
Member Reviews

First and foremost thank you to NetGalley and Metal Blonde Books for sending me this for free! I honestly really liked it. It’s not my usual style, it was very scientific, and then ending had me like “wwwhhhhaaaaaat” but I loved it. Something about Sydney and Wes and their little love story and the creepiness of the setting really was perfect. Such a good Halloween read! I would recommend this to lovers of dark romance, and those who like a little thriller with their romance!

This shiitake was AMAZING!
This had that eerie, creepy, what the hell is going on type vive the whole way with an explosive ending. The spice was spicy and the mystery was compelling. It did not go the way I thought it did. Also, my son has ADHD and many lines and thoughts Sydney had made me think about exactly how he gets too. It's just nice to know someone out there understands him and goes through the same things sometimes.
I also now want to sail through Vancouver so thanks for that add to my bucket list.
I received a complimentary copy via NetGalley however my thoughts are my own and I'm about to go out and by all the editions of this.

A huge thank you to Netgalley and Metal Blonde Books fr giving me a chance to read Karina Halle's new book "Grave Matter" in exchange for my honest review .
WHAT TO SAY ABOUT GRAVE MATTER ...IT WAS A-MA-ZING !!!!!
It was one of the most atmospheric and eerie reads I've read in my life and it was hauntingly beautiful. The plot captivates you from the very beginning and holds you by the necks throughtout the book with all the plot twists that you don't see coming and its actually surreal how you can't but start making up scenarios in your head and have them flipped over your head and leave you stunned !
Perhaps my favourite of Karina Halle's works to date, Grave Matter delivers in every front : plot ? captivating characters ? hot af smut ? check ,check and check !!
If you're looking for your next spooky season read with a touch of mystery and a lot of spice ,then this one is definetely a book for you !!

I absolutely loved this book. It gave massive Shutter Island vibes, but creepier, darker and with added spice. I loved the whole staying on an island to work on ground breaking science, to discover stuff isn’t as it seems. Strange things start to happen, seeing ghosts and undead animals, making you question the main characters mental health, while knowing everyone is telling her lies. There’s so many questions and never any answers. There were so many twists and turns I never knew what was happening. Have I already recommended it to friends? Yes I have.

I love Karina Halle. Every single one of her books is SO different and unique, but is always entertaining, fun, feet-kicking good fun. This was yet another slamdunk, perfect for the spooky season (but really anytime of the year). Another 5 stars!
Thank you to NetGalley for this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

This book was insane!? Let me just say the spice was spicy but if you like psychological thrillers this is the book for you. The entire time I was like what is happening, I couldn’t even put the book down! I can’t even describe it without spoiling it but you are in for such a crazy ride when you read this book!

Karina Halle has always been a one-click buy author for me and getting the chance to arc read theis horror romance was absolutely THRILLING! Not only is it one of my favorite authors, writing in one of my favorite genres, but it's release is at the PERFECT TIME for spooky season!
I was tickled to read my own name in this novel to add herries on top of an already amazing reading experience. I LOVED these characters and their dynamics, chemistry, and complexity.
There is soooooo muh I could say about this book but I want to avoid spoilers--I do want to note that the way karina halle writes dark, atmospheric stories is unparralleled and will absolutely hook readers in and make it i possible for them to put this book down!
Grave Matter was everything I was waiting for (AND SO MUCH MORE) this spooky season--and its going to be difficult to find a a dark horror romance to top it. As usual, check your triggers and prepare yourself for a wild ride and an amazing read!

I guess I was under the impression that this would be more horror than romance. So I don’t think I’m the target audience for this book. It was fun and fast paced for sure. But a little to heavy on the romance for my taste.

A new thrilling, dark and deliciously filthy read by an author I have devoured everything by! She never fails to deliver and this story is no different. A strange island where the weirdness takes weird to the next level. I found myself just as confused as the makn character at times, and just as determined to figure out what the h..l is going on! A psychologists that oozes sex and dominance, as well as a tendency for obsession I just could not get enough of. 11 other kids that at times seem to maybe be seeing the strangeness that is the island, but also they make her feel a little insane and very very alone. What was supposed to be an incredible opportunity to study the incredible, isolated fauna of the island, and maybe find a cure for the disease that took her grandmother has turned into a terrifying nightmare and leaving may just be the only sane thing to do. Its dark, terrifying, sexy as h..l, mysterious and so freaking awesome! And unique!

If you want a book that’s a creepy but also spicy, this is a must read. Sydney is a grad student who gets accepted into an exclusive program to study fungi on an island. Her hope is to find a cure for Alzheimer’s but weird things happen throughout her time on the island. She meets a professor who is also her psychologist and a neurosurgeon, Wes Kincaid. She feels an immediate pull towards him and starts having 🌶️ dreams. I loved the mix of creepy haunted island and spicy scenes with Wes. You could definitely tell something wasn’t right from the start but I didn’t expect the ending.
Thank you Karina and NetGalley for this ARC!

This is a great fall read - it’s creepy, dark, and academic with moody weather reflecting the storyline. It takes place at an isolated research facility and there are elements of horror, mystery, suspense, dark romance, and science fiction. The twists and reveals kept me guessing and the story moves at a quick pace after a slower start.
This is the first book that I have read by the author and will not be my last.
I was given a copy by the publisher via NetGalley (thank you!) and all opinions are my own.

Who knew fungi horror and romance could blend so well?
This is a deliciously dark psychological (spicy) horror with all the mechanisms to make this an inescapable atmosphere. Isolated island? Check. Nature becoming unnatural? Check. Medical gaslighting? Check. It’s easy to get pulled into this story and with its foreboding feel throughout, it really keeps the pages turning. I enjoyed this one a lot and it’s just fuelling my need to binge all of Karina Halle’s books.

In Grave Matter by Karina Halle, a grad student goes to a remote research centre to study fungi and soon figures out that nothing is what it seems. I don't want to give away anything else because I loved having it revealed to me a page at a time! Once I started it I couldn't put it down. I got sucked in and HAD to know what was going on. The plot was unguessable (by me anyway), the spice was perfectly kinky, the characters were developed well. Plus it took place in my home province which was an additional draw. Perfect for any time you need a gothic romance fix!

As much as I wanted to love this, I just didn't enjoy it at all. There were several plot holes. The characters felt flat and there was no character development. This did a lot of telling and not a lot of showing.

This book is messed up to the extreme. I read it just to see what happens but I'm mad I did that. The whole story was depraved and dark and freaking scary.
Good for October tho.

4.5/5! 🌟🌟🌟🌟.5
🍄🟫 Ooooohkay, that was quite the wild ride. This started off slow for me, but absolutely finished with me having my jaw on the floor.
🍄🟫 A psychological horror/thriller with Gothic vibes, romance, sci-fi AND spice? Count me in. A book with crazy science experiments, fungi puns, ghosts and dark forests that come to life? Yes please. This book definitely drew me in immediately, especially with that gorgeous cover.
⁺˚⋆。°🍄₊ Sydney, a promising mycologist, feels like she has nothing left. Her family is gone, her scholarship lost, and now all she wants is to find a cure for the one thing that took her grandmother from her: Alzheimer's. She has been offered an internship at the Madrona Foundation, a research facility on a remote Vancouver Island, where she can study the fungi that might contribute to the cause she holds so near and dear. When she gets there, however, things start to seem sideways, and not all what she signed up for. 🍄💀
⁺˚⋆。°🍄₊ I really enjoyed so much of this, and thought it was pretty balanced in terms of the romance, spice, plot, science and horror aspects. There was just enough spice to not overthrow the plot. I cannot stand when a book is just spice and no plot, and this did the trick for me. However, the spice we did get was spicing and absolutely perfect.🔥
⁺˚⋆。°🍄₊ The characters were all pretty solid. The ones I was supposed to dislike, I definitely disliked. Our FMC definitely fit the bill, but I wanted to shake her a million times and say "trust your instinct". Our love interest and MMC was not at all what I thought, and it was a nice surprise at the end. Munawar and his fungi pun shirts were my favorite, though. If you find no reason to want to read this, give this man and his collection of fungi related attire a chance.
⁺˚⋆。°🍄₊ Overall, I really enjoyed Karina Halle's writing. She did a beautiful job of giving us a little bit of everything, and I certainly did not see the plot twists coming. I have so many of her books of my TBR and this made me want to dive in and see what else I'm missing out on. If you are looking for another quick, haunting read to finish spooky season off, let it be this!
🍄🟫 Thank you to NetGalley, and Metal Blonde Books for this e-arc in exchange for an honest review! 🍄🟫

This was not the wholesome Halloweeny vibes I initially thought I was getting in this book - absolutely nowhere near it - but I think I loved it anyway? It was the perfect combination of intriguing, scary, spicy and mind-bendy.
The atmosphere and vibes in this book were great for this time of year. Everything was so dark and gloomy and mysterious and foreboding. I thought I'd cracked what was really going on when I was about halfway through the book and I was pleasantly surprised to realise that I wasn't completely correct. I knew a twist was coming, but I actually liked it better than what I'd originally thought was going on.
I really liked Sidney as the main character, and I loved watching everything unfold around her and trying to guess at what was going on just as she was.
I did feel like everything was a little deflated by the end. We had all of the suspense and build up and revelations and the ending just felt little flat compared to the rest. I was just expecting a little more, or something more dramatic than what we got. I feel like Clayton especially never got the justice he deserved.

Ended my October with this perfect Halloween read! What a phenomenal journey it was reading this book. The plot, the writing had me HOOKED!
Thankyou Karina Halle and Netgalley for the arc. All opinions are my own!
#GraveMatter #Netgalley

Such an amazing read! Not sure if I was gonna vibe with this book but I ended up getting hooked and thinking I knew what was going on etc. Such a great storyline and perfect for the month of October!

the twists be twisting, the spice be spicing, a 5/5 read and I wholely suggest you pick it up ASAP, don't walk, RUN