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queergoth_reads's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Death of parent and Suicidal thoughts
mfrisk's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
That being said I do think the horror elements could have gone a bit further and was expecting more body horror based off of the cover and plot summary but I really loved this book overall and enjoyed the authors explanation as well of what brought her to write this story.
I loved the descriptions of art at the beginning of the chapters and found this author’s descriptions of nature to be breathtaking. She did a great job of delving into heavy topics such as grief, relationships (both with family and romantic partners), family background and identity.
I look forward to reading more from this author in the future and seeing all the stories they can tell.
Graphic: Death of parent, Toxic relationship, Animal death, and Suicidal thoughts
mentat_stem's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
The physical book was surprisingly beautiful. The narrative was cleverly structured. The prose was as lush as the nature surrounding the isolated cabin.
This enough body horror and descent into madness to satisfy a horror fan. However, it's also a slice of an artist's life who's moving through the stages of grief. Definitely an entry point for anyone new to eco horror.
Graphic: Animal death
Moderate: Death of parent, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, and Vomit
Chaotic cell receptionobscurepages's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Wow. I dove into this book not knowing much other than it's an Indigenous horror novella. What I got now is a brilliant character study of a woman struggling with her mental health, insecurities, Indigenous identity, her drive to create art, and her reconciling nature with life and death.
I have to say, the imagery and the prose in this book is something else. Something entirely its own.
Overall, this was an incredible mix of both unsettling and profound.
Graphic: Blood, Animal death, and Gore
Moderate: Death of parent and Grief
Minor: Body horror and Sexual content
wchereads's review against another edition
4.75
"It's easier to carry this understanding [of death/grief] with us as we go, to stop ignoring it and pretending it will never happen - because this pretending is part of what makes each loss devastate us so totally."
"When we lose someone, we are forced into the deeply lonely experience of disillusion alongside the terrible fact of our loss... we must instead wade every day into our understanding of death and how death creates meaning."
Graphic: Death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Suicidal thoughts
Moderate: Body horror and Death of parent
Minor: Emotional abuse
luckylulureads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Moderate: Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Death of parent, Grief, Mental illness, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, and Vomit
sproutedpages's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Grief, and Suicidal thoughts
Moderate: Blood, Medical trauma, and Death of parent
atlastheninth's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
There are a lot of flashbacks from Ritas' life, explaining how she got to this point in her life, explaining why she feels the way she feels. Later in the book, these did feel neither out of place nor confusing, but at the beginning they did. It seemed unorganized and took away from that first feeling of wrongness when Rita hears noises during the first night. Together with the many descriptions and the author spelling out things, that you can already understand from those descriptions, the beginning was all over the place.
"She'd become alien in her own body, alien in the landscape she and her ancestors had called home, transformed into some unearthly being."
"She could do it. She could die here."
"She was ready to be remade in the waters, to meet herself in the sludge of unbecoming."
Graphic: Animal death and Suicidal thoughts
Moderate: Gore, Blood, and Death of parent
sophee_568's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
After her girlfriend Molly gifts her a 7-day artist's retreat at a secluded cabin in the woods, Rita Francis decides to take a break from the mundanity of her job at the art store and seek inspiration in nature. Even though Molly went behind Rita's back and kickstarted a funded art project she clumsily named The Devouring, Rita could not be ungrateful and reject such a generous present. On the first night at the cabin, Rita awakes in the dead of night to the sound of footsteps on gravel and something being thrown into the pond. Her immediate thought is that someone threw a body into the pond, but she sees nothing after peeking out the window. During the rest of her stay in the woods, Rita continues to experience bizarre events, all somehow connected to the large pond near her cabin. After a somnambulistic episode, Rita wakes up in the woods disoriented. Soon she comes face to face with a mysterious woman engulfed in flames. Who is this woman, and what does she want with Rita?
In only 100-ish pages, Green Fuse Burning utterly grips the reader and makes them listen to Rita's story. With its surrealist, introspective writing, Tiffany Morris invites us to the humid, muddy lands of Nova Scotia. Just like the author herself, our protagonist Rita is an Indigenous woman, specifically belonging to the Mi'kmaw people.
Morris's debut novel revolves around the ever-important topic of grief and healing. Years after Rita's father had died, she still struggled to make peace with his passing. Her grief pressed down on her, stifled her creativity, made her passive, and caused a strain on her relationship with Molly. That is why the artist's retreat provided a wonderful opportunity for Rita to connect with the natural world around her and explore the depths of her imagination.
Each chapter of the novella begins with a short review of one of Rita's paintings she had made during her stay at the cabin. Rita's mixed media acrylic paintings represent the mental transmutation she underwent in the woods. The most prominent color in her paintings is green, which Rita associates with grief.
"How would she ever capture that devouring green, even with these shades lined up so perfectly, neatly, their vibrance still nowhere near the sickeningly alive world around her..."
Morris uses body horror to show us Rita struggling with her grief. There are a few graphic scenes but nothing too gory. Green Fuse Burning is a tale of normalizing death and grief. We all face loss at some point in our lives. The novella sends a message that we should not shy away from grieving. It can be a messy, exhausting, and long-lasting process, but we should not deny ourselves the experience. Grief is a deeply transformative time for everyone. As Rita says, we do not protect life by denying death's existence. Green Fuse Burning is a powerful elegy to the cycle of death and life, grief and healing. It is also a love letter to wetlands, swamps, bogs, and the rest.
Thank you to Netgalley for the review copy!
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts and Grief
Moderate: Death of parent and Body horror