263 pages, Hardcover
Published July, 2025 by Tor Nightfire
Bram Stoker Award Nominee for Novel (2025)
This book took me a long time to get to. I requested a purchase through our library, bugged two different librarians to get it, so I waited for that copy, and they took their time. I don't know that you needed to know that.
Wendy is an author I greatly respect, and when I had her on the podcast, she hinted that this book was coming, an ecological body horror crossover set in Oregon. Yep, 200% sold on this one. Fungal horror is not an entirely new subgenre that dates back to the early Weird Tales, but as it has gotten more sophisticated, we have seen excellent entries by Nick Cutter, Jeff Vandameer and of course, another PDX’er in Jeremy Robert Johnson. Video games and TV have The Last of Us, but the source of this fungus reminds me of Stanislaw Lem. If Wagner was not influenced by the Polish writer, she was downstream. Pun intended.
The word you are going to hear often is atmospheric, which is fair; parts of this touch on cosmic horror, while balancing that tone and vibe with vivid characters and a grounded setting. That balance can be tough to strike.
Our POV is Erin, who has traveled to the Mount Hood area east of Portland, writing a travel article on the area. The truth is, she has a deeper motivation, a missing brother whom she is trying desperately to find. She finds another body, but this body is more than just a dead young woman. This mystery involves a fungus on her body that is not of this world.
This novel is written from multiple points of view, some of which are very NOT HUMAN. The strangeness in these otherworldly moments creates much of the best atmosphere of the novel. “The Strangeness Tightened its Tendrils, Raised the volume of its humming to cut off the panic hurtling through the creek Girl’s body. Pleased, though, the hormones had begun working against her organs. She had been in the water so long, it hadn’t been sure she would come back with such things. Inside the girl’s heart, The Strangeness allowed the muscle to contract a little, stirring the sludge that replaced her blood.”
Wagner doesn’t waste energy on flowery prose. This I like. This is a readable novel that tells a story that is weird but not unclear. Takes wild swings and makes it feel natural. The body horror is woven into the characters in a way that makes the stakes feel real. “The creek girl’s toes twisted inside their shroud. A few neurons connected again, her inner voice activating. I’m dead, aren’t I. I’m dead, and this is hell. Mama was right about skipping Mass.”
Climate change-induced unknowable cosmic body horror combo, that is a lot of elements for Wagner to weave together, and it is done pretty smoothly. So yeah, I loved this. As always, your mileage may vary, but to me, this is an excellent horror novel.
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