This is a fascinating novella that uses an intentionally obscuring naming convention to shape your perspective of the comings and goings of the characters throughout. At first, it feels a touch gimmicky, but it succeeds in the story's ultimate payoff.

Root Rot is modern cosmic horror done so very right. I can't say that it will be for everyone (and truth be told, the structure--for me--made the process of completing it far longer than it should have), but when it hooks its sharps into you, it will leave your skin crawling.

This is a really hard book to review. But let me start with 2 important points. 1 - I received a copy to review from NetGalley. 2 - I have dyslexia and I feel it affected my ability to really enjoy this story unfortunately (and it’s a shame I have to disclose this in my review but I feel it’s critical to my experience).

This book is an abstract and dense novella. It’s full of complexity with unrealistic narrators, shifts in tones, pronouns and thoughts and the strange events that happen feel like you are slapped in the middle of something. It’s really felt at the end of the book but don’t expect a clear beginning or end (the story def takes places in the middle of some type of event)?

I can appreciate the fact the characters have no real names and are reduced to attributes that people tend to generalize and hyper focus on. Usually something people get tired of hearing. Maybe even something fake. Our nine characters are children on top of being reduced to just an attribute; they struggle with understanding what’s happening so we also struggle with them.

I’m guessing the lack of quotes and formal writing style is intentional I kept trying to understand if it was a hive mind thing or if people were a actually conversing but the choice to italicize and maybe enlarge these parts made it so hard for me to actually read (more on this later).

The spore horror was very interesting but I still can’t tell you the (dare I say) root cause of the infection/invasion / parallel universe / hive hallucinating / insert the correct answer. And this is troubling for readers like me. I enjoy strong character development and this book gets a -5 in that department. As intentional as it is and I understand the meaning behind it, it still was a struggle to not disengage from what was happening. I ended up believing it didn’t matter who was who or what happened to which person and you could swap them out for any other character being intentional to the point of the story but that’s why I don’t get. I couldn’t tell you what this was a metaphor for.

So no character development, hard to follow metaphors and symbolism that was all abstract. And convoluted action scenes where even the characters don’t know what’s happening. I just wish we didn’t have all this competing with each other in my brain as I’m trying my best to read it. Because I abhorred this writing style. It was too wordy and boring. It took for ever to read a few lines as it’s all a jumbled mess of run on sentences. Or sentences that were just too long. I struggled remembering what I read. And I struggled connecting the words. It felt like a textbook to me in the sense that sometimes you just can’t make the content click. And I know again this was intentionally written like this is not like it’s bad writing or editing.

And this ties into the problem I had. With verbose and incredibly long sentence I struggled to make the words mean anything. I tried to read aloud even but I couldn’t get the flow and it was like reading flash cards.

I struggled with the lack of any Chapters and only have the little • for line breaks into a new section. I struggled with the fonts and I kept trying to find a size and background and brightness that calmed my dyslexia.

With so many words in a section I absolutely couldn’t read on my phone. My brain couldn’t handle seeing so many words without a pause to catch my mental breath. Then on my iPad, it was really bad too since the author didn’t use quotations which is an important feature my brain relies on to help with pacing and understanding context. The choice to italicize the word and make them slightly large then triggered other problems for me to read left to right. My eyes could not focus on one sentence at a time. I was overwhelmed by all the words and then I kept getting lost. Completely lost to where I had to restart from the top of the page or even go back a page or two to try it all again. I felt the page sounded new like I didn’t even read anything on it. It was slightly gaslighting me I think. (Me the book, the app).

I ended up having to use my hands to block off all the text below I was reading so I didn’t have anxiety over all the words and also helped me from getting lost but the change in font made me get sick feeling after a while. It took me so long to read such a short book!

I felt pathetic crying over a silly book because all I wanted to do was feel like a normal person and just be able to read it and here I am trying to find the cheat code to unlock my brains ability to let me read.

I don’t normally have such a horrible time reading prose and getting so lost as my dyslexia symptoms with reading are pretty manageable. it’s been while it was so bad I couldn’t barely read it at all. It’s been ages I felt so stupid and ashamed of my reading disability.

It took me a while to realize it was triggering my dyslexia too since I read all the time (120 books this year). If I had known I wouldn’t have requested the book as it’s not written to accommodate my disability. I hope other people who also live with neurodivergent brains have better luck with this book.

Had it been formatted differently would I have enjoyed it? Who knows. The long sentences still could have short circuited my thought patterns. It didn’t feel worth my embarrassment and effort for the story. I hated hated hated whatever happened to the Liar because it didn’t follow the rest of the things I thought I read and now I feel like I real missed key plot points early on having so much trouble with reading this book.

I definitely cannot recommend this book with the fear it’s not disability friendly for others like me and because I would be embarrassed to try to talk about it with others. it was so abstract I couldn’t connect with the story and it would show 🥲😅

Publishing date: 25.03.2025 (DD/MM/YYYY)
Thank you to NetGalley and Creature Publishing for the ARC. My opinions are my own.

DNF at 53%

Root Rot had the exact premise I like reading about. A group of people in a hopeless situation, some kind of fungus or rot you can't really stop, and woodsy uncanny horror. But it just didn't work for me.

My biggest hurdle when reading was the character names or "titles". I found it hard to keep track of who was who and really imagining the different scenes in my head. It quickly turned into a headache. To clarify, no one has names, but instead titles like:
"The liar"
"The one with the Beautiful voice"
"The baby"
And this goes for everyone. I think it could work if the characters had more characteristics that weren't just personalities and if they were introduced slower and more spaced out.

And my other problem is that I didn't find the plot interesting, sadly. It just didn't grip me like I wanted it to.

This was a miss. With what I read I am giving this 2 stars.

This book was weird—the kind of weird that makes you feel like you’re slipping into psychosis right along with the story. It’s a short read, but I kept flipping back and forth, second-guessing what I’d just read. Nothing is straightforward, and even the characters don’t have real names—just labels like “the one who runs away,” “the liar,” or “the girl twin.”

Told from the collective perspective of a group of kids on a family trip to a lake house, the story blends body horror with psychological horror in a way that’s totally disorienting but incredibly compelling. It felt like falling into a dream you’re not sure you want to wake up from.

Definitely one of the most unique reading experiences I’ve had—I’ll be revisiting this one for sure.

Firstly, thank you NetGalley for the eArc of this book. This was right up my alley! The beginning of the book was slow paced, but once it got going...oh baby, was it going! This book was definitely my type of horror. This was the first book I've read by Saskia Nislow, and I was impressed. I think that one of my favorite things about the book was the style in which she choice to write the narrator. I feel like I was never really sure which character was narrating the book or if was a different entity all together. I also loved how unreliable the characters were. All of them just unreliable kids just trying to fit in with their family. I like that none of the characters explicitly had names either...The Liar, The Secret Keeper, The Crybaby, The Boy Twin. That helped in really making the reader start caring about these characters, but like in their own time. What can I say, I really enjoyed this book. The characters, the setting, the forest entity, the tension...great book. The best soil comes from dead things. <3

I love a botanical horror but I did not love this novella. Mostly how the characters were named really irked me. I don't think it would have bothered me as much as an audio. It made me feel disconnected with the characters and reading their nicknames over and over made the storyline drag in my opinion.

The imagery is really good and creepy though.

Great suspense! Love the visuals given, really draws you into the story. The dynamic between each of the children and the names they have given eachother is such a great part of why I enjoyed this book.

It was alright, not the best book i've read, not the worst. Just very painfully mid, Cover was GORGEOUS though. I was just really bored and didnt really care for it

3.25 stars rounded down. A strange short book, and I am mainly just confused (but that might be the point). This was an enjoyable gothic horror novella with a twisted ending, and would be a great spooky season read. The POV was also a bit confusing for me at times, especially since the children had nicknames. All in all, a good gothic horror novella with mushroom vibes.
Thank you to NetGalley and Creature Publishing for the opportunity to read this ARC, opinions are my own and given freely!

I really enjoyed this novella! It was the perfect "palate cleanser" in between reading longer books. The nature horror and descriptions were fantastic and painted the most fabulous disturbing images (my favorite being feeding the kelpie creature human teeth like they were sugar cubes). Reading this novella felt how it is to recall a dream after waking up- you think you know the details but when you try to concentrate on them they feel transparent and unable to be grasped. I did find myself getting a little turned around with the number of characters and trying to track who was still fully themselves and who was not (iykyk). Having more concrete chapters with the name of the child focused on would have been helpful in organizing my mind, but it was also this disorganization that added to the dreamscape/hallucinatory element of the writing. Overall, I recommend this book for horror lovers or anyone who wants to feel a little hesitant the next time they walk over a forest floor.

Alright… I’m writing this review after just finishing this book a few minutes ago so everything is fresh in my mind. I am a fan of this type of horror. I love Hazelthorn and What Moves The Dead.

I loved this style of writing and even loved a lot of the things that other reviewers said made them feel disconnected to the story. Such as the use of monikers vs names. I also assume the style of narration has to do that the narrator is actually a collective consciousness. I loved all of that. I only wish there was slightly more clarity in the last major scene before the epilogue. I’m still a bit confused on what was actually going on there.

Reading this book feels like a bad mushroom trip. Nothing is quite the way it is supposed to be but you can’t exactly put your finger on what it is. One minute things are one way and the next you can’t even remember how they were but you know they’re different now. No one looks/acts right if you look too closely, and everyone else seems to act like everything is fine.

All in all this was a very interesting read. I guess I just wish I had *slightly* more clarity when it comes to what the heck does any of this have to do with the grandfather… I’m not sure if something was implied that I somehow missed.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the earc

Thank you NetGalley and Creature Publishing for a digital copy of this book. Root Rot was sooo unsettling and creepy in the best way. Easily one of the coolest styles of horror I’ve ever read! This almost has a dream-like quality to it, especially if you are used to weird and frustrating dreams where every character around you doesn't notice the wrongness of it. This was imaginative and unique and will constantly have you thinking "wait, WHAT?!"

Highlights of Root Rot:
1. Imagery — Consider me creeped out, beautifully. Botanical/fungal body horror is having a moment, and I’m a big fan.
2. The Liar — The Liar is the only character with any real substance. Nislow cloaks her past in just enough mystery to allow the readers become more engaged in piecing her history together themselves.

Where it falls short:
1. Plot — Or lack thereof. This is my biggest and most heavily weighted gripe. What is the point? It feels like it’s either trying too hard to be ambiguous or actually doesn’t have a plan.

My overall impression is that I won’t remember much about this book other than it has a cool cover and something to do with fungi.

YES!!

I inhaled this in a single sitting. The POV is all over the place, the narration is unreliable AF, nobody has a name, and I can't tell if it's night or day, but I'm digging it! So much forest rot!! Bleeding mushroom babies? ALL OF THE YES!!

I am all for this kind of damp, murky creep-factor, and the fact that it's kids (who actually roll with it all quite remarkably, considering) just makes it creepier. Bonus points for plenty of grisly botanical body horror and flesh sloughing off everywhere

This whole thing reads like an earthy, face-melting acid trip crossed with a fever dream and I was here for it. The ending actually made sense to me (I know a few have been left scratching their heads) and I ended up being quite pleased for the children and the forest once all of the adults had gone home

A delightfully disorientating, perspective-spiralling novella, with all the illogic and vivid visceral urgency of a dream. A bit of queer(ed) bittersweet triumph at the end. Root Rot's language has something of a dark alienation magic that reminds me of Kafka. It does make for an impenetrable little read. But I like books that are stubborn, and belligerently unique, that burrow their own hollows, so you have to follow them on your knees crawling through the dark narrow earth.

Ever had a deeply disturbing dream that made no sense but you try to piece together the fragments anyway and then realize it actually made sense after all but you can’t explain why? Welcome to Root Rot.

This is a fever dream of a novella that starts off with a strong sense of nostalgia but quickly turns into a trippy nightmare where fungi take on human form and family aren’t what they seem.

I have to admit I had a hard time following the character’s names at first (which aren’t really names but epithets - “The Liar”, “The Secret Keeper”, “The One With The Beautiful Voice”) but then I read an interview where the author describes the characters as a collective network of mycelium. And as someone who understands the lifecycle of a mushroom organism and structure of mycelial network, it really clicked with me.

Let’s just say I’m a fan of any #sporror so of course I have to recommend this. Especially if you’re looking for quick read that’s distorted, bizarre and takes you into a nightmarish realm where you feel a loss of automony but are part of a whole and somehow you’re completely ok with it all.

In other words, get ready to be fully absorbed.🍄‍🟫

Super interesting premise but slightly difficult to understand what’s going on and who is who. I struggled with this one but still appreciated the concept.

Less of a novel and more of an eerie, kaleidoscopic fever dream that will linger long after finishing. The narrative is disorientating, slipping about between POV's, and use of a collective "We/Us" voice that I'm uncertain who it belonged to - one of the nine children, or some other entity? It's not entirely clear, and I think that is exactly the point of the entire thing.
The atmosphere is dreamlike, a childhood memory, fuzzy and decayed around the edges, as if a memory/identity is slowly rotting somewhere amongst fallen leaves, recalling to itself. Toeing the edge of horror and wonder, folklore and fever dream, and never settling on any which one.

Absolutely recommend this weird journey to anyone willing to give into the strange. an unforgettable little dark tale that will lurk in my mind for sure.

Thank you Saskia Nislow for this trip, and Creature Publishing for allowing me this ARC read.

I'm still processing what it is I've just read... in the best way possible! 🍄🫣

The unique writing style, the nameless children and those haunting and disturbed descriptions of the transformations in this short, but unsettling story warped my mind as I was reading along... 🫠 Saskia does an amazing job at making you question the reliability of the narrators, and their grip on reality... what a truly horrifyingly terrific, mind-bending read 😨👏🏻

Thank you Creature Publishing & NetGalley for the ARC 🫂

This was dark, chaotic, and fungal! I was never sure from one moment to the next entirely what was going on, which I feel was probably intended! The baby-shaped fungus in the roots of the tree was a particular highlight!