I don't think I'd do a description justice or that it would necessarily help, so I won't. Root Rot is a creepy horror novella that reads like a fever dream. It's layered and weird. I'm still uncertain of what I just read, just that I liked it.

Thank you to Creature Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC.

'Root Rot' by Saskia Nislow was such a strange novella that I was not able to put down, but I would also really struggle to talk through what the story is really about.

It follows nine children, with names like The Liar, The Cry Baby, The Twins, The One Who Runs Away etc., and a vacation to their grandfather's lake house. However, there's something in the soil, and it seems to be taking over the children, replacing them.

The novella reads like a fever dream full of contradictions, as nothing is what it seems, resulting in an unsettling, disjointed and eerie quick read.

What a wonderful little novella!

Nislow has such an amazing imagination and a true talent at immersing us within it. This story unfolds so silently, creeping upon you like roots slowly but surely clawing at you from the ground.

And don’t even get me started on her choice of using the first person PLURAL?! I think it’s one of the most difficult points of view to write in and strangest to read. But Nislow works around it so beautifully, and at the end it totally pays off. There’s a reason! There’s a reason for it all.

I loved how the names of the children are adjectives which at some point might reflect the contrary throughout the story (like the Liar being the most honest). Everything is treated with such tenderness—every description is carefully crafted, the pacing subtle yet increasing, the attention to the internal conflict versus the external threat. Though at times I felt a disconnect when the descriptions “contradicted” or “corrected” one another, I believe there is a deep-rooted (see what I did there?) intention in Nislow’s back and forth when the spooky thing surrounding The Children becomes a reality.

Truly one of the strangest and coolest stories I’ve read! I was creeped out and marveled by it all the way through!

Thank you Creature Publishing and NetGalley for the chance to read this creepily beautiful little story 💌

Thank you to Netgalley & Creature Publishing for this eArc!

A haunting fairytale that focuses on family, identity, and sacrifice - Root Rot drew me in quickly with Nislow's delightfully dark prose. I often worry with short stories and novellas that there won't be enough time to make an impression but this defied every such concern. Our characters aren't named, instead referred to as nicknames like The Liar, The Crybaby, The One With A Beautiful Voice and it adds to the dreamlike quality of the story. The body horror was reminiscent of films like Annihilation and I find myself also comparing it to the scenes in Midsommar where Dani feels as if she's becoming one with the earth.

I thoroughly enjoyed this and very much look forward to reading Nislow's future work.

Not my cup of tea I think. Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC!

A lot of this was really good. The set-up was nice and creepy and the body and psychological horror was unsettling. Unfortunately, I think the story jumped straight into the surreal a little too quickly. I was unsure exactly what was happening for basically the whole book, and the ending didn't really clarify things that much for me. I would have liked a little more time with the characters before shit started getting crazy. I also found the characters a little difficult to tell apart because of the names and the sheer number of kids. Nine characters all at once is a lot to keep track of, especially in a book this short (NetGalley's app counted it as 70 pages), and none of them are particularly memorable. This choice to make the characters a bit interchangeable may have been part of the point of the novella, but it just didn't do it for me.

With that said, the sentence-to-sentence writing is strong, and I'm not opposed to reading more of Nislow's writing in the future. This particular book was just not for me.

Thank you NetGalley and Creature Publishing for this eARC.
I love a spooky little horror story and this was something alright. At first I was sceptical with the collective “we” pov, it made it hard to follow I spent the entire time trying to figure out who was actually speaking. However, I think that made it a bit more interesting, it was like an added layer of creepiness with the fungal hive mind vibe.
I also found the writing difficult to follow, though that’s not a bad thing in this case. The narrators are children of various ages, so the childlike language and descriptions were eerily accurate and again added to the creepiness.

What a fever dream this was. I enjoyed it, but I did lose track of who was who. There were a lot of characters and not much character development for them, so I got a bit lost. Still not sure what I read, but it was weird and I like weird.

A wild ride! Reminded me of a horror version of "The Children's Bible" by Lydia Millett mixed with Jordan Peele's Us but overall was a coming of age, coming aware of one's identity story.
Very cool (and somewhat unsettling and gross)
3.5 Stars

Nine children and their families travel to their Grandfathers Lake house. At first things seem great, but something is beneath the soil and reaching out to the children. The Children are left to their own devices as reality slides away disturbing things start to happen.

Mesmerising, arresting writing style of writing that lulls you into a false sense of security. A stream of consciousness that is both beautiful and haunting, as each child succumbs to the rot.

You fall into the same hypnosis that the children do, knowing something is wrong but not being able to quite catch up with the explanation.
A mix of horror and weird fiction, that’s all the more disturbing through the eyes of children. We view ourselves as outside of nature, rather than a part of it. Root rot quickly reminds us that we’re part of a larger system, susceptible to its changes and influences. Life exists outside of our subjective understanding of it. A fun read that leaves you guessing!

The prose in this book is absolutely gorgeous and impactful. There were times where I had trouble following due to the lack of true names, and I wish I had more of a background to why the epitaphs were chosen for each character. With that said, it was a really incredible story of family ties and how families interact and view each other. Without giving anything away, the descriptions were beautifully written and the feelings of the characters were shown so well throughout the text.

Root Rot is a surreal, inventive "sporror" novella that tells the story of a family through the lens of the children as they spend time at their grandfather's vacation home. There is very limited scenes with the adults throughout the story, which strongly added to the vibes of the novella. The cousins are all referred to by a defining characteristic, no names. I found the perspective used in this to be very well done and really added to the surrealistic atmosphere.

I can see the narrative not working for some readers, but if you typically enjoy "weird lit" this likely would be a good pick. I think it is difficult to do new things with sporror as it is a pretty popular sub-genre/trope at this point. However, Nislow did an excellent job at making this unique. There are some possible cosmic elements to this that also really worked for me. These cosmic elements didn't take over the narrative, so if that's not typically something that works for you, it may work in this instance!

I look forward to what Saskia Nislow publishes in the future. This was an incredibly strong debut.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher, Creature Publishing, for the eARC.

When someone at my book club suggested I should stop reading weird horror that gives me messed up dreams right before bed, he probably meant this book.

The use of we for the group of children and absence of most of the adults really brought to mind summer camp and roaming as a pack of children with little to no supervision. It obviously takes a turn from there and I don't know if I could tell you what exactly happened here but the imagery and the creepy vibes definitely got under my skin (no pun intended). The writing was stunning switching from the group to singular and back effortlessly but never unclearly. Hope this makes sense! I had a good albeit eerie unnerving time with this novella.

Thanks NetGalley for the arc!

Never before have I been so afraid of mushrooms.

This is one of those stories that is so deeply uncomfortable but however much you try, you cannot look away. It was so deeply captivating yet confusing in a good way.
The writing style is gorgeous and so immersive. I actually had to turn my lamp back on while reading it was that unnerving. Absolutely recommend to anyone who's a fan of horror. This does not disappoint.

Thank you to NetGalley, Saskia Nislow and Creature Publishing for providing me with an ARC of Root Rot in exchange for an honest review.

I’ll admit, I wasn't sure how I felt for the first 25% of Root Rot. Choosing to use nicknames instead of actual names felt confusing. But as I read on, I began to understand how this disorienting style was intentional. By 40%, I was hooked. The use of nicknames puts the reader in a child’s perspective, where memories feel fragmented and disjointed, much like how we recall events from childhood. This stylistic choice makes it harder to connect to the characters, creating a haunting atmosphere that aligns perfectly with the book’s unsettling tone. It makes you wonder how much was actually happening.

The horror elements are gruesome yet poetic, and the depiction of nature is stunningly haunting, always my favorite aspect of nature horror. The eerie, vivid descriptions blend seamlessly with the disjointed, stream-of-consciousness style, creating an off-balance, unsettling feeling. The writing itself feels intentionally slippery. I often re-read sentences, not because they were unclear, but because they seemed to shift under you, like they couldn’t quite be grasped. This disorienting effect was something I could not get enough of. However, I know that it might not be for everyone.

If you’re a fan of stream-of-consciousness fever dream books that you have to just roll with, don’t mind feeling a bit off balance, and nature-based folk horror, this might be right up your alley. I’ve not stopped thinking about it since I read it, and it’s definitely a book I can’t wait to re-read. I’m giving it 5 stars; I loved it.

Very inventive, don't think I ever read a book narrated in the fourth person. Loved the imagery and the horror of it all. The amount of characters made it a bit difficult to keep track of everyone but the final result was still very atmospheric.

Will replace with full review when it's written.

As far as first offerings, Nislow has created a hell of an introduction for themself. Root Rot is a surrealist allegory that seems to touch on puberty, privilege, and our relationship with the natural world. The details are strange and unnerving, and they have a brilliant eye for imagery.

The allegory aspect of it did leave me cold at times, though. Without proper names amid such a large cast of characters, it was easy to lose track of who you were reading about. The characters have unique aspects to their personality, but I found it all but impossible to keep them straight.

I can’t say enough for Nislow’s imagery, though. There are some horrifying passages in here: the sort of thing to make your flesh crawl. Root Rot is a great way to get this author on your radar. I’m looking forward to seeing what they come up with next.

My thanks to the publisher for offering me this advance readers copy.

Really enjoyed the vivid imagery, the unsettling atmosphere, and the nuanced relationships between the cousins in this novella. I did find the pacing uneven, as the beginning and some of the other sections took me some time to get into. I am still puzzling over the choice to name characters things like "The One with the Beautiful Voice," "The Liar," and "The One Who Runs Away"; I personally found this distracting and confusing. However, the creepiness, dread, and sensory experiences evoked did keep me reading.

This is a weird book and I really don't think I followed. A large family gathers at the grandfather's lake house and then people start disappearing and things get really weird. The lack of character names made it a challenge to follow especially. I did like the weird vibes/atmosphere though. It just might have been a little bit too weird for me.

I did enjoy this book, there’s some weirdly creepy moments and a unique/bizarre ending that I’m just not trying to think about because it’s confusing.

Which is to say, this books is confusing. I don’t know if it’s a me problem or the book but i felt lost throughout 90% of the book. I could barely tell you what it’s about- families get together at an estate and then some weird things happen, that’s it.

It’s made more confusing as the characters are not talking in quotation marks, but an adult will talk at some point in quotations, maybe this is intentional and it’s insinuating something about the children’s voices possibly not being real?

Despite all the confusion it was entertaining, quite a trippy and odd read, as it’s short I still think everyone should try it.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of this novella.

This novella was pretty up and down for me. Out the gate I didn’t love the the point of view but got over that pretty quickly from about 20-70% I was pretty invested and ready for some crazy ish to pop off which does happen but not in the way I was hoping unfortunately…

Ultimately what I was missing was a bit more character development. We know what each kid is supposed to be as they have descriptors rather than names but I wanted that to be shown more than what I got.

Overall it was enjoyable and creepy AF. The cover is BEAUTIFUL. I was just left wanting a bit more.