Lynn Hutchinson Lee's "Origins of Desire in Orchid Fens" was quite unlike anything I've read recently – a truly unique and intriguing novella. I was really drawn into the world of Carminetown, largely through its distinctive, hybrid style which blends prose, poetry, definitions, and even snippets of conversations or non-fiction texts. This approach creates a very specific, almost dream-like and mystical atmosphere surrounding the main character, Orchid, and her experiences. I found the exploration of her Romany identity, the deep connection drawn between the community, the natural world (both its beauty in the Orchid Fen and its haunted aspects by the creek), and the poignant environmental commentary to be quite powerful and timely. The writing itself often felt lyrical and beautiful.

Now, the experimental structure, often presented in what feel like short bursts and varied forms, does take a little getting used to initially. It seems designed to reward the reader's engagement as you piece together the different narrative threads concerning Orchid, the mysterious river spirits, the tensions in the mining town, and her personal relationships. I felt it was less about following a straightforward plot and more about immersing oneself in an atmospheric and thematic experience.

But overall, I found "Origins of Desire in Orchid Fens" to be a hauntingly beautiful and thought-provoking read. Its unique structural approach felt purposeful, perfectly suited to exploring complex themes of identity, community resilience, memory, and our fraught relationship with the environment. It’s a novella that definitely lingers with you after you finish.

Origins of Desire in Orchid Fens by Lynn Hutchinson Lee
Review
Rating: ★★★★★
Started: April 16, 2025
Finished: April 18, 2025

This book was a wild ride. We follow Orchid Lowell, a young Romani woman. She faces many difficulties in life, especially related to her mother. I thought things would get easier once she marries her beloved Jack, but life doesn’t really go like that.

The writing in this book was magical. It took me some time to settle into the short chapters, but I loved the simple yet poetic exploration. The main character, Orchid, was relatable and felt real in so many ways. The way her story flew even during moments where more was left unsaid left me speechless. I’ll be thinking about her for so long. She felt like a friend.

The story felt nostalgic yet contemporary. It was deep and captivating, especially after the first half. I felt this strange excitement to finish the book—I just wanted to keep reading and stay in Orchid’s world every time I put the book down.

I will definitely be checking out more of Lynn Hutchinson Lee’s work. The dark yet simple tone of her pen calmed me. I need more of this.

Content warnings: sexual assault
Written: April 19, 2025

An ecological horror of violence, violation and vengeance and yet filled with such stunning, lyrical and gorgeous beauty, this novella is hard to pin down if you’re trying to find a genre. There is horror, grief, ghosts, loss of loved ones and loss of the natural world.

I live in British Columbia, and the horror of the Mount Polley Mine disaster is still fresh, and the ongoing epidemic here of missing and murdered women never fades – and honestly maybe that’s why the horror hits hard for me? Yet the story also abounds with a graceful underlying supernatural presence, brimming with ephemeral and dreamy characters as the spirits of murdered women gather in an ecologically destroyed Ontarian river caused by the greed of corporate mining (aka r*p*) of the natural world as they plan and plot vengeance.

“The elemental desire of these spirits — dead girls, water girls, the panni raklies — is to drown the men who betrayed or killed them.”

This is not your average horror. It's beautiful and disturbing and I want more of this author. I loved the fragmentary chapters, told like musings of memories with the lushness and odour of death, decay and rebirth… I want more of this story and this town and these characters. I want this in a graphic novel. I want this in a perfume…

Clearly, the spell of Orchid Fens is powerful…

Many thanks to NetGalley and Stelliform Press for the advance review copy. I am leaving this review voluntarily ...and ordering a physical copy of the book right away!

Orchid has settled in a new town as her mother recovers from cancer. No one knows she and her mother are Romani, she’s got a job tending the orchids she loves, and eventually a new husband. But there’s something lurking in the rivers, looking for revenge. And gold has been found by the fen.

This novella felt like prose poetry, and I loved it. The real life horror of abusive, power hungry men paired with the mythological creatures haunting the river was so well done. The creeping insidiousness, as we knew the Rosalia were planning something, but we didn’t know what gave me goosebumps.

And even in the brief time we have, we get such depth for the complicated relationship between Orchid and her mother. And then the romance between Orchid and Jack was so sweet, but also felt so real as they dealt with all the problems in fighting back against the mine that wants to encroach on the fen.

I would have loved for this to be expanded a bit more as the resolution felt a little too abrupt, and I really wanted to see more of the aftermath.

Thank you to NetGalley and Stelliform Press for this arc.

This was a super unique and interesting read, unlike anything I had every read before. Following the story of Orchid and her love affair with Jack, the book explores the Romany diaspora and the fighting spirits of the dead. I really liked the short chapter structure of the story and the mysterious, mystical feel of the chapters. Though taking some getting used to in the beginning of the story, the book had me hooked through the end as we discover secrets and the lore behind the lands.

This dreamy, poetic novella covers so much territory, but I'll try to adequately summarize. Orchid Lovell is a young Romany woman living incognito with her mother. In the nearby orchid fen, she meets, falls in love with, and marries a complicated miner. Meanwhile, the mining company is threatening the town, the people, and the beloved orchid fen. It's a lot. I loved it.
Do you want wild swamp people? Do you want vengeful ghosts who text? Do you want the devil himself lingering between pages? Do you want unbelievably complicated mother-daughter relationships? Do you want a story about complicated Romany heritage and about hiding pieces of yourself? Do you crave justice ultimately? Do you want beautiful prose? Then read this book.

I’ve been struggling putting together my thoughts on this book - partly because its beautiful and written in such a dreamy way, but also because the slow pace and dreamy prose had me settle into such a relaxed state I kept feeling like I needed to take a nap.

Reading Origins of Desire in Orchid Fens is like going through someone’s dream journal, and I felt like I was somewhere else entirely while reading the story. It was a reading experience like any other I’ve ever had - however, I frequently felt like reading it took me too far away and it made it hard to read for too long at a time. The incredibly short chapters made it easy to pick up and put down, but could also make it hard to fully get into.

I loved learning more about romany folklore, the eerie and ecological touches were beautifully written, and I wanted to fall more in love with the story than I was able to due to how little you get to truly know the characters.
However, anyone who loves short stories would surely find a lot of joy reading what felt like an extended short story divided up into over a 100 mini chapters.

Publishing date: 22.04.2025 (DD/MM/YYYY)
Thank you to NetGalley and Stelliform Press for the ARC. My opinions are my own.

TLDR: A flowery book with central themes of climate and complex relationships. Confusing, but sublime atmosphere. 4 stars

Orchid and her mother have lived for a vile in the little mining town. She and her mother carry a secret they are set to guard, but so does the town. Soon enough tensions rise between the inhabitants and the miners, affecting Orchid and her family severely.

This might be one of the strangest books I have read so far this year. The writing is a little disjointed and can feel like it jumps a lot. But it had a story it tried to follow and I was a happy passenger on that journey. Talking much about the events at all will spoil the book and it really is something you should experience if you are interested. But be aware that the story can feel a little messy and confusing.

Characters were both the most wonderful people I have read and the most horrible. They all had likeable and dislikeable aspects and made them feel all the more real. Including the main character ...

Pacing wise ... Messy. Some of the chapters are really short and very start-stop. Some of the longer chapters also have abrupt endings and subplots that just end. Or they are forgotten for a long while and picked up again much later. It reads a little messily and can leave you confused of when you are.

However, something this book does really well is atmosphere and putting you in the book. I was constantly visualising the surroundings in my head. Heard the water, smelt the orchids, wandered the streets of the town, sat in the dim rooms of the different buildings and houses, smelt the swamp, it was stunning to be transported so easily into an entirely different world. This book is a masterclass in vivid descriptions that don't drag on too long.

A little downr is the fact this was marked as horror but didn't feel like it. It felt more like surrealism to me, or an uncanny read. Not scary, just hopeless. That might just be me.

Intended audience for the book is definitely adult. It has a lot of heavy adult themes and events that aren't suitable for younger audiences. Adults that enjoy a slow, whimsical, but despair filled book will like this.

I am giving this 4 stars. Beautiful writing, stunning atmosphere, just the kind of swamp book I usually enjoy, and has lots of heavy themes that make me feel that certain way. Highly recommend it to my fellow weirdos.

Thank you to Netgalley and the author for a copy of this book.

While I DNF'd this book, I could see how others would very much enjoy it. I had really high hopes for it, but the writing style just wasn't for me.
If you love eloquent, flowery writing, this is right up your alley. Unfortunately, it isn't up mine.

As my usual forte I knew absolutely nothing about this book. I saw the cover on netgalley and thought it looked wild and clicked "request ARC". I was lucky and got it. As I started to read it I still know nothing. This entire book is filled with such an amazing visual and the descriptions of everything is so vivid, the people, the flowers, the moments and the fen (land). The descriptions kept in enthralled and wowed many times, that alone makes this one of the most unique stories I've ever read. The more you read the more the horror creeps in. Some of the chapters are beautiful and full of lovely descriptions while others feel disconnected. This book has beauty, horror, love, death, abuse, murder, oppression, grief, revenge, secrets, nature and a whole lot of orchids. The ending was a bit abrupt but I still loved it. There is a part of the book towards the beginning of the book that mentions strange magic and so haunting and beautiful and this is exactly how this entire book felt to me.

This is the kind of book I could have read in one sitting, but instead chose to sit with it a while and immerse myself in the rich prose, beautiful setting, and engaging story.

A story told through the eyes of a young Romany woman named Orchid. She has settled down in, what was, a quiet town with her mother after an early life spent in hiding and running. I found myself immersed in this tale as we learn about the dark side of town, with the gold mining and the panni raklies - water spirits of the females who were wronged in the town. They capture the attention of Orchid one quiet night down by the gold mine tailings while she is out with her secret lover, Jack and thus begins the spiral of her life. Family secrets, friendship and revenge make up this haunting beautiful yet dream-like tale. But it’s very real in the aspect of climate and the people on top who have their hands deep in this world with no care as to what they leave behind in their wake as long as they get their dollars.

This novella explores the life of a young Romani woman surviving in an oppressive town, where she knows she has to keep her identity secret or else face ostracization and violence. The town is run by a mining operation and the narrative examines the forced invisibility of the Romani woman, as well as the ecological destruction and the violent strike breaks and unsafe labor conditions. Orchid also knows how to care for the plants that she is named after and the novel spends a significant time examining the nature that surrounds this mining town, rich in biodiversity and panni raklies (ghosts of murdered women).
One of the strongest points of this novella is its gorgeous writing style, lush and rich and full of descriptors that made it easy to picture the nature and feel the terror of its destruction vividly. It also felt a bit dreamlike, which added to the supernatural aspect of the story for me. The story dives deep into Orchid’s mental state, her fears and worries and rage, which was also beautiful. I also enjoyed the relationships she had with other people, especially the one with her mother and the one with her husband Jack.
Due to the narrative choice of telling this story in many, very short chapters, as well as the very descriptive prose the plot sometimes feels a bit barebones, which is the only reason this novella doesn’t get five stars from me. However, I still enjoyed reading it a lot and if you enjoy magical realism with a focus on ecological themes, you should check this novella out.

TW: animal attack, anti-romani racism, cancer, car crash, classism, death, forced sterilization, murder, racism, violence

Thankyou to Netgalley, Lynn Hutchinson Lee and Stelliform press for the opportunity to read this in exchange for an honest review.

Origins of Desire in Orchid Fens is a short novel that claws you in from page one, sitting somewhere between ecological horror, coming of age romance, lyrical prose and managing to tackle themes of racism and classism it's an impressive feat, a short but punchy book.

We join Orchid, Jack and a host of other characters in several locations but most notably the fen, described so artfully you feel like you are walking through bogs, smelling Orchid flowers and speaking to panni raklei undead girls.

Whilst it was a little start stop and disjointed at times it actually added to the feeling of the book.

If any of the above sounds like your cup of tea, I'd highly recommend the book as an easy one sitting read.

**I was provided an electronic ARC from the publisher through NetGalley. **

Lynn Hutchinson Lee presents Origins of Desire in Orchid Fens, a literary magical realism story written in mini-vignettes. Readers follow Orchid through her life as a member of the Romany diaspora who has settled in Canada. Orchid speaks with the rusalka of the orchid fens about how they have been wronged by society. Orchid lives alongside people of the First Nations as they go to town meetings to argue against mining in their cultural fishing grounds. Each chapter is a small snapshot of Orchid's life and the everyday magic and tragedies side by side within it.

This was 100% my bad. I'm not a literary magical realism reader on purpose. It isn't for me. I recognize the writing is right there where it should be for genre conventions and this slice-of-life story makes perfect sense within those parameters. I was expecting heavier horror components given that this was in the literary horror shelves on NetGalley and was excited to read something with Romany perspective. Also, the cover is completely stunning and drew me straight in.

Definitely recommend this story to fans of literary magical realism and appreciate the opportunity to read it early.

We love a novella filled with beautiful nature writing and creepy dead girls 😍 When I finished this book, I thought to myself, “wow I need to read something cutesy now to give my brain a break”, but in a good way. Lots of feelings to feel in such a small number of pages.
The only detraction, I think, is how anachronistic the story sometimes feels. When I first started reading, I assumed that the book was taking place at least like 100 years ago, and then the panni raklies have cellphones?

Thank you to NetGalley for providing a free ARC in exchange for an honest and fair review!

"The fen belongs to itself. Like us, it protects its own. It is a force like no other. It has no mercy."

Have you ever had this experience of waking up from a dream, where you remember you sort of remember its ghostly outlines, but not enough to grasp what it was fully about? Maybe you remember it was a pleasant dream, or maybe there was something ominous about it, yet when you try to return to that memory, it’s just out of reach. That feeling is very close to what I felt after finishing Origins of Desire in Orchid Fens.

The story follows a young Romany woman’s life in a seemingly idyllic mining town that hides its secrets just below the surface. Orchid finds solace in a lush orchid fen where she doesn’t fear the villager’s judgement. Here, she meets not only her future husband Jack, but a group of “panni raklies”; the spirits of dead girls that haunt the waters in which they were murdered. Through them, Orchid learns they history of the town; one filled with violence inflicted upon the girls and the lands alike, in pursuit of profit. As her own desire for revenge intwines with that of the panni raklies, it becomes clear that all roads will lead to eventual blood in the waters...

Origins of Desire in Orchid Fens is told in lush prose and extremely short chapters, often not even a full page long. It adds to the distinct and ephemeral atmosphere I described at the start of my review, but it can also keep the reader from fully connecting to the story as a result. When you have imagery and language this slippery, it becomes hard for the story to stick, and I fear the novel will lose some readers here, regardless whether that was intentional or not.
For me personally, there were many elements to the book that I loved. Part folklore, part eco-fiction, coming-of-age with a ghostly touch, and all told through almost poetic prose: that’s basically a listing of my readers-catnip. Yet the intangibility of some of the images, the short chapters and the lack of character development in our protagonists kept me at a distance. The story never stuck with me, and whenever I put it down, I felt a little lost trying to pick it back up again.

I adore Stelliform Press and love how they publish eco-fiction that’s just a little outside the mainstream. I have yet to have a full miss with them. Yet with Origins of Desire in Orchid Fens, I can’t help but feel like I wanted to love this more than the sum of its parts, and I didn’t.
If dreamlike fiction with an ominous tone is your vibe, I recommend checking out this novel, or any of the previous works by Stelliform Press for that matter. I’m a big fan in general.

Many thanks to Stelliform Press for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley, Lynn Hutchinson Lee, and Stelliform Press for giving me a copy of this book.

Content Warnings: Death, Murder, Self-Harm, Minor Gore, and Racism.

"Origins of Desire in Orchid Fens" by Lynn Hutchinson Lee is now a new favorite book in my library. The story is about a Romany woman named Orchid, who lives with her overly critical mother in a small, Canadian town called Carminetown. Orchid falls in love with Jack, one of the men who works in the local goldmines, and marries him surrounded by nature. That's the thing with the two of them; they fell in love over orchids and the orchid fen. It is their special place. It is where their hearts join.

The fen and nearby river are also haunted by a group of woman and girls who have been murdered over the history of the town. They are driven by revenge, ghosts of those who were wronged. They call to Orchid, begging her to help them. Begging her to end their plight.

"Origins of Desire in Orchid Fens" is told through a series of short chapters. Some of these chapters are text messages, poems, information on fens and orchids, or in normal prose, giving the overall narrative a sort of dreamy feel. Some chapters are disconnected, more thoughts than substance, but that's part of the feeling, the emotion of the overall piece. In exploring the thoughts of the main character, Orchid, as well as her connection with the women in Carminetown, her beloved Jack, her mother, and the Earth itself, Lynn Hutchinson Lee crafts a thoughtful, powerful, and enchanted narrative about the strength of community, love, and trust.

I sincerely loved this novel. I wish it could be longer, however; I will note that the ending is a bit abrupt considering the pace of the rest of the novella. Many of the names in the book were similar to other names as well, making it a bit difficult for me to keep track of the numerous characters.

Overall, I would highly recommend this novella to anyone looking for a solid, if not short, read.

I am in awe. The writing was so evocative and emotional. I felt like I knew Orchid Lovell on a deep, cellular level. Her psyche, her peculiarities. I was immediately sucked into her world and perspective. This story was beautiful and heart wrenching in a subtle, almost intimate way.

The Romany culture and spirituality is woven into the story so beautifully. I don't know much about Romany beliefs and practices, but this book has truly sparked deep interest to know more.

The format of this book was very interesting. It was a bit confusing at first because there were SO MANY chapters, but after a couple of the vignettes, I got used to it and was able to become fully engrossed in the story. The short chapters really helped to pace the book, and give it that dreamy tone. It also helped me understand Orchid and the way she was processing the events in her life.

I would probably consider this book ecological horror in a way. The horror is subtle, but there were still moments I was biting my fingernails, afraid for Orchid or Jack or the panni raklies. The ecological emphasis was both daunting and inspiring.

In general, I truly, genuinely, was in awe and fascinated by this book. I was utterly enraptured by it and the different emotional and spiritual facets.

Origins of Desire in Orchid Fens – Lynn Hutchinson Lee
Lush, atmospheric, and brimming with longing, this novel paints a rich portrait of desire and self-discovery. Lee’s prose is intoxicating, immersing readers in a world where emotions are as wild and untamed as the natural landscape. A beautifully written exploration of love and identity.