Initially the cover of Green Fuse Burning is what caught my attention, and then I read the synopsis. I haven't read anything like this novella before and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Learning about the Mi'Kmaq culture was incredibly interesting.
Rita's father has passed away and left her with so many unanswered questions about her culture, she's dealing with an unimaginable grief. Her girlfriend decides to forge an artist's grant application for Rita to get lost in a new art collection. Unfortunately, Rita doesn't have that experience when she stays at a secluded cabin in the woods where her father used to come as a child. She starts hearing and seeing things by the pond, she thought she was alone..
The way grief and climate change was described and talked about in this novella was so well done, a quote that really stuck out was in the afterword, "Wetlands are devalued for the same reason death and trauma are ignored; they are treated as marginal, incidental, unworthy of attention." Rita was such an interesting character to read from and I loved how her experiences were written.
I do think for a novella, the pacing was quite slow for me. I was also expecting more horror aspects since it's been advertised as a horror novella, for someone just getting into horror I would definitely recommend this book to them. Overall, I did enjoy Green Fuse Burning and I would read more from Tiffany Morris.

This was equal parts confusing but also exactly what I needed to read. The novella is divided into parts, each part punctuated by a gallery entry of one of the works the main character, Rita, creates during her residency. Ultimately, the whole story is about grief and our relationship with death. I especially loved how there are multiple different types of grief explored here: the grief of losing a loved one, climate grief (i.e. the grief of seeing things happen to our climate, our world, and being so small and unable to do anything about it; can you tell this was one of the ones that impacted me the most?), the grief of being disconnected from your culture and your language, the grief of a failing relationship, the grief of failing yourself. All of this was wrapped up in a heavily poetic style that could, at times, be overwhelming, but mostly really set the tone of the novella. Besides the grief that hangs heavily over the story, there's also a pervasive unease. Rita is constantly surrounded on all sides by things that she's unsure are real or her own mind tricking her.

Honestly, for a book under 90 pages, this really read heavy--in a good way. I definitely appreciate how full the world seemed, even if there were elements of it that confused me. Truthfully, heavily poetic reads can sometimes take me a bit longer to process, especially when there's not much room to breathe. That, and if you're at all sensitive to body horror and animal death, definitely steer clear. There are trigger warnings, but the way it's written is definitely very visceral and turned my stomach a few times, honestly. But this is definitely something I'd recommend if you're in the right headspace for it, both as an exploration of grief and as something in the horror genre.

Started very interested in this book and then it slowly started felling off as I got further into it. Cool premise but definitely not written for me at all.

Atmospheric, lyrical, Gothic. A beautiful tale of a Mi'kmaq woman coming to terms with death and how her mind processes it. I thought the addition of the description of the paintings throughout was a nice touch and I wish I could see the paintings for real. The flashbacks were slightly confusing.

I was immediately drawn to Green Fuse Burning by its beautiful yet eerie cover and eye catching title. Upon reading the description of the book, I was intrigued by the mystery and suspense intertwined with eco-horror, told through an indigenous lens. Unfortunately, I feel that this author has bitten off more than they can chew for this novella. The attempt to incorporate ecological awareness, the indigenous experience of colonization, queerness, mental health, familial relationships, and loss and grief cause this story to lose its focus and overall impact. This, combined with the purple prose, makes for a distracting and confusing journey for the reader. The suspense and horror I was so excited about fell flat, with nothing really happening until about 50% of the way through the novella. The book also explores suicidal ideation and suicide, which requires a great deal of responsibility on the part of the author to handle it in a thoughtful way. While the book explicitly states that it is not encouraging suicide, I feel that it romanticizes it as a cleansing and rebirth. As a mental health professional, I will never find this acceptable. I do love the potential of this book, but its focus needs to be narrowed with an increase in content over the bloated, overly descriptive meanderings. I believe this author has a lot to say with a voice that deserves to be heard, and I hope they are able to find their focus as they continue to hone their craft. Please read the content warnings before diving into this book.
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*Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy in exchange for an honest review*

Green Fuse Burning for me felt like an atmospheric creepy horror novella. I don't read a lot of horror, so for me, this did feel creepy, but for well versed horror readers, I don't think it would be as 'creepy'. This novella definitely has me wanting to read more queer (and Indigenous) horror.

I also really loved the painting descriptions at the beginning of each chapter. I hope the final version has pictures of what the paintings are supposed to look like because the descriptions were SO GOOD.

Overall, 4 stars! Really enjoyed it.

Overall I’m relatively neutral, didn’t love nor hate it. I appreciate the attempt, but this was a bit more of a slow burn than I expected. While the writing style is very poetic, I think the story as a whole could be a little bit more organized. It was easy to get turned around by the numerous flashbacks, and loose sight of the actual story line.

Thank you to NetGalley, Stelliform Press, and Tiffany Morris for the early opportunity to read this book.

If you are interested in reading a gorgeously written literary horror novella set in the creepy woods where something, or someone, lurks in the muddy waters, look no further.

After her girlfriend Molly gifts her a 7-day artist's retreat at a secluded cabin in the woods, Rita Francis decides to take a break from the mundanity of her job at the art store and seek inspiration in nature. Even though Molly went behind Rita's back and kickstarted a funded art project she clumsily named The Devouring, Rita could not be ungrateful and reject such a generous present. On the first night at the cabin, Rita awakes in the dead of night to the sound of footsteps on gravel and something being thrown into the pond. Her immediate thought is that someone threw a body into the pond, but she sees nothing after peeking out the window. During the rest of her stay in the woods, Rita continues to experience bizarre events, all somehow connected to the large pond near her cabin. After a somnambulistic episode, Rita wakes up in the woods disoriented. Soon she comes face to face with a mysterious woman engulfed in flames. Who is this woman, and what does she want with Rita?

In only 100-ish pages, Green Fuse Burning utterly grips the reader and makes them listen to Rita's story. With its surrealist, introspective writing, Tiffany Morris invites us to the humid, muddy lands of Nova Scotia. Just like the author herself, our protagonist Rita is an Indigenous woman, specifically belonging to the Mi'kmaw people.
Morris's debut novel revolves around the ever-important topic of grief and healing. Years after Rita's father had died, she still struggled to make peace with his passing. Her grief pressed down on her, stifled her creativity, made her passive, and caused a strain on her relationship with Molly. That is why the artist's retreat provided a wonderful opportunity for Rita to connect with the natural world around her and explore the depths of her imagination.

Each chapter of the novella begins with a short review of one of Rita's paintings she had made during her stay at the cabin. Rita's mixed media acrylic paintings represent the mental transmutation she underwent in the woods. The most prominent color in her paintings is green, which Rita associates with grief.
"How would she ever capture that devouring green, even with these shades lined up so perfectly, neatly, their vibrance still nowhere near the sickeningly alive world around her..."

Morris uses body horror to show us Rita struggling with her grief. There are a few graphic scenes but nothing too gory. Green Fuse Burning is a tale of normalizing death and grief. We all face loss at some point in our lives. The novella sends a message that we should not shy away from grieving. It can be a messy, exhausting, and long-lasting process, but we should not deny ourselves the experience. Grief is a deeply transformative time for everyone. As Rita says, we do not protect life by denying death's existence. Green Fuse Burning is a powerful elegy to the cycle of death and life, grief and healing. It is also a love letter to wetlands, swamps, bogs, and the rest.
Thank you to Netgalley for the review copy!

DNF - This is simply a case of the story not working for me. I wasn't a fan of the art description at the beginning of a series of events nor was I a fan of the rollout of tidbits that came afterwards. I appreciated the premise of this book & was eager to read it but, it just didn't work for me. That being said, readers who are unfamiliar with the facet of dreams in culture & horror will find much to appreciate & enjoy in this book - I hope they get their hands on this.