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dolores_lola's review
dark
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Suicidal thoughts, Body horror, Cancer, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, Death of parent, and Self harm
archaicrobin's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
A beautifully written literary horror novella tackling grief, depression, and trauma through the tale of an indigenous artist’s haunting experience at a secluded cabin near a large pond near her recently deceased father’s former land.
I wasn’t sure what to expect when I started this one but was pleasantly surprised by the depth of this novella. If you’re looking for a literary horror novella with eerie imagery and psychological horror elements blended with creatures and malevolent nature then you’ll love this one!
I wasn’t sure what to expect when I started this one but was pleasantly surprised by the depth of this novella. If you’re looking for a literary horror novella with eerie imagery and psychological horror elements blended with creatures and malevolent nature then you’ll love this one!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Suicidal thoughts, Chronic illness, Grief, Mental illness, Blood, Panic attacks/disorders, Body horror, Death of parent, Terminal illness, and Toxic relationship
spicycronereads's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
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? It's complicated
4.0
This book is really beautiful. It’s also really hard to read. Not because of the way it’s written, but because the weight of the main character’s grief, for her father, and for the planet, is so heavy. But it really is quite beautiful in the end.
Rita, the main character, is really the only character. She goes to a remote cabin to spend an artist residency for which her girlfriend has applied for her without telling her. So we do see a little bit of her girlfriend from time to time and in flashback, but she’s really almost a tertiary character. The environment is like a secondary character with Rita being the main character.
Tiffany Morris’ writing is really poetic and lyrical. I found myself highlighting tons of passages because they were just so beautifully written.
If you were looking for a horror story, this is pretty unconventional. There is no gore, no killers, and no hauntings or violence, other than that of the landscape, and what is done to the landscape by people. Part of the narrative convention, which I found really neat, is that parts of the story are told by artist reviews of Rita’s paintings. And so we very closely see the relationship between art, ecology, and life in the novel.
In terms of diverse representation, Morris is a queer, indigenous author, and Rita is an indigenous character of the Mi’kmaw people. It’s not clear whether her mother is also indigenous, but there is a lot of emphasis in the narrative about her father and her connection to her indigenous background through her father.
Overall, even though it’s a pretty short book, it took me quite a while to read, because the depth of the grief had to be taken in slow doses for me. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Rita, the main character, is really the only character. She goes to a remote cabin to spend an artist residency for which her girlfriend has applied for her without telling her. So we do see a little bit of her girlfriend from time to time and in flashback, but she’s really almost a tertiary character. The environment is like a secondary character with Rita being the main character.
Tiffany Morris’ writing is really poetic and lyrical. I found myself highlighting tons of passages because they were just so beautifully written.
If you were looking for a horror story, this is pretty unconventional. There is no gore, no killers, and no hauntings or violence, other than that of the landscape, and what is done to the landscape by people. Part of the narrative convention, which I found really neat, is that parts of the story are told by artist reviews of Rita’s paintings. And so we very closely see the relationship between art, ecology, and life in the novel.
In terms of diverse representation, Morris is a queer, indigenous author, and Rita is an indigenous character of the Mi’kmaw people. It’s not clear whether her mother is also indigenous, but there is a lot of emphasis in the narrative about her father and her connection to her indigenous background through her father.
Overall, even though it’s a pretty short book, it took me quite a while to read, because the depth of the grief had to be taken in slow doses for me. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Grief, and Panic attacks/disorders
Moderate: Body horror, Fire/Fire injury, and Sexual content
wchereads's review
dark
emotional
sad
4.75
Being immersed in this book was a journey. There were some really dark and devastating moments but the visuals were absolutely breathtaking. The prose is beautiful and dreamlike, and the eMOTIONAL DAMAG- I mean impact is profound. For a relatively short novella, I took a lot of time reading and rereading certain passages, and wished I had a physical copy to annotate. It is a heavy but ultimately hopeful tale about accepting death as part of life, nature and self, moving on with - not from - grief, and loving oneself and life as they are. It can be a triggering read for individuals struggling with grief and suicidal ideation, but if one can take care of oneself and go through the story at their own pace, I think this book is absolutely worth anyone's time.
"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."
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Suicidal thoughts
Moderate: Body horror and Death of parent
Minor: Emotional abuse
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