dream of a narrative.

This unsettling novella chronicles the journey of nine children from the same family who travel to their Grandfather’s vacation home by The Lake. At first, all of the siblings and cousins are having fun playing, roaming the house and the surrounding woods. Told in the collective “we” of the children, strange things begin to happen to them as they come across the spores of mushrooms in the woods. The children begin to change, their perceptions of one another warping along with their sense of time and space. Dopplegangers grow up from the ground, mushrooms leaking blood. One of the girls, The Liar, is forced to confront the fearful change overtaking the others, and to choose whether to resist or submit to what is happening to them. The way this book warps the boundaries between family, home and the body is fantastically eerie!

This was definitely a creepy read, and some of the scenes were so well written and unnerving however it wasnt quite what I expected.

I understand that the lack of names was part of it all but it made it difficult to keep track.

The book also felt disjointed at times and bot in a way that made the story better.

It has a lot of potential and is definitely a great premise for a horror.

Thanks to NetGalley and Creature Publishing for providing me with this arc

I read 50 pages in one sitting and loved it, there's this hive mind presented by our protagonist(s) which is unnerving and comforting at the same time. There's a familiarity in the depth that they know each other but the lack of names keeps you on edge in an unnerving and spooky atmosphere.
Following the first chunk, I slept, went to work and was thinking about it all day, until I could finish work and continue the story.

Some of the classic horror images will haunt me from this book, it plays on the tropes but in a sophisticated and understated way, which allows for suspense to build and i found myself genuinely squirming and 'eeking' throughout it.

This book is a confusing, alluring spiral into the stars, into the earth and keeps you guessing. It's open ended, it's alarming but overall it's a gripping mystery which i LOVED.

This is such a strange novella in the best of ways. I think it encapsulates a lot of what people think of when they consider fungal horror. The whole book feels like a hallucination; everything has a hazy quality, like something is hovering in your peripheral vision.

The downside was that the large cast of characters, alongside the decision not to name characters in the traditional sense. These choices meant it was easy to get confused and pulled out of the story, particularly in the beginning.

But overall, this is near the top of my recommendations when it comes to mushrooms and horror.