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rorikae's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
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
4.25
'Green Fuse Burning' by Tiffany Morris is a reflective horror novella steeped in one artist's grief.
After her father's death, Rita is wallowing in her grief. To help her, Rita's girlfriend Molly applies for an artists residency for her. When Molly surprises her with the accepted residency application, Rita isn't completely sold but she decides to go anyway. Alone in the forest by a large pond, Rita delves into her grief through her painting but her feelings threaten to overwhelm her, especially when she starts to see strange things.
This is an excellent, evocative novella though it comes with strong content warnings for grief, loss of a parent, and suicidal ideation. Though we only spend so much time with Rita, Morris does an excellent job of helping us to understand her grief and how it is affecting her. She accomplishes this through a mix of beautiful and horrific nature writing with a slightly supernatural aspect. Rita is deep in her grief and since we are seeing the world through her eyes, it's unclear what is just a hallucination and what is real. One of my favorite aspects of the story is that each chapter starts with looking at one of the paintings that Rita created during the residency. These paintings help to inform our view of Rita's experience and how she is coming to terms with her grief.
Morris' writing is lush and horrifying at the same time. I will definitely be looking to pick up more of what they write next.
After her father's death, Rita is wallowing in her grief. To help her, Rita's girlfriend Molly applies for an artists residency for her. When Molly surprises her with the accepted residency application, Rita isn't completely sold but she decides to go anyway. Alone in the forest by a large pond, Rita delves into her grief through her painting but her feelings threaten to overwhelm her, especially when she starts to see strange things.
This is an excellent, evocative novella though it comes with strong content warnings for grief, loss of a parent, and suicidal ideation. Though we only spend so much time with Rita, Morris does an excellent job of helping us to understand her grief and how it is affecting her. She accomplishes this through a mix of beautiful and horrific nature writing with a slightly supernatural aspect. Rita is deep in her grief and since we are seeing the world through her eyes, it's unclear what is just a hallucination and what is real. One of my favorite aspects of the story is that each chapter starts with looking at one of the paintings that Rita created during the residency. These paintings help to inform our view of Rita's experience and how she is coming to terms with her grief.
Morris' writing is lush and horrifying at the same time. I will definitely be looking to pick up more of what they write next.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Gore, Grief, Suicidal thoughts, and Animal death
Moderate: Body horror
myranda_the_bookwyrm's review
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
reflective
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? No
5.0
This scraped my insides raw in the best way.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death of parent, Suicidal thoughts, and Sexual content
queergoth_reads's review against another edition
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
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent and Suicidal thoughts
cantfindmybookmark's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
reflective
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
This novella packs a punch. The prose and imagery are both heartbreakingly beautiful and deeply unsettling. It is a horror story that is also a meditation on grief, identity, and community. Its a love letter and apology to nature and the havoc that has been wreaked upon it. It's what Thoreau wishes Walden was.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Suicidal thoughts, and Body horror
mfrisk's review
dark
hopeful
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
4.0
This book was an incredibly slow burn for such a short book. I really loved that about it as I found the buildup of the cabin in the woods setting and of our characters was served well by this choice. I really loved that much of the horror present was mysterious and some even left to our imagination.
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.
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Toxic relationship, Animal death, and Suicidal thoughts
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
bookishcori's review
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Grief, and Body horror
mentat_stem's review
dark
hopeful
tense
slow-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
5.0
The 2 main characters in this book are a young artist and nature. They are both attempting to understand their identity in the context of traumatic loss.
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.
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death
Moderate: Death of parent, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, and Vomit
Chaotic cell receptionwchereads'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
luckylulureads's review
challenging
dark
reflective
fast-paced
- 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
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Death of parent, Grief, Mental illness, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, and Vomit