Does the seed know it must die?

CW: child loss, character dying of cancer

A fantastic story! This blend of grief horror and ecological horror is unexpected and dark. I'm not really sure what to say without spoiling it but its certainly worth the read.

a dark exploration of grief wherein an elderly man gifts his terminally ill wife the garden of her dreams and horror ensues when it provides her with everything she has ever wanted. interesting imagery and beautiful illustrations but due to the nature of the short format everything happened very quickly and i wished i understood the characters and their motivations better. i just felt like there was a sudden switch in characterisation without warning but it was still an interesting read nonetheless and i enjoyed the quotes dotted throughout.

Great short horror story. Easy-read page-turner. Took about 20 minutes to read. The suspense is unsettling. The concept is fairly unique and the writing is excellent. A lot of ideas and possibilities went through my mind about how this would end, but I didn't guess it completely. I loved that there is a playlist to accompany the reading experience, which I listened to while I read this.

I love horror, plants, and books, and so I loved this experience. The quotes worked very well in adding to the atmosphere of this story, as did the gorgeous artwork. This is a really hauntingly beautiful novella, and I enjoyed it very much. I will likely buy a physical copy of this gorgeous book to add to my home library.

Thank you to C. S. Fritz, Albatross Book Company, and NetGalley for providing me this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This review was written on May 12, 2024
This review will be shared on NetGalley, Goodreads, Bookmory, & Tiktok

Thomas has gotten his wife home. Rosemary is dying but still has days to live. Her husband givers her a jar of seeds that has Rosemary smiling with delight. He tells her he has a surprise for her but must blindfold her first. As he takes her out of the house in her wheelchair, he finally stops and takes off the blindfold for her to see all the flow. :::.ers in bloom. She is delighted! The next day, Thomas takes a blood sample. When he leaves with the blood samples to deliver them he accidentally drops the blood which splash over the plants in the garden. He discovers a baby. Thomas takes the baby to Rosemary. Rosemary takes the baby telling Thomas he cant have anything to do with the baby. Why?

When I picked this book to read, I did so as I couldn’t imagine a novel with that title. What was it going to be about — people eating cabbage and turning into cabbage monsters? I didn’t want to give you any spoilers but I did want you to be intrigued enough to read it.

This was a very short and unique book,

I loved the images that were in the book. Most of them were creepy and helped set the scene. The ending was genuinely so weird but I think it worked well with the rest of the book.

It was short enough that I don’t have much to say on it but I think I would have enjoyed it a bit more if the pacing was a bit more even.

Thanks to NetGalley for an arc of this book. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

A dying wife gets more than she bargained for when the cabbage patch in her garden starts growing unexpected gifts.
Branching out in horror can be tough for me after being raised reading authors like King, Koontz, and R.L. Stine. But ever since discovering C.S. Fritz two years ago when I read, A Fig For All the Devils, I’ve been obsessed with the way he tells a story. Not only that, but his phenomenal artwork, since he also illustrates his own books. I’ve been keeping his other stories on my TBR for October, but when I saw, Cabbage, the cover was too tempting to resist.

His books feel so original and creepy to me, and are always a pleasure to read. Cabbage is just that! For a short story, it’s perfectly paced and I ended up reading it in one sitting. The characters were authentic and I liked them both. The setting was immersive and the threat of their garden was unnerving. Every scene was vivid and the twist at the end was reminiscent of The Body Snatchers.

4/5⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
For readers who enjoy creepy horror, binge-worthy books, and dark themes.

Cabbage was an odd story that was unsettling and also sad. The strangeness of it is obvious from the cover but I wasn’t expecting it to also be so much about grief. Really well done.

Note: ARC provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Rating: 3.7 leaves out of 5
-Characters: 3/5
-Cover: 5/5
-Story: 3.5/5
-Writing: 5/5
Genre: Horror
-Horror: 2/5
Type: Ebook
Worth?: Yeah

This was more sad than horror though it was pretty scary. At then end of the book I was so heartbroken and scared, it really did play on one of my fears.

Be prepared to be spooked by cabbages, horses, and babies, as this short terrifyingly dark and eerie tale of grieving, death, and the circle of life, will haunt you every time you step foot in a garden.

A quick, sharp folk horror short about grief and how it can grow, as well as how far it can take us from ourselves.

Cabbage is a weird little story that revolves around Rosemary and her husband Thomas. Throughout the story there is an undercurrent of sadness as Rosemary is currently in the terminal stages of cancer. Due to a number of reasons, Rosemary has decided to live out the last days of her life at home, and due to money constraints, Thomas is providing the main brunt of the medical care.

Due to an unforeseen accident when disposing of the filtration of blood that Rosemary has to undergo, something strange happens in the garden.

It’s a strange little tale of love and loss that mixes fairy tale and weird fiction to make something quite unique. Whilst I recognised the influences of classic horror such as The Monkeys Paw, Fritz takes this inspiration and uses it to full effect. The dreamlike prose is quite unsettling, hinting at something not quite right throughout the story.

Cabbage is an effectively creepy little tale that is made all the more effective by the accompanying Spotify playlist at the front.

I loved this short gothic style tale. It had folklore elements and plant monsters. I also really loved the illustrations between the sections. It was a lovely tale about grief and end of life. It wasn't particularly scary, but it was beautifully written.

The short story novella “Cabbage” is just the thing to awaken your spring senses! Our gardens love us and will stop at nothing to reciprocate that adoration! Rosemary wishes to spend her last days battling her illness at home with her husband Thomas and among the flora and fauna she cultivated. What Thomas didn’t anticipate was the blooming life forces in the field, eager to both worship Rosemary in her finals hours and avenge those who have trespassed against her! The gorgeous cover art caught my eye for this book. What I liked best is that often when someone is going through a tragic terminal illness, we grieve for them and undergo a process of emotions with a sort of horror being one of them. That horror is wrapped up into thoughts like "I'm glad it's not me" and "that person must feel horrible" and "how are they facing death so soon?" We don't think about the impact of the loss people around the affected person will feel, and in this case Thomas confronts something even worse! As a plant person, it's also really satisfying to read about Rosemary's garden coming alive as she herself is perishing. All in all, a very fast and interesting read, can't wait to read more from the author! Thanks to NetGalley and Publisher for the ARC!

This is a great little horror story!

The premise is not too complicated. A husband and wife move to a small farm so that the ailing wife can spend the last of her days in a garden. However, after a small accident, they discover the garden can give them wonderful things, but for a sacrifice.

The story follows many common tropes that come with monkey paw wishes, but I was surprised by a couple of the twists and turns. Although it's a story I've read before, I genuinely enjoyed the morning I spent reading it. I do think this is a great spring horror story, dripping in flowers, vegetation, and images of how life can be just as monstrous as death.

This book was written so well. You can really see how much time and effort the author put into their work. Each chapter is started with a different quote that correlates perfectly to this authors own writing.

The visualization of the garden and the personification of the vegetables really painted a picture in my mind.

Though short, this story covers greed, grief, love, and sacrifice. In the end the inevitable is bound to happen and the process is beautiful.

What a weird little story. In a terrifying and fascinating way....

Cabbage confronts the past of an older couple, one who is dealing with end of life treatment at home, through mystical going ons after an accident with blood and the cabbage patch in their garden.

Spooky.

Interesting title to begin with, I wonder what kinda story Im going to get about a cabbage and where this is going to lead??

Im greeted with descriptive writing that evoke vivid imagery, Im a very visual thinker if that's a thing and it's really important that I can create that image of the characters, the settings, the feel of the scene etc and this book definitely did that with every single word. I felt I was there with them so we're off to a good start.

This honestly took a turn that I did not expect, again the descriptive words, smells all created a hilariously bizzare image... Im wondering at this point if I've accidentally taken some sort of hallucinogenics.... Safe to say the images at the end of each chapter helped in convincing me I must have, there's no other explanation to what Im now seeing and thinking!

We're essentially with an old couple, Rosemary is on her last legs and Thomas the clumsy fool drops some blood on the cabbage plants... No scenario has ended well with spilt blood has it? It's all downhill from here and im dragged down the garden path of pure madness. Safe to say Im now scared of cabbages.


It's a short story, of which I'm quite glad of because I don't think a full book of that would have kept me reading, I would have literally lost my mind! But it was quite entertaining, safe to say nothing was predictable in any way and it was a fun little read.

Fast paced read. Gross and unsettling. I’ll never look at a garden the same way again. If Scott Smith’s The Ruins spooked you, you’ll enjoy the chills and thrills of this short tale.

Who knew a book about cabbage could warm my heart this way?

This book was written so well. You can really see how much time and effort the author put into their work. Each chapter is started with a different quote that correlates perfectly to this authors own writing.

The visualization of the garden and the personification of the vegetables really painted a picture in my mind.

Though short, this story covers greed, grief, love, and sacrifice. In the end the inevitable is bound to happen and the process is beautiful.

Thank you Netgalley and C.S. Fritz for this ARC

🥬🥬🥬Cabbage 🥬🥬🥬

“Does the seed know it must die?”
One of Rosemary’s final requests of her husband was to create the garden of her dreams. A place where she could live the remainder of her days in peace. A place that will remind her of her best moments and memories long past. Thomas toils day and night to complete it, but in a moment of carelessness in the cabbage patch, he unknowingly rips the veil between the natural and unnatural. What was meant to be a gift rapidly blossoms into an overwhelming curse—one that unleashes a cornucopia of dread, tension, and fraught.

A positivity weird short story that I really enjoyed.
Dealing with sensitive subjects such as grieving and life ending illness this was an interesting and emotional read combined with craziness.
If you enjoy Sayaka Murata books and stories then I think you will want to read this. It reminded me of Life Ceremony and Hare House by Sally Hinchcliffe.

Thanks to netgalley for my ecopy!