In Wagner’s upcoming horror novel, we follow Erin Harper as she arrives in Faraday, Oregon, to attempt to uncover what happened to her missing brother. While looking for her brother, she instead discovers the body of a missing girl. After the girl’s body mysteriously vanishes from the morgue and more people end up dead and/or missing, it’s clear there is something more sinister going on in the town of Faraday.

I was immediately impressed by how atmospheric this read was. It does justice to the botanical horror genre by heightening the reader’s senses with the use of super descriptive writing. The contagious strange fungi described in this book seemed to seep through the pages, and I often felt myself become itchy when our characters found themselves in super uncomfortable situations. I loved these elements!

I also must commend the author on the amount of research they must have done for this book. While we were following the POV of the ‘Strangeness’ (another fantastic element to the book), the writing seemed to shift and felt more alien and beautiful.

My struggle with the book comes from the amount of characters and the unclear relationships they all shared. I struggled to keep them straight and at one point, there was an error (I believe), where a character was called by a completely different name… at least I think it was a mistake? I know I was reading an unedited ARC, so I am sure this will be corrected before release, but it still threw me for a loop. The start of the book was rough for me due to not fully understanding how everyone knew each other. While I did enjoy the ending, I felt the climax was rushed.

Overall, this was a really fun read. I was reminded heavily of Nick Cutter’s The Troop at times, so if you are looking for a similar atmospheric botanical horror with X-file vibes, I recommend adding this one to your TBR when it’s released!

Special thanks to Netgalley and Tor Publishing for the eARC of this book in exchange for my honest review!