The premise of this book was good but as someone who isn’t huge on science-fiction, I found it hard to get through. I found this recommended under horror, so I decided to give it a try because I can do sci-fi when there are horror elements. However, there were little, if any, horror scenes in the story at all. It was difficult for me to fully immerse myself into this world just because it wasn’t something that interested me. I know that there will be a lot of people that will enjoy this because it’s good writing and the plot is solid, it’s just not for me personally.

Format: Digital and Audio arcs
The audio was single narrator but she was really good. I actually ended up preferring the audio.

Overall:
Loved this! Just when I thought the book was going on a certain path, it went off in a different direction and I highly enjoyed it. It's reminiscent of your classic invasion stories, but make it more personal and thought provoking, oh, and add a dash of Little Shop of Horrors.

Anastasia is a vanguard of an alien species set on invading earth. She's been telling everyone this since she was a toddler. The question is, if she told you this, would you believe her? Thought of as a weirdo and bullied by co-workers, even her friends don't believe her. It made me question whether I would be a believer. Chances are, probably not. There's the central question of whether humanity is worth saving. Think about past and current events and how humans have treated fellow humans. Are we worth saving?

The mark of a good science fiction novel is if it makes you question your humanity, your values, and your principles. This book had deep questions imbedded in it even if on the surface, it's about an alien invasion and technology that far surpasses what we, humans, currently have.

If you liked The Three-Body Problem but want something lighter, less "hard" science and more action, then this could scratch the itch. If you also liked The Aurora Cycle Series and it's premise of an alien sentient plant-like beings, then definitely reach for this one. I love alien invasion movies, so if that's your jam, then here you go, add this to your TBR.

I've seen that this title is being compared to "Annihilation" and "Day of the Triffids." I agree that the storyline would appeal to readers of these books, but the execution is sadly not up to the same standard. I enjoyed the world building and atmosphere, especially the sequence involving the original Anastasia. Even though this sequence was dark, I found that was when the writing was most effective. The humor didn't really hit the right note for me, and I found it hard to relate to Anastasia's experiences. Was I supposed to be rooting for the carnivorous alien plants? If so the novel failed. One example was the imprisonment by evil NASA scientists. It was such an absurd, cartoonishly evil plot that I struggled to continue reading after this point. As of now, I am 45% through and I'm not sure I will be able to finish this book. While I have enjoyed other novels by Mira Grant, this was a miss for me.

I love mia grant and her apocalpse series.Overgrowth kept my interest enough where I wanted to know what happens at the end.
I do think the author could have kept out the Trans part. Unfortunately, that is not something I enjoy reading about.
I loved the plot of the story, but I do feel like this novel was more like a science fiction novel and not a horror story.

Heartfelt, exciting, wonderfully complicated characters in gnarly, life/world-altering situations, this novel has everything I love in Mira Grant’s writing. I really find myself drawn to her characters, who are always diverse and so well-defined that I recognize them, I see myself and people I know in them. There is nothing perfunctory or convenient about them, and that really fuels this story. The story premise is simple, but she adds layers and folds and surprises enough to always keep you turning the page, to keep you guessing and involved. Nothing feels expected. The world-building, in this regard, is lush and engaging. Without spoiling anything I will say there is some alien world-building that is inventive and immersive and really fun, but aside from that the social and emotional worlds that are built, before we visit those alien landscapes, are just as complex and juicy and really create a strong sense of space.

The writing is really delightful, with convincing dialogue and a strong interiority that is emotional and descriptive without ever feeling purple. The prologue is a storytelling narrator, talking to the audience, and that really draws you in, makes you complicit in the story. But then it shifts to an intimate first-person for the rest of the story which works really well, staying with one character’s perspective but still feeling wide-ranging and curious. I will say that some of the plotting was a little bit slow. Not slow, in actuality, but slow in comparison to some of the high-energy action that Grant has in other novels. The thing is, I really appreciate all of the parts of this novel, I think the way they develop and build on each other are perfectly done, so I don’t know what I would suggest to speed things up; it isn’t like I could suggest any particular section to be trimmed or excised. And that pace really did give us more time with our main character, time to fill out her emotional world, and I felt that was worthwhile. It also made the contrast with some of the action scenes in the final act’s resolutions all the more stark, an inevitable abruptness, which I liked. Once the story began it was clear this wasn’t going to be super frenetic, and so if you settle into that pace then the story takes you exactly where you need to go. It is important to say that even at this pace I never wanted to put the book down, and I was fighting for one more page every time I had to. Her writing is consistently gripping and serves the story and characters well.

Grant doesn’t shy away—in this fantastical sci-fi invasion horror story that features a few totally wild and unexpected sequences near the end—from asking important questions. A big part of this story is about what it means to know yourself, to understand who and how you are in the world. The story has a lot of opportunities for genuine introspection, an assessment not just of how I am who I am but also a recognition of who and what is of value to me, and for why. As in much of Grant’s stories the role of friendship, and the complicated roses and thorns it involves, is vital to the story. Like any good invasion story, it also asks questions about how well you truly know your neighbors, what different shapes emotional and physical colonization can take, and what sacrifices you’re willing to make for those you care about. The story builds an emotional depth with characters you care about and then exploits that by using it force you to ask questions about yourself and your ways of being in the world. It is an inventive and immersive story grounded in character and was an absolute blast of joy to read.

I want to thank the author, the publisher Tor Nightfire, and NetGalley, who provided a complimentary eARC for review. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Overgrowth by Mira Grant is a fantastically horror story about an alien invasion that was unputdownable. With a count down to invasion day, we follow Anastasia Miller, who from the age of three has told everyone she meets she is an alien. Creeptastic and brilliant.

I automatically buy anything written by Mira Grant, a.k.a Seanan McGuire. From her Newsflesh trilogy to her Parasite trilogy, she delivers hair-raising tales that are unforgettable. As McGuire, she delivers fantasy stories that keep me begging for more. My bookshelves are lined with Mira Grant novels, and I have all her McGuire books as audiobooks.

Before we begin, I want you to remember … “This is just a story. It can’t hurt you anymore.” The story begins with a story about a three-year-old little named Anastasia (Stasia) Miller who wandered into the woods, went missing for three days and returned claiming to be an alien.

The point of view delivered by Stasia fast-forwards from age three to adulthood. Stasia has always been a little weird, what with the whole claiming to be an alien story, but she graduated from college, has a job, a boyfriend and lives with two roommates and her beloved cat. Then, an alien message is intercepted and Stasia knows it’s time. Her people are coming to get her. The countdown to the invasion has come.

Grant/McGuire is a brilliant storyteller, and she delivered a compelling, thought-provoking look at first contact. She tackles tough social questions, humanitarian issues, love and choices. It was creepy, horrifying and had me on edge from the very first page. The suspense built as questions arise. Will humanity survive? What happens when first contact is so subtle no one believes? What happens when something new wants to take over?

Stasia was a multifaceted character. An orphan really, raised among humans but other. The story masterfully portrays her difficulties, chosen family, and her life bridging two cultures. Stasia’s transformation, the alien history and beings were realistically depicted, making the horror believable.

Perfect for fans of alien invasions, thought-provoking questions blended into a sci-fi horror. I highly recommend taking Overgrowth on vacation with you this summer!

Overgrowth by Mira Grant is a fascinating horror sci-fi read.
The amazing vivid descriptions and characters really set the tone here.
This book was awesome and crazy and a little creepy!
I absolutely loved this book. The amount of world building that got packed into this book is fantastic.

I loved Overgrowth. Apocalyptic, aliens, galactic war, really descriptive world building and characters I cared so much about. I didn’t expect to cry at the end, but did.

Stasia has been telling everyone, since she was three, that she was an alien and that eventually Earth would be invaded and conquered. She’s never deviated from this. She’s found love in her boyfriend Graham and a core group of friends who accept her for who she is. Until the aliens actually invade.

I don’t want to spoil too much. Go in cold if you can. I would love to see this as a movie. I would also love to see more stories from this universe.

This book sounded like SUCH a great idea and I'm so bummed that it didn't live up to my internal hype. It dragged in places that should have been faster and then the end felt like the author didn't know how to end the story and we just got this dump of fantasy instead?

There definitely couldn't have been a bigger look at trans experience here, especially with her boyfriend and that her body transitioned without her consent, the story easily could've gone deeper into the themes of identity.

This was such a fun book! It starts off with some history first and then you really get to delve into the book! It's a fun sci-fi story and the characters felt realistic!

This book was such a good ride. It is a bang from the beginning to the end - you start with sort of history and then you get immersed in the novel. I love that nothing felt cheesy or like it was already done before - it felt fresh and the characters felt realistic (for what the novel is about). I had a lot of fun reading this and would definitely recommend this book to sci-fi lovers. Thanks Netgalley and Tor!

Thanks to Tor Publishing Group and NetGalley for an ARC of Overgrowth in exchange for an honest review.

Rating: 3/5

This book had a lot of good themes and pop culture references, but unfortunately, the style of writing wasn't for me. The story seemed to move too slowly for me, and not as scary as I had wished. I hope it finds its audience.

'Family is where you keep the pieces of yourself that need to be shared with someone else if they’re going to have meaning, the memories that must be seen from three or four different angles at the same time before they find their context.'

Anastasia Miller is an alien, and the invasion is coming.
I am absolutely blown away by this incredible story. At it's core, this is a story about choice, morals, and love. I had ZERO expectations of shedding tears when I went into this, but here we are. While this was a complex story with the internal intricacies, it was also an incredibly eerie read about an actual alien invasion.
This was a slow burn that was overflowing with character development. Anastasia's relationship with her boyfriend Graham was beautiful. The love and support they had for each other was nothing short of unconditional. The friendships created and developed were incredibly thoughtful... While the world was burning around everyone, those chose to be ride or dies together, and I thought that was so powerful.
There were parts of the story that I thought were slower moving, but none of it took away from the overall big picture. I had a fantastic time listening to this. I enjoyed this far more than I ever thought I would, and this instilled some hope in humanity for me.
So many thanks to Macmillan for this ALC!

I love stories from the alien/villain's POV, especially with a woman character, but this one just didn't live up to the expectation for me.

The first half of the book is really interesting as we inch closer to the alien invasion and Stasia collects her found family. The second half had pacing issues, and the ending felt like Mira didn't quite know how to end it so then we got a flying dinosaur/dragon? It felt too far into fantasy to have the same weight and horror as the first half of the book.

I wish it unpacked the trans rep a little more, the idea of being born in a body that isn't aligned to your identity, I think there's so much similarity between our main character and her trans boyfriend, and then to follow that line through to the horror of transitioning (without consent) into an alien plant monster - I wish that was the story.

Unfortunately this book fell flat for me based on the hype and previous Mira Grant horror/thriller books I've read. Feed (and the whole series) is absolutely five stars for me.

Ohhh where do I start? This was a very thought provoking read wrapped up in a fun sci fi. I really liked the conversations we were having about immigration and belonging in the beginning. I thought she took a fun invasion trope and really turned it on its head by allowing us to be in the eyes of Stacia the alien and also them announcing their presence. So different than what I usually read. In the second half when the invasion happens, I expected the horror to really kick in. Instead, I found the pacing slowed down more for me and became a little repetitive. This definitely is a more literary sci-fi than horror in my opinion. I still really enjoyed this, but I do wish the second half had leaned into the horror more kind of like Into the Drowning Deep.

Overgrowth is a creepy and engaging SciFi that is incredibly topical. Mira Grant really hits the nail on the head when discussion topics relevant to todays political climate. Anastasia Miller was such an interesting character and how her experience being a seedling that was planted by an Alien Race and how it correlates with Trans People and Immigrants. The fact that people were so willing to brush off her warnings because it "it wasn't hurting anyone" and then turn around to invalidate Grahams identity Transman or Mandy being Biracial.

Mira Grant always delivers in the SciFi genre by applying real world situations into a digestible story that has a lot of heart. I also like that this had a really sweet romance element.

Overall a really good read! Will recommend

Ahoy there me mateys!  Mira Grant is the pen name for Seanan McGuire's sci-fi & horror tales.  This is her newest about an alien invasion coming soon to an Earth near you.  When Anastasia "Stasia" Miller was three years old, she got lost in the woods and was enticed by a weird alien plant.  When she immerges several days later, she tells everyone that she is an alien in disguise as a human and that the armada is coming.  No one believes her.

Except Stasia is telling the truth.  The alien plant has consumed her human self and taken her place.  She has no other facts about the invasion.  No timeline.  No idea what she is supposed to do in the meantime.  And no choice but to keep repeating the truth of her nature to everyone she meets.  Needless to say, she isn't extremely popular.

Stasia has a handful of friends, a boyfriend named Graham, and a cat named Seymour who tolerate her alien quirkiness.  Then one day, an alien signal is received by Earth.  The invasion is finally coming to pick Stasia up.  Humans are beginning to believe in aliens.  The government is involved.  And Stasia finds others of her kind.  That is just the beginning of Stasia's crazy adventure and the take down of Earth.

I began reading this in e-book form and switched to the audiobook.  I absolutely loved the set-up for this novel.  Reading about Stasia's disappearance, return, and foray into human adulthood was fascinating.  There is a bit of body horror involving the plant and it was creepy and awesome.  I also loved when Stasia realized that there were other aliens like her planted (ha!) on Earth.

Unfortunately for me, I felt that this book was not as interesting once the alien signal was introduced.  And when the government gets involved around the 38% mark I was less than enthused.  I think this is because the novel went from a focus on character relationships to a more action novel flavor.  Also Stasia really spends a lot of time waffling about the same existential questions.  Because she and the other aliens don't really know anything about what the invasion will do, the reader has to spend a lot of time just waiting alongside them. 

Once invasion day starts (62%), the pace picked back up again.  I enjoyed a lot Stasia and the other aliens interactions with the invaders.  I appreciated how Earth's humans were never going to win.  But I found the overall goals of the aliens to be rather silly.  About a third of this book really floated my boat so I am glad I read it and I have been thinking about it a lot.  I just think that the majority of this book wasn't to my personal taste.  Arrrr!

Side note: what actually happened to Seymour?  Did I miss where he ended up?

Three-year-old Anastasia Miller wandered into the woods and never returned home. Something came back — something that looked like Anastasia, talked like Anastasia, but insisted she was an alien, a scout left behind by her people, waiting for the day they’d return. Like a cuckoo chick in a human nest, she grew up with Earth’s cultural literacy but knowing she belonged somewhere else.

Now, years later, a signal from the stars confirms her story. The armada is coming. But it’s not a joyous reunion — it’s an invasion. And as humanity scrambles to respond, Stasia and a mismatched group of allies must decide what to do when the future you’ve been waiting for turns out to be a threat to everything you've learned to love.

Despite the knowledge at the outset that an alien invasion is impending, this is a slower, more introspective story rather than a high-octane thriller or horror story. There are interesting ideas at play in the book. Stasia’s perspective as someone caught between two worlds — biologically alien, emotionally tied to Earth — is compelling, and the glimpses we get of the alien species, especially the psychic bond between the scouts and the lush design of the vessel, are fresh and evocative. But ultimately, the execution didn’t quite land (ha ha) for me.

The pacing is a big part of that. I had access to both the audiobook and eBook through my review copy, and at one point, I realized the audiobook was missing a significant chunk of chapters — and I hadn’t noticed. I feel like that's the best way I can convey how uneven the structure and momentum felt. The early promise of an alien arrival kept getting delayed by scenes that didn’t add much urgency or emotional weight, and much of the final act relies on lengthy conversations rather than truly gripping confrontation.

Tone-wise, Overgrowth is earnest and readable, but it didn’t feel especially distinctive in a crowded sci-fi field. For me, this was a solid concept with uneven execution — a read that I wanted to like more than I actually did. Plenty of other readers seem to enjoy this one, though, so maybe my complaints about the pacing are a matter of personal preference.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an early copy in exchange for an honest review.

Review: I really enjoyed this book. I didn't think I was going to because sci-fi is very hit or miss for me. However, I really, really enjoyed this book. I've wanted to try Mira Grant for a long time and this definitely makes me want to read other works by her. The plot is straight forward, engaging, and exactly what the synopsis says it's going to be. The book is consistent the entire way through, pacing is perfect. I also really enjoyed the characters and their stories. The diverse representation was much appreciated, as a trans guy myself, we don't get a lot of stories about transmen and ciswomen together. Overgrowth has a lot to say, so much you should read it yourself, I can't really do it justice in my review. There's a lot of social commentary but Grant does it in a way that weaves it throughout the story and will feel relatable for most of us. Really glad I read this. The MC is endearing and one I will continue to think about. I could see myself reading this again in the future.

Mark my words, 2025 is the year of botany horror. Not something I realized I needed, but I'm here for it.

I picked up my first Seanan McGuire last year and completely fell in love. By and far one of my favorite authors—and imagine my surprise when I discovered she had a pen name.

This is my first Mira Grant, and I was not disappointed. The prose is smoothly beautiful, the representation is unmatched, and the premise is uniquely horrifying. I was pulled in from the very beginning. I'm one for space paradoxes, so I was thrilled to see the Fermi paradox front and center—one of my favorites.

The story follows Stasia as she navigates her life and an impending alien invasion as the vanguard for the aforementioned aliens.

This is a mix of Little Shop of Horrors with Body Snatchers, with lots of references sprinkled in.

My only complaint is I feel like it dragged a little toward the end of the middle. The armada arrived, and things still hadn't picked up, but once they did, the pacing was wonderful.

I also loved how the book is framed. Spoilers Realizing that Graham is doing the change at the end really was the perfect way to end it.

Definitely can't wait to pick up another! Thank you, Tor Nightfire, for allowing an advanced reader's copy!