Reviews

Green Fuse Burning by Tiffany Morris

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savvylit's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Green Fuse Burning begins with an introduction to Rita via her artwork. Framed as a gallery show, readers are provided the results of Rita's hauntings before ever being given the context behind them. The hauntings themselves are fevered, atmospheric, and rooted in Rita's real world grief.

Green Fuse Burning is a short and creepy novella that could easily be digested in one sitting. Fellow fans of atmospheric horror will absolutely devour this one!

Content Warnings

readingindreams's review

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dark emotional mysterious reflective fast-paced

4.0

bladebailey's review

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dark emotional fast-paced

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

4.75

While staying in a remote lakeside cabin to create her latest painting collection, Rita faces terrifying phenomena and her own emotional turmoil.

Green Fuse Burning blends together achingly beautiful prose, descriptions of art pieces relating to the story, heavy subject matter like climate change and grief and suicidality, and the vicious, gnashing natural world to form a truly unsettling piece of literature. Rita struggles with the recent traumatic death of her father, her rapidly failing relationship with girlfriend Molly, alienation from her Mi'kmaq community, and mental illness all while buckling under the expectation to produce excellent art. Graphically violent imagery of gored animals and mycelium-infested burning women haunt Rita by day so that she paints them at night. While I sometimes struggle with true horror, Green Fuse Burning employs such gorgeous prose and raw dialogue in a single character study that I find it an exquisite contribution to the genre.

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ladyjane1114's review

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dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

A fantastic read. Terrifying and beautiful, and heartfelt and emotional. A privilege to share in this experience.

illtakethenightshiftx's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

I loved the way the author framed this book through Rita’s paintings (that I wish I could see!!!)

This novella packs many punches in less than 100 pages with an ever-intensifying atmosphere, eerie imagery, explorations of grief, and extreme feelings of isolation that come with a remote setting. This checked a lot of boxes, but it didn’t quite hit for me. I liked the atmosphere, bird imagery, and the feeling of questioning reality, but there were some places I felt a little lost and where some of the horror elements feel a little flat for me.

Content Warnings