My thanks to Net Galley and Daphne Press for the free DRC for “Overgrowth” by Mira Grant.
A fascinating standalone that harmoniously blends SF, Horror and Literary Fiction.
“Overgrowth” had the perfect hook to captivate me immediately with a delicious alien plant, horror filed first chapter .
The novel has six parts: Seed, Root, Sprout, Stem, Flower and Harvest.
Each part begins with a quote from “The War of the Worlds” by H.G. Well, then an academic report from one of our characters and a report about or main character Anastasia Miller. She has been adamant since age three that she is a member of an armada of invading plant aliens.
She also finds it hard to fit into society’s demands, or to relate to peculiar human behavior, things that we humans struggle sometimes on the day to day basis.
To be honest I was a bit disappointed when we moved from the both fascinating and disturbing plant imagery into what I would call the contemporary part of the novel, but our main protagonist slowly won me over by having much more empathy and humanity than a lot of her human peers.
As a reader I came into for my speculative plant fascination, but I left with much more thoughts.
A lot of important social issues were touched upon in “Overgrowth”. Some of them maybe needed a bit more exploration, but I could sense the author has given much consideration to them and I really appreciated that.
I am glad I got to experience this story in its full circle and its memorable imagery will stay with me for a long time.

I loved Into The Drowning Deep SO dearly that I was delighted to get to read this book.

This book defied what I expected it to be and kept me interested but I will say that it felt far too long. I feel like this book could definitely have been condensed a bit more. Even though the book was interesting I was really struggling with it making me sleepy. I had a LOT of unplanned naps because of this book! Again, though, I want to emphasise that this is a good book. But that's the reason it dropped a star for me.

My favourite character was Toni, practically everything she said was hillarious and I was always looking forward to the next time she popped up in the book.

Maybe a little metaphor also for how we treat each other on earth and also how we treat the environment? I liked that.

I wish there was some closure on what happened with her cat though... I hope she went and saved Seymour. I would think they would, but there was no mention.

I wouldn't say it's the kind of horror that makes you feel scared, but it's certainly a horrific thing for the characters to be going through, so it fits. There is plenty of gore, one scene I couldn't properly read because I feel dizzy when things get too graphic surrounding veins.

Honestly more of a bummer than I anticipated, even with the book opening on a plant devouring a toddler. Grant does a good job of being unflinching about the world Stasia has been raised in- after all, it’s only five to ten years ahead of us- and the stakes and emotions feel very real even with the sentient plant monster alien of it all.

Less hopeful, somehow, than Feed, but still worth a read. Also I love Stasia’s boyfriend Graham.

I'm so gutted to only rate this as 3 stars but this book just did not grip me. I've loved Mira Grant's previous work (Drownkng Deep is an all time horror favourite of mine), but the pace of Overgrowth was lacking for me. I feel like this novel could have been a lot shorter and snappier, and had a lot of repetition.

I loved the trans inclusivity and the parallels made about identity were beautifully crafted and Stasia and Graham's relationship was probably my favourite part about this.

A five stars science fiction recommendation which gives Rocky Horror Show vibes.

Stasia has been telling everyone since she was three years old that she is an alien disguised as a human being having been abducted a human girl and replaced by a sprouting seed. Now the armada that left her as part of the vanguard on Earth is coming for her.

<b>“The aliens came and took your real baby. They left me. I’m sorry.”</b>

It’s now 2031 and Stasia is 35 years old, violently anti-social, and she lives with two people who tolerate her weirdness - both nerds and outcasts themselves.

This was such a deep character study whilst also being fast-paced and thrilling. Counting down from 25 days pre-invasion we follow a delightful cast of chaotic characters as they try and work out what is going on and what they want to do.

<b>“I call you crazy because you think you’re allowed to eat my cinnamon toast,” said Mandy easily. “You’re not crazy. Your people will be here any day, and they’re going to eat us all. I only ask that you let me watch when they chow down on Roxanna.”</b>

Human-devoring plant aliens, human friends and lovers, crazy and paranoid self-proclaimed saboteurs, sketchy government organisations.

What Grant gets down to - it all comes down to drawing sides. This is human nature. But how do we decide what family means?

<b>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.
</b>
Grant manages to pack so much in this standalone book. Identity, neurodivergence, choice, agency, transgender politics, birthright citizenship and rights, propaganda, language, found family and family, acceptance, fear mongering….

As you can tell, I cannot sing my praises enough.
The pacing does get a bit uneven for me towards the end, but this was pulled off great for such an ambitious standalone.

Arc gifted by Daphne Press.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the review copy. This was a very good read. A very original concept, and I loved the little bits of war of the worlds scattered throughout. I was a bit dubious about the blend of sci-fi and horror, but it works well. The only thing I will say is that the pacing was a little slow at some points. I loved the bittersweet ending. A very thought provoking book and one I am happy to recommend.

Dopo un inizio straordinariamente intrigante, mi sono trovata a trascinare il romanzo - cosa mai capitata con Mira Grant, una delle mie autrici horror preferite. Sarà che l'idea delle piante aliene carnivore mi inquieta decisamente meno delle incantevoli sirene di Into the Drowning deep, sarà che non c'era un personaggio uno della cui sorte mi importasse (eccetto Seymour - il gatto), sarà che da metà inizia ad accumulare scene, cambi di scena, personaggi e tutti i tropi della fantascienza a tema alieno e di conquista aliena, sarà che Anastasia è singolarmente ripetitiva con pensieri, reazioni e sentimenti, ma l'ultimo centinaio di pagine mi è pesato.
Ma comunque non vedo l'ora di mettere le mie avide manine sul prossimo, sia chiaro. ;)

I am an instant fan of this author! What an experience this was- I devoured this book, looking forward to the time of day I could sit down and dive in. I loved that the world building was complex but understandable. The main and side characters were all varied and complex and the pace was fast enough to keep my interest but I still felt able to explore the themes as they unfurled.

Thank you for this book, I look forward to working my way through other titles from this author!

This is quite a hard book to rate. Some parts of this were really good, others fell quite flat for me.
What I loved was the beginning and ending. They were chilling and satisfying and the only part of this story that I would consider horror.
The middle of the book on the other hand felt like a completely different book.
There’s a lot of introspection from our main character Stasia about who she is, who she loves and where her allegiances lie. But it all felt very repetitive. We spend a lot of time going over the same ideas just set in different situations as the invasion gets closer and closer.
The story is full of social and cultural commentary about immigration, climate change and colonialism.
Nature vs Nurture is another very heavy theme in the book and the ending gives us an interesting conclusion to which one wins out in this story.

I think this is a book that will stay with me because the things it did well, it did really well, I just wish the middle had been more fast paced and less repetitive.

Thank you to Daphne Press and Netgalley for the eARC!

I never thought I’d be rooting (excellent pun given the contents of this book) for the alien invaders but Grant has done it. A beautifully moving story meditating nature of humanity and found family with a surprising amount of humour given the subject matter. I can’t recommend this book enough.

Omg where do I start? This book was so good I couldn't stop reading it for a second. So so good. I rated it 5 stars because it's THAT good. I recommend everyone to read this book as fast as they can.