As an avid Mira Grant fan who has reread the Newsflesh and Parasitology trilogies numerous times, I had high hopes for Overgrowth and it did not disappoint.

Stasia has no qualms about telling it how it is: she's an alien. As a child, her human form went into the forest and something else came out. But Stasia has spent thirty years living a human life with human relationships, so when the invasion she was sent her for finally happens, she's got some choices to make..

I love the way Mira Grant writers people. You can't help but root for her characters, even if they are an ambassador for an alien species. The story is suspenseful and very satisfyingly morally grey - it's Invasion of the Body Snatchers for the next generation, and how far should you go to protect a planet hellbent on destroying itself?

Well worth the wait and I can't wait to tell everyone about it!

Overgrowth by Mira Grant

I have loved Mira Grant before I ever heard of Seanan McGuire. I was first introduced to her work when her book Parasite, written as Mira Grant, was nominated for a Hugo Award - that year, the person in charge of ebook buying for my local library got copies of all of the Hugo nominated works and that one was by far my favorite. I loved it and quickly devoured the Newsflesh series before I realized that Mira Grant and Seanan McGuire were the same person.

I started reading her works under her own name, starting with Sparrow Hill Road, which is amazing, but I picked it because I was intimidated by her long running October Daye series. I eventually fell in love with October and the Incryptid series, and her Velveteen Vs. series holds a very special place in my heart.

But science fiction has always been my first love with fantasy coming in second place, so I have always gravitated towards the Mira Grant books. After Tor got the rights to publish more October Daye and Incryptid books from Astra (formerly known as DAW) I was wondering if they would also be putting out more Mira Grant titles. I’m so glad to be right!

I remembered reading the initial description of this book in 2023 on Ms. McGuire’s social media and thinking to myself “ oh, hey, she wrote an autobiography”. You see, I remembered reading an interview years ago where Ms. McGuire said that she firmly believed that she was the vanguard of an invasion of alien plant people - she came out of the woods as a child and told that to her family. She has mentioned this on her old live journal and elsewhere over the years. (I always personally wondered if this was a response to a childhood trauma but it is folly to try to armchair psychoanalyze someone you don’t know based on what they say online). But I was quite intrigued when Tor and NetGalley gave me an eARC of Overgrowth in exchange for an honest review.

This book is excellent. The sense of creeping dread is palpable. I was enjoying this book but I kept having to put it down at different points to savor the impending doom - it is not a book to rush through.

The characters feel very real in what slowly becomes a very unreal scenario. I had a few quibbles with the government reactions at different points in the novel but all of it was very minor. The author described it as a “cozy apocalypse” novel, not meaning that the end of the world is relaxing , but that it has a very tight focus on the characters. That is a really good description.

I really enjoyed this book and I cannot wait for the next Mira Grant novel.

I want to be disappointed by this, but alas I cannot. I can only remain solidly neutral. Solidly neutral about everything Mira Grant writes. Despite her ideas being completely and wholly up my alley, there is something about her writing that just does not sit well with me. I’ve tried and tried so many times, but I just can never get immersed into any story she writes. Which is so frustrating, because of the whole aforementioned “every synopsis sounds like it’s going to be my favourite thing ever”.

So here we are again. I don’t think I’m fully equipped to give an opinion on this one. It might be good, it might be bad. I just can’t focus on anything except the clobbery writing style. Which is probably a me problem.

Mira Grant, who also writes as Seanan McGuire and A. Deborah Baker, is so incredibly prolific it is near impossible to keep up with her body of work. I have read a few of her series, but lost track of her several years ago, of her older stuff I particularly enjoyed the Newsflesh series (2011-18) and the Parasitology trilogy (2013-14). Best known as a science fiction and fantasy writer, I also featured her teen contribution to the Alien franchise Alien: Echo (2019) in my own YA Horror 400 almanac (2024). Grant has either won or been nominated for a huge number of genre awards, including the Hugo, the Shirley Jackson, the Philip K Dick, the Lotus, World Fantasy, and the British Fantasy Awards. Effortlessly moving between genres, adult and YA age groups, Grant has stacked up multiple nominations for many of these prestigious awards.

Overgrowth finds Grant in scintillating form and one wonders how she can continue to come up with such fresh plots after penning so many other novels. I hope this picks picks up sizable attention and is not lost amongst her prolific output, as it deserves to find a generous audience. Billed as “Invasion of the Body Snatchers meets Day of the Triffids in this full-on body horror/alien invasion apocalypse” is both an accurate and wayward description of what is a very thoughtful novel. Ultimately it concerns an alien invasion, but Overgrowth is not a smash-bang-wallop sort of story and is more concerned with the big questions of what it means to be human. If you want more action driven alien invasion novels then check out three of my personal favourites; Larry Niven’s Footfall (1985), Will McIntosh’s Defenders (2014) and Robert McCammon’s The Border (2015).

There is a massive amount to unpack in Overgrowth and it takes its time getting there, almost playing down that at some point (the novel features a chapter countdown) there will be an alien invasion of some kind. The book is more about how we arrive there, particularly the personal journey of narrator and main character Anastasia (Stasia) Miller, who works in a helpdesk call centre, is in her mid-30s and is reasonable content with her life, boyfriend, housemates and cat called Seymour (there’s your first sly clue; do you know of any plants with this name?).

Predominately set in the 2030s, the novel opens in the early noughties when Stasia is three and playing in the woods behind her house before being sucked into a tree which is not of this earth. She then disappears for three days before miraculously walks out of the forest unharmed. However, from that day forward Stasia has a strong compulsion to tell everybody that she is an alien and comes from a distant planet. She continues to do this into adulthood, with others thinking she is a weirdo, find it cute or has mental health problems. Stasia does not know why she believes this but is certain it is true without knowing why. Her friends are happy enough to humour her, as she is obviously harmless and pleasant company. I loved this quirky angle; the main character is very open about being an alien but is dismissed by all and sundry!

I do not wish to say any more of the plot except that NASA announce that they have discovered a signal coming from outer space, which is 100% alien, and all of a sudden everybody is looking at Stasia with more than side glances. Things get even more interesting, Stasia is not alone, it turns out thousands of other ‘humans’ had the same childhood experience as Stasia. This was an incredibly clever premise for a book which had me thinking of the short lived TV show Alien Nation (1990), what if aliens lived amongst us, do we automatically need to treat them as hostiles or a threat? Overgrowth has a lot of fun with this idea, as Stasia Miller is the most least threatening character you could ever come across, but if given the choice how easy would it be to abandon humanity (who would look after her cat?) for some distant inherent calling from across the galaxy?

In further reference to Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Day of the Triffids if you ever wondered how the science worked in the aliens replacing the humans then you will have a lot of fun with this book, as it goes into highly detailed and creative descriptions. As for comparisons with the latter, Triffids are wallflowers in comparison to what is heading towards Earth! Although this is not particularly an action novel, there were still some wild scenes in the final third where Stasia has to make some dig decisions.

Overgrowth is significantly more than just an alien invasion story; it’s a deeply imaginative and thoughtful exploration of identity, belonging, and the very powerful and dangerous unknown which might lurk in the stars. But even if humanity is in chaos, in dangerous of extinction, Anastasia Miller is still concerned whether her cat Seymour is being fed. This is also a genuinely clever spin on aliens being “little green men”, both partially correct and horribly wrong!

4.5/5

A stand-alone with great potential for a sequel imo:)

When Stasia was a toddler, she wandered off into the woods. She soon returned unharmed and physically unchanged but insisted she was now an alien plant-being and that one day she would be reunited with her kind. And the real crazy part? She wasn’t alone. All around the world, others were waiting for the Return. Eco-sci-fi-horror is my Jam.

I loved this book! Why can't more horror be written like this? It really made me think about the future of humanity and what could happen to us in the future. I adore a plant based science fiction novel and this was perfection. I am hoping we see more sci-fi and fantasy horror in the future. Excellent writing and representation as always.

I loved reading this book! I love Mira Grant's writing so much, under this name and as Seanan McGuire. This alien story sounded so interesting, and it was such a great moral conversation that was amazing to read!

The idea of an alien invasion, that starts off with humans being replaced by aliens, and then said replacements having the urge to tell their story, that they are aliens? It's such an interesting idea, and a pretty scary one.

Stasia isn't sure if she's telling the truth when she says she's an alien. But then a signal is received and she understands it, that her people are coming to Earth. I really enjoyed being in her head as the time ticked on towards the invasion, and the found family that she had.

There's a big question of morality, of how they took over the humans that they did, as well as which side were they going to be on, the aliens, or the humans that raised them, It was such an interesting dilemma and would've been horrible if it'd been real. It was such a great horror element of this book!

I had so many questions, about how the whole system worked, why it was happening like it did. As we got answers, it was really well done, but again, horrifying. I wasn't sure where this book was going to go, but I was along for the ride.

Loved reading this book and I can't wait to read more by Mira Grant!

We follow Stasia, a normal human woman. She hates her job, most people, and loves her cat more than most other things. She also is an alien/plant being from another planet, and she's patiently waiting for their return.

I adored this book. The light, irreverent tone with the backdrop of the end of the world is right up my alley. Overgrowth explores complex relationships and what it means to be a citizen of earth. The communication in the main relationship was something I enjoyed reading (and strive to achieve). I think keeping your significant other through the end of the world and also learning you're not of the same species is incredibly impressive. The found family and different character relationships were well explored. Mira Grant also has this incredible knack of inventing the science for her different creatures that have me questioning if it's possible. All in all this is a lighthearted (relatively) apocalypse story that I will stay recommending.

Thank you to Netgalley and Tor for the e-arc in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Mira Grant does it again! (And seriously, can we please get more mermaid stories too?)

With Overgrowth, Grant flips the script on the classic alien invasion trope, crafting a story that’s equal parts touching, terrifying, and utterly captivating.

We’re quickly introduced to Anastasia Miller—or “Stasia” to those who know her—a young woman whose life changed forever when she was “hatched.” As a child, a stray alien pod landed in the forest near her home, embedding its essence into her being. Ever since, Stasia has been trying to explain to the world who she truly is, but no one takes her seriously. At best, they find her a bit eccentric; at worst, she’s dismissed as the oddball spouting sci-fi nonsense.

When a long-awaited alien signal finally broadcasts across Earth, Stasia knows she has been called. Together with her boyfriend, she races to Maine, determined to uncover the truth about the signal and her origins. What they find there is both thrilling and terrifying: a growing community of others like Stasia—people who were also “hatched.” Among them are potential allies, dangerous foes, and mysteries far deeper than anyone could have imagined.

Grant’s ability to blend visceral horror with emotional resonance is on full display here. The story moves at a breakneck pace, yet it never sacrifices depth. Stasia’s journey is as much about understanding herself as it is about survival, and the relationships she forms along the way—both human and alien—add layers of complexity to the narrative.

Overgrowth is more than just an alien invasion story; it’s a deeply imaginative exploration of identity, belonging, and the unknown. Mira Grant once again proves why she’s a master of her craft, delivering a novel that’s as heartfelt as it is horrifying.
Whether you’re a long-time fan or new to her work, this is a must-read. And yes, it’s 100 percent awesome.

#Tor #Overgrowth #MiraGrant

This was creepy and funny and so so interesting! The beginning immediately hooked me and I was engaged the entire time. I don’t usually read too much sci-fi so this was a treat!