This was a strange read. I would almost call it erotica, with how much sex there was in such a short book, and not much horror feeling at all.

I do love a good story exploring our mistreatment of nature (looking at you, Hayao Miyazaki!!), but this fell a bit flat for me. I think it could have been really well executed with better writing. Almost all of my gripes are more on the technical side, with unnecessarily repetitive descriptions that took me out of the scene. I don't feel like the same character's hair color needs to be described when there is nothing different.

The lack of reaction from our main character in regards to the tree-ification of himself made it all feel silly too, not really lending to any type of horrified feelings. Pretty much everyone else in the story also being like "yeah sometimes the tree people do this kinda stuff, whatcha gonna do 🤷🏼‍♀️" was like oh.... Okee dokee then?

I wish I DNF’d at 15% completion.
The child-like descriptions of the dryad, Roman, made me extremely uncomfortable because of the sexual aspect to Erik’s relationship with them. “Youthful aura” and “young appearance” were not easy to overlook, even though it was explained that Roman is supposed to be “much, much older” than Erik. The lack of communication between them added to the perception that the dryad was child-like. There was some development on that throughout the book, but it was surface level and only the communication of basic feelings or needs was shown.
Everything, from the connection between Erik and Roman to the conflict with the wood-folk, felt surface level and lacked any of the nuance that there is to that sort of problem.

I can’t speak for A.L. Davidson’s other works, but I know this book is not one that I would recommend.

I received an e-ARC and am giving this review voluntarily

I really enjoyed this book!! I looked forward to coming back to it and thought about it constantly between reading. I loved the descriptions of the dryads, the imagery was incredible. It made me itch to draw what I was picturing, botanical horror is such a favorite of mine. The idea of the story itself was incredible as well, I loved the idea of the wood people revolting due to humans chopping down their home, mixed with the romance of the dryad and Erik.

I do agree with some other reviewers about Erik and the dryad’s relationship feeling a bit iffy for a couple of reasons, their childlike demeanor as well as the somewhat dub-con nature of some sexual things. However, I feel most of it was explained and such but not entirely.

However, I did enjoy the relationship between Erik and the dryad/Roman. I thought that the intricacies of the different cultures between human and dryad, as well as the language barrier. It was interesting to see how they overcame the difficulties this introduced. I loved Roman’s mannerisms and am dying to know if there’s any art Davidson commissioned of them. I’m so interested to see what they look like off page. I really liked the descriptions of them, and of how they affected Erik’s body. The botanical gore aspect was so, so cool and intriguing. I can’t stop thinking about all of the imagery.

There were definitely some bits that seemed underwritten / not fully fleshed out (i.e. Michael) and the ending definitely shocked me, but I believe there’s a HEA in the next book (?) so very much looking forward to that!

Thank you to BDA Publishing and NetGalley for this e-ARC for review.

I was very curious and excited to read this novella (excellent cover too), but I didn’t enjoy it as much as I had hoped to. The mystery was not as drawn out, which changed the spooky atmosphere, and there were far too many perspective changes. The concept was excellent, it just seemed to have been a bit overworked, especially for a novella. YMMV.

So, this is my first read by author A.L. Davidson.
I was drawn to read it by the cover, title, and synopsis.
To me, this was a story of healing, understanding, queerness, greed, and nature.
It read more like a mystery/thriller, fantasy for me versus a horror.
The story line was great: Erik, having to leave school and come back to work at his uncle's mill. Mill workers beginning to disappear, later to be found mangled and in nests. We are also introduced to Aunt Grace, Sheriff Carl, and deceased mother of Erik, Junie, as well as "Roman".
From here, it got a bit slow for me, even though I could follow the story line as well as the different character POVs.
However, Roman was noted to be 30 years old, but they seemed to have been written as if they were a child. Wasn't feeling that part at all.
I understood the connection to nature and the woods and Woodfolk Erik had and from where he developed that connection. I appreciate the back story provided that lead up to the unimaginable, unthinkable.
The ending was what I expected, kind of, with regard to Erik. But it just didn't give me the thrill and scare I'd hoped for from the synopsis. The title however is SPOT ON!
It seems as if there is to be a book two; I do have to read it, as I would like to find out what happened to Erik and Roman.
Overall, a 3.5 STAR read- rounded up to 4.

A romantic ecohorror for those listening to Hozier on a dark winters night.

Davidson constructs a lush and gloomy story deep in the mountains of a small logging town about to pay it's penance for years of destruction in the name of man. In the center of it all, a boy falls in love with a dryad which unfurls a complicated legacy from his late mother's love of the trees.

I enjoyed this book's heart and sweet combination of romance and sting of horror. Although a little too robust in the descriptions at time, Davidson writes a compelling story that invests you early and keeps you wondering until the final act. 4/5 stars.

(Rounded down from 2.5)

I recently read another novella by Davidson, The Scientist, the Spaceman, and the Stars Between Them, and I enjoyed that quite a bit, an almost-cost, queer, ecohorror story set on a lonely space station. So, I was excited for that same voice to turn to the woods and see how it might eschew the sci-fi in favor of folk horror…. And, I have to say, I wish I enjoyed this story more. The overall story itself is interesting and fun, but the writing and craft of the story didn’t work for me.

I think the story itself worked well. This one is certainly not cozy, and that works in its favor. The ideas behind the story and the different elements in play were all fun. What I think ultimately let me down was the story felt overwritten, and character/human logic sometimes secondary to plot points. This also included characters who were woefully underwritten. Characters that were given great sketches, they had a lot of potential, but none of that was explored meaningfully. I have read the author’s other work and know, from that, they can be quite skilled in crafting characters and plot/narrative. I think here there is just more story than a novella of this length could contain. If the story had 50 more pages then the characters could have been fleshed out more, and there be more context to connect scenes and events in a smoother, less jarring ways. The overarching ecological themes could have been more spaced out and felt more natural.

Overall, I loved the concepts, and the story has promise but it fell a little short of other writing I have read from the author, and therefore of my expectations. It is a short novella, and as I said the overall story is fun, so if you have keen interest in ecohorror and mythological woodland folk then it might be worth checking out.

I want to thank the author, the publisher BDA Publishing, and NetGalley, who provided a complimentary eARC for review. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Thank you to NetGalley and BDA Publishing for allowing me to read this ARC!

My initial opinion of this book si tghat it was trying to be too many things at once. Mystery, horror, romance, fantasy; it just didn't work as a whole.
Meeting the wood-folk and "monster" so early in plot took a lot away from the investigation of missing people and the reveal that Grace and the sheriff knew about them the whole time.
I also struggled with the constantly changing POVs. There was no separation of paragraphs to give you a hint that it changed, and I had to do a lot of rereading to figure out whose eyes I was meant to be looking out of.
The romance with Roman felt rushed, and I wasn't really rooting for them throughout the story. Honestly, I felt John got the short end of the stuck. I truly do not believe he deserved his fate. He was made out to be the villain, but at the end of the day he offered Erik a home, a life, a career, and a future. And has really no one considered just replanting trees?!

TLDR: Man falls in love with a tree and sacrifices himself, his family and their legacy to be with them.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced copy.

DNF at 20% after skimming through to the end.

A great, original concept, sadly lacking in execution. The writing lost me within the first couple of pages. If the author could drop about 70% of the adjectives and describe things in a clean, clear manner it would really help the story flow. "Show, don't tell" applies here. There were also some really jarring perspective shifts, rapidly switching character POV from one paragraph to the next. I thought the characters were really appealing and thanks to the very detailed descriptions they were easy to envision.

This just was not at all for me, hopefully others will have a different experience. This book is somehow not listed on the author's GoodReads so I was unable to share this review there.

CW: death, gore, blood, sexual content, body horror, mentioned death of a parent, dub-con(?), infertility

I'm having trouble deciding if I liked the book or not. I kind of enjoyed reading it but I'm having trouble finding actually positive things to say about the book.

I really liked the set-up of the story: wood-folk killing humans because humans kill their land. That would have made for a great ecohorror, even with the romance.
But it then it mostly focuses on the relationship and it was cute? Kind of? And I know that the dryad is over 30 but the fact that they acted like a child/are very child-like made me a bit uncomfortable. So I was disappointed in that.
There was also some subtext/set up for the ending being very different/ a lot more horrorish but I suppose I just imagined that?

But what mostly irritated me was the omnipotent narrator. On one hand it's kinda cool to know exactly what every character is feeling but on the other that "switch of POV" from paragraph to paragraph is so different from what I'm used to reading that it is very irritating. And with that narrator everything is "tell not show". It hindered me from actually connecting with any of the characters. This could have been a very emotional story but I think that choice of narrator ruined that.

(Also that one random biblical reference, what was that about)

When I finished it I thought this might be a 3-4 Star read, but now that I wrote the review and keep thinking about it the worse it gets.
So one last thing:
It was implied multiple times that the sexual stuff wasn't fully consensual from like all of the characters but that had no impact on the story/ending whatsoever.

After reading this, I'm struggling to find the words to describe my thoughts.

I am curious about this author's other works and plan to check them out.

The cover is gorgeous, and the premise is promising. An eco-horror and a romance. It is a story of grief, loss, and acceptance of yourself and others that society mostly refuses to acknowledge -all fantastic things.

Some of it was very on the nose. Greed and capitalism have a catastrophic effect on the environment. Which I can look past.

What I can't look past is the overtelling. It's described to death. The characterizations are off. I'm all for an age gap, but not when the supposedly ancient dryad is constantly being described like its a child.

My other main complaint is the switch-up in narration. I can handle a switch-up after chapters or even mid-chapter, but sometimes the change happens in the middle of a paragraph. Trust me my brain works like that, but it doesn't work for the story. It's confusing as hell. Eventually, my brain stopped reading and moved to skimming because it couldn't keep up.

I love the idea behind this, and I think it could have been something great and unique, but it falls flat in its current state. It needs a major overhaul to save it, in my opinion, and I'm not sure if that's something possible before publication or at all

idea entirely was SO COOL and i'm a huge fan of this vaguely horror romance stuff. but the big flaw is the writing style. it was understandable, but so much of it felt like it was just.... off. 3 stars. tysm for the arc. if the writing is fixed for the release, probably closer to a 4 star read.

The Season of Stick and Bone by A.L. Davidson was interesting but weirdly paced and I wasn't really feeling the romance but overall I enjoyed it.

Thanks to NetGalley and BDA Publishing for the ARC.

DNF @5%.

i will just leave it at the fact that this is very overwritten and like another reviewer said, this makes the writing stilted, confusing and completely takes you out of the story.

i’m sad because what bda has had idea wise recently has been very exciting and while the premise for this was also exciting, it ultimately flopped very hard.

i really don’t have many suggestions other than to cut down on the words. a.l. davidson, please know that your story idea is great and has great potential, but that you need some stable and plain writing first and foremost.

1/5 because of the DNF :(

This was definitely the worst book I've read from NetGalley. I'm actually aghast. There's telling not showing and then there's whatever this is. No person speaks like this to any other person, and every gesture or thought is not just described but beaten to death with explanatory text. Places "reek of ecological violence and capitalism." People say "my legacy doesn't lie in a building" to each other, verbally. Someone "assures, as they extend their hand," but in case you didn't know what the verb assures implies the narrator clarifies, "The mannerism they had picked up during their short time together radiated a soft comfort. Safety. Connection. They knew that an outstretched hand meant an offering of protection. That, in his moment of fear, they could reassure him. Though their ability to converse was limited, they could tell Erik was uneasy, and they ached because of it." Thank god we beat that horse dead for a full paragraph, I never would have been able to interpret the mystifying and bizarre act of touching a crying person otherwise. There's no arc for any of the characters, no build up to anything, no stakes. Random reveals that should be earth-shattering have no lead-up and no fall out. Not a single person reacts normally to a single thing. Wild experience. Also his dad being Hozier made me actually, audibly snort.

This had that ecohorror element perfectly and enjoyed the concept going on in this world. The characters felt like they belonged in this world and story. A.L. Davidson has a great writing style and enjoyed how everything continued how good everything was. It had that romance element that I wanted and was glad I read this.

I have complicated feelings about this book, and I truly believe that's the best way to summarize it. I don't hate this book, but I found it difficult to find things I liked about it. I did enjoy the overall writing style. While heavy on prose, The Season of Stick and Bone is evidently inspired by the rustic mythology of lyricists such as Hozier, Noah Kahan and The Oh Hellos. Davidson does an excellent job emulating this feeling throughout the text and I did enjoy the rolling descriptions and ornate style.

That being said, parts of the writing style undermined the reading experience. Dialogue and character descriptions fell short - one line that stuck with me was "It's the mills and the canneries and the capitalism," which felt like a bit of a heavy-handed explanation of an ecohorror piece. Moreover, I despised how Roman and Erik were written, especially Roman's childlike-despite-being-an-ancient-being and Erik's weird macho. I grew exhausted by the constant reminders of how small and lithe and fragile and weak and naive Roman was in comparison to stoic and protective Erik. It was just kind of annoying to read about when I'm supposed to be rooting for the romance between them. I think it was exacerbated by the lack of a distinct characterization of Erik, I struggled to resonate with him in the slightest. However, some characters, such as Aunt Grace were much better defined and a better representation of Davidson's skills as a writer.

Overall this book is good for a quick read and for fans of Hozier/Noah Kahan/swamp or bog deity vibes. However, I personally couldn't get some of the hurdles in the overall narrative. It's a 2.5/5 stars from me.

This book. Oh My Goodness - this fucking book!!

The writing style and the setting truly had me completely engulfed in this story from start to finish. I could smell the eucalyptus scent and scent of the forest and the mill. I could feel the wind in my hair and upon my skin, I could taste the whisky and pomegranates on my tongue. I could hear the buzz of the saws from the sawmill and feel the coziness of Erik's home as if it were the blanket wrapping me up while I read each page. Each and every word so eloquently written to create an atmosphere you can truly get lost in.

This book, despite not being my normal genre of read, gave me so much and more than I ever expected. The characters felt fleshed out and lively, I felt like Erik was someone I could have gone to school with in my lifetime. I loved learning about Roman, experiencing the child-like wonder at the world around them, and watching as their relationship with Erik grew. I can't even put into words the gut punch the ending was to me, and I can't wait to see where Davidson takes this in book two.

All in all, I would definitely recommend to friends looking for a something with eloquent language and beautiful prose featuring elements of romance, fantasy, and eco-horror elements, with a storyline that keeps you engaged from start to finish.

This novella has so many great concepts, themes and subject matters, however, personally the execution of these ideas is underwhelming and not fully fleshed-out. The horror element was lacking and the romance didn't feel authentic. The dryad Roman is a classic Born Sexy Yesterday and Erik is very one note. The uncle was the only character that I found interesting simply beacuse he is touted as an antagonist. I enjoyed the prose and language that was used, I just wish that it was more consistent. Ultimately the length is working against this particular story. With so many elements contesting each other and the story it's trying to tell its hard to enjoys as a horror or a romance. This book has potential to be extraordinary if it is given more time to expand on the setting, charcters personalities, and their motivations.

The Season of Stick and Bone was my first Ecohorror novella, and I really liked it! I loved the lead character, Erik, and the unconventional love story between him and a Dryad, Roman. This is my first book I’ve read that involved forest based folklore, and I thought it was very unique. However, I wish it were about 50 pages longer. I wanted more gore and horror, as well as more time allotted for the ending.

SPOILERS BELOW:






- Something about the Dryad felt very child-like. Which was a little uncomfortable for me. Erik does mention Roman's rings and how they're probably 30+ years old, but it still felt like they were "young" in nature
- The ending was all over the place. I liked the idea of the mill being burned to the ground, but it seemed a little rushed.
- The story of the aunt being in love with Erik's Mom, was kind of random, but I get why they included it into the story.
- I wish there was more gore & horror overall, I liked the first scene of the man being strung up in the Mill's loft by the vines and roots, but it was very similar to the second scene of how the Uncle died.