The cover is what initially captured my attention. When I decided to read this short story, I had no idea what I was in for.

Our story starts out with the main character, Rosemary, along with her husband, enjoying the beautiful garden Thomas has planted for his ailing wife. The pace picks up right from jump - with the first chapter giving us a tiny peek into the horrors that are to come. Quickly, we learn not everything is as it seems. The story races along with all the speed and terror of a bullet train to Hell. In this book, the cost of a miracle... monstrous evil in disguise.

Delightfully weird. A super quick but very fun read!

Think of grief and what it can do to a person; then, imagine if that grief, all its loss and wants, manifested itself into your worst nightmare. That is what I felt here, grief growing into a garden of horrors. This was a thrilling, fast-paced, dirty ride and I loved it. This is short-story horror done correctly. The author gave plenty of information in just the correct way to move the story along without dragging into the details. I also love that our main characters, Rosemary and Thomas, "give in to the drama" of the garden of miracles (we know as an audience it's a horrible idea but, I can't help giving into the drama too).

this is a perfectly weird short horror story.

Thomas's wife Rosemary has cancer. When she arrives home from the hospital, Thomas surprises her with the completed garden she's always dreamed of. But when an accident awakens the cabbage growing there, things take a turn for the worst.

I thought the writing in this was great and I very quickly felt connected to the main characters. The pacing in this was perfect for a short story and the author does not keep you waiting - the craziness and weirdness begins very quickly and follows up with a descent into madness.

This is definitely one of those short stories that I would totally read if it was ever a full length novel 🙌🏻



***book recs may be slightly spoilery***
Read if you like:
-Pet Sematary or Crossroads for the 'resurrected family' element
-The Country Will Bring Us No Peace for ominous storytelling & grief over the loss of a child
-Helpmeet for the combination of illness & weird nature

This short story was so cool. I love weird horror. One of my favorite things in horror is that you can literally take anything and find the dark side of it and tap into fear. This story definitely gave me goosebumps for adults vibes.

What I loved about this was that it taps into a few different emotional psychoses, Thomas’s wife is dying, she previously had a child she lost, and their relationship together as a whole being not 100% great due to a spoiler fact I won’t mention. The whole story isn’t just about this weird cabbage patch, it’s made creepy and genuinely horrific because it is grounded in these very real emotional feelings and relationships.

This is a perfect snapshot of these two people’s lives together in a transition period of simply making Rosemary feel comfortable before her death. Something horribly wrong and tragic coming to pass by accident that twists hope into a terrible situation. Their relationship may not have ever been perfect, but you feel his dedication to Rosemary and the horror of seeing her feelings darken due to something the cabbage patch brings that I will not name.

It was so well done and well written with lots of description that felt rooted in the garden feel of the story even in scenes not necessarily in the Cabbage patch itself. I really loved this!

What, and I cannot stress this enough, the HECK did I just read here? Absolutely bonkers in all the right ways.

It isn't often something so outrageously imaginative comes along like ths; something that shrugs the rules of writing off its shoulders and delivers such an enjoyable and very carefully crafted book.

The story centres around an older couple, both very much in love still - although one is terminally ill. Without spoiling anything, the fecundity of their garden bears fruit of increasingly worrying proportions based on their needs and wishes. Produce worthy of Poe himself.

It's a fast read - it's an incredibly enjoyable read. So please, get your cerebral chops around Cabbage and have some fun.

I’m going to start this review by saying that I absolutely had no idea what I was getting myself into however I really ended up liking it. I liked the idea, the whole garden coming alive thanks to Rosemary’s tainted blood and how it all played out. I was just kind of sad that we didn’t get more/ the story wasn’t longer. Normally I don’t mind some mystery, but I was still left with a lot of questions at the end.
I do love the whole symbolism behind the ending, I think what the writer wanted to teach us was that miracles are miracles because they don’t happen often and with Rosemary asking more and more, it all went downhill. So what I’ve learned from this short story is: be careful what you wish for and stay away from cabbages 😉

Cabbage by C.S. Fritz is a bizarre short story that repurposes the classic childhood nostalgia of Cabbage Patch Kids in a self contained, but weird tale. It focuses on an elderly couple who, through a short series of miracles (or perhaps ill fated luck) find a small child in their farmland's vegetable patch.

Beyond that, it is also a tale about pain, about grief, and about sacrifice. What happens when we spill blood in the name of desire? What happens when we put too much of ourselves into another person or a thing? It's about what changes a person when it comes down to desperation and grief, and how the intricacies of life and death intertwine.

All in all, Cabbage was a fun little tale that was both eerie and addicting, kept the pages turning, and carries the weight of a full range of emotions within it.

Thank you Netgalley, Albatross Book Co., and Independent Book Publishers Association for this arc.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

This is a very strong horror novella, with definite eldritch influences and lashings of faerie tale sprinkled throughout. It was a really fun read, with some very graphic descriptions of the situation and the challenges that the characters were facing. I do wish that this story was one in a full collection of these types of stories - It would work so much nicer and would really allow for things to be fleshed out a little more.

The characters could have also stood to have had a little more development, but all in all this was a strong horror short story with really interesting influences. I'd be keen to see more of what the author can do with the influences drawn into this book.

This was a good little story. It only took about 20/30 minutes to read but the writing was smooth and easy to follow, and the horror was paced well.

Rosemary is dying of cancer, and it is up to her husband Thomas to care for her. While she has been at the hospital, Thomas has lovingly built her the garden of her dreams. One night, Thomas accidentally spills Rosemary’s blood in the garden, and monstrous things follow soon after.

I would definitely read from this author again. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the arc.

I want to say a huge thank you netgalley for an advanced ARC of this short story

While reading this short horror story I felt for the main character, his the carer for his dying wife doing All he can for here in her last days.

When they story begins you see him showing her the garden his done & each section of the garden has a loving memory to their past. Reading this I was feeling the love come off the page, now days it's rare to find love that shows it in ways no one would think to and this is a a way his wife can see the love each day displayed right in her back garden.

The most painful thing is losing yourself in the process of loving someone else too much....

Earnest Hemingway

While going on this journey of love, despair, heartache and fear... we see though the husbands elderly eyes that life is not so sweet, full of hardship that he tries to fight but its always front and center in his mind . But one day when the cabbages start to act weird at first he is excited but slowly starts to realise that everything comes at a cost.

His wife see's what's happening though as a miracle and one she wants to take full advantage of but her blood is needed.

As time goes by you see the wife's character change and shift into something that's not like her at all or is it?

Allot of time in life people keep how they truly feel to themselves, so this could be the real her finally showing her true colours ?!!

The grief in this short story fro. The husband and the irrationality of the wife shows more then what's just on the page.... I would of loved for this story to be longer because it left more to be explored in this tale.

This was a short story but it packed a hell of a punch! So eerie, daunting, creepy. It was so captivating and so good!!!

So short but very interesting and well written. What was meant as a gift ended up giving the dying Rosemary and her husband Thomas the possibility of what can only be considered miracles. But regrets from the past made them ask for what cannot be returned and this results in a crop that strains their minds and relationship and ends up in their demise.
“Does the seed know it must die?”

I was immediately struck by the unique and peculiar storyline. It was intriguing and captivating, drawing me in right from the start and I remained interested throughout the story. However, I couldn't help but feel that it was too short and rushed. At just under 50 pages, it seemed to end just as it was really getting started. Given the excellent concept and potential, I felt that the storyline could have benefited from more character development and backstory. Despite this, I found the book to be an unusual and creative story, and I recommend this book to anyone looking for a quick and unique read.

3.5 stars
Recommended if you like: weird stories, eco horror

This review has been posted to Goodreads as of 2/29 and will be posted to my book blog on 3/28.

This is....not horror. I would dare say it isn't even creepy. It is weird, I'll give it that, but I spent the whole novella bracing for something that never came. The last chapter arrived and I was kind of left sitting there like "that's it?". While I'm sure the events of the story were unsettling for the characters, I didn't find any of it all that worrisome.

Rosemary isn't that likeable of a character, and I don't think she's supposed to be, but other than at the very beginning, there's little to endear her to readers the way she seems to have endeared herself to Thomas. Thomas is remarkably devoted to her, even when she's awful to him, and it's clear he loves her and doesn't know how to help her, but at the same time...there's a distance between all those feelings and how I felt toward her. Similarly, while Thomas is the main actor in the story, he's also just kind of there. His horror at the garden's 'curse' is hollow and even the high point of his terror at the very end felt meh.

I think the problem with this book is that the setup is so fantastic, and I've been treated to fantastic takes of similar stories, that distant characters and a distinct lack of true horror makes this story fall flat. T. Kingfisher has a number of eco-horror novellas that are short but manage to pack both emotion and horror into them. Likewise, I've read some eco-horror YA novels that manage to convey the simmering, low-level terror characters get when something natural is just a little bit Off. I wanted this book to be like those. I wanted to feel unnerved and wanted to see the terror the garden could unleash, and instead things just fell kind of flat.

⇢ 4.4 ★

thank you to netgalley for the ARC.

if you enjoyed the films "annihilation" or "mother!", get your hands on this short story immediately. i was enamored by this story. in horror, i am a firm believer that the "nature's revenge" trope is criminally underutilized. fritz did a STELLAR job at this. i was listening to the curated playlist the author included with the story, and it gave me chills the entire time i was reading. it's a quick read-- i finished it in one setting. i quite literally could not put this one down. i think this would be a superb A24 film, or even a short film. the poems implemented into the beginning of each chapter were right on point with each chapter's theme. the artwork between each chapter was stunning as well.

fitz does an excellent job at creating atmosphere. in the beginning, you are following along with the lives of this objectively wholesome older couple. the wife has stage four pancreatic cancer, and her dying wish was for her husband to plant her a gorgeous garden. however, you can literally feel this overwhelming sense of dread as the storyline progresses. the playlist the author provides in the book was SO perfect for each scene. it's my understanding fitz has another book, "a fig for all the devils", and i 100% plan to get my hands on it as soon as possible. the author's writing is gorgeous and haunting.

౨ৎ TRIGGER WARNINGS
ᡣ𐭩 body horror

౨ৎ QUOTES
ᡣ𐭩 "Does the seed know it must die? Does the seed know that with the springing forth of every wild rose, the seed in the earth must first die? Crushed by its own purpose for life to blossom. But does the seed have a choice? Does the earth ever pardon it? Does the black dirt cry or feel remorse? This is what garden soil longs to do, to break and bless the ground. To fill the green world with fresh color. Resurrecting shades of dragon pink and angel blue... but does the seed know this? Do you?"

I enjoyed this for a short horror. I felt unnerved and I think that the escalation of it was just right for a short story, it didn't feel like it was rushed or that everything happened right at the end.

What would you do when you accidentally spill a loved one’s blood in your garden, only for it to birth a mind-blogging, horrific creature of sorts the next day?

For Thomas, he does what his dying wife wants. He takes more of her blood and sprinkles it over their garden — the one she dreamed of so he worked hard to turn into reality — and the next day, her wish comes true. She does this again and again, and it gets more ghastly the more she loses herself in this “miraculous” ability of hers that could give her what she has always, truly wanted: her deceased baby back to life and proper parents to care for the child.

In essence, this short story is hair-raising. It’s so creepy, so odd that imagining it brings shivers down my spine. Sadly, the juvenile execution does this short story no justice.

Cabbage suffers from writing with a flow akin to endless stumbling. It switches between moments of smoothness and moments when the imagery sticks out like a sore thumb. For instance, the usage of “thick, purple life” for blood coming out of a human’s veins makes it feel alien/sci-fi but it’s not? And, the phrase “his leaking wife” should sound scary but brings incontinence to mind instead of what’s actually intended.

Moreover, both Thomas and Rosemary aren’t fleshed out enough, even for a short story. Thomas feels too caricaturish. Rosemary has stronger wants, needs and desires but is relegated to side character status. Neither make me want to root for them even though I understand where they’re coming from. Nevertheless, I do think Cabbage would’ve worked better in Rosemary’s POV because of those aforesaid wants, needs and desires. There’s a lot of potential for it to have a stronger horror/gothic atmosphere too.

Also, this might just be me, but the playlist, poems and quotes were unnecessary. Sure, they’re cool but I believe that when doing this, they should be there to add to the short story. Instead, they appear as distractions here because they don’t really bring value or depth and rather, act more like an attempt to cover up the aspects that were lacking.

Everything considered, Cabbage could’ve been a haunting tale but ultimately fell short.

This book is weird, but too me not super horror-y. It is a short story so there wasn't a lot of explanation because there wasn't that much time but I felt a little lost at the big turning point like what actually happened all those years ago. The end I didn't see coming and it made sense for the most part.

Thanks to netgally and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book!

This is a perfect short story.
A little old man and a little old woman live on a farm all alone.
The little old woman is nearing the end of her life and the little old man wants to make her last days special.
What we don't know at first is that the little old man is trying to forget past wrongs while the little old woman will never forget.
A strange miracle comes their way that gives the little old woman her revenge and the little old man his undoing.
Can't wait to read more from this author.
10/10 no notes.

“Cabbage” is the marriage of a love and horror story that explores the extreme lengths people would go to for their loved ones.

Thomas plants Rosemary’s dream garden to cheer her up during her final days on Earth, but this beautiful gift quickly turns into Thomas’ nightmare.

This short story was an easy, quick read. The plot moves forward quickly and consistently; it doesn’t allow you to catch your breath which really helps play into the suspense the end of the book creates. The plot is also something I have never read before. If the words “cursed cabbage patch” appeal to you, you should give this a read. The wording and imagery used was also super vivid, and the images between chapters worked perfectly to really make the “miracles” into a solid picture in my mind.

Trigger warnings: blood, live burial