Thank you to NetGalley and Wendy N. Wagner for allowing me to read the ebook arc of this title.

Pacific Northwest, immersive, rotting fungal horror. This was such a gift for my brain to read and dissect. This novel keeps you thinking at every turn, and never are you thinking anything good. The characters are believable (and yet so naive as horror movie characters are). Our main antagonist, The Strange, has goals about as transparent as it's name. With undefined origins and a seemingly hungry and invasive motive, the reader never knows who or what is trustworthy. And just when you think you have guessed right, this book takes a sharp turn in the other direction. Wendy N. Wagner uses captivating and descriptive prose to draw the reader into the stinking, rotten maw of their writing. This book felt stylistically similar to Eat the Ones You Love by Sarah Maria Griffin in the writing and as I was reading, I was visualizing something in a style akin to David Lynch's Twin Peaks. With an obscure and occult quality about it, even after the ending, this novel is still an enigma. Impeccably horrible, gruesome, and invasive. Wendy N. Wagner's books are going to be stuck in your head. For all the wrong and right reasons.

Set in a small Pacific Northwest town we find Erin Harper on the search for answers and clues as to the mystery of what happened to her brother in the fungus filled forest all those years ago that led to his disappearance. The only thing is when Erin arrives she begins to discover that more individuals have also gone missing under mysterious circumstances as well. Is there something sinister going on like a killer on the loose or possibly something more supernatural and strange in nature that’s haunting the fungal infested forest.

If you are looking for some eerie forest filled body horror with disappearances and mystery then Girl in the Creek is just the book you need in your life. This fast paced inclusive book took mushrooms to a new level with vivid details and easily pictured setting. And while I would consider Erin to be the main character the story does still revolve around many others and is told from multiple perspectives with even the fungus being included. These different view points added layers and kept me engaged with the story as it ramped up to the wild last half. One thing that kept me from fully loving this creepy body horror/thriller type mystery was that while it was fast moving and interesting with its many POVs, I felt that I wasn’t ever able to fully connect to any of the characters or see them be developed greater than anything above surface level. However the overall story and plot kept me engaged and would be a great book for any fans of mushrooms and body horror reads the feature the fungus. I also think thriller readers wanting to dip their toes into a bit of horror would find this book as a great entry to the genre.

Thank you NetGalley and Tor Publishing for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Ecohorror is always a win for me, so I'm pleased to report this one was no different! The writing was lush, the pacing tight, and I liked the Oregon setting.

I was really excited for this book, but I felt a bit let down. It started of strong and pulled me in right away. However, as the book went on, the characters fell a bit flat and had similar personalities that it was hard to keep them straight or get to know them. The premise of this book was so intriguing, but the execution was hit and miss. There were some high points but I was mostly bored because I couldn't connect with the characters and it felt a bit rushed. I listened to the audio for most of this and it just felt flat. I loved the small creepy Oregon town setting, the podcast angle, and the inclusion of eco-horror and mycelium. I did enjoy the writing enough that I will definitely try more of Wendy Wagner's work in the future, and I would recommend this to lovers of eco-horror.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC and ALC in exchange for an honest review.

This book is sporror (spore horror) at its finest and I absolutely devoured it. I loved the fact that this was a perfect blend of eco horror and thriller, with twists that just kept coming throughout.

I ended up listening to this one via audio thanks to Macmillan Audio and the narrator, Jennifer Pickens, knocked this one out of the park. I was listening to this one at the gym with my mouth hanging open, lol.

The comparison to Vandermeer is perfect for Girl In The Creek, although I do think this book is more palatable for fans of less ~weird~ horror. The setting in the PNW is almost cute, but carries a little too much bite and gore to be cozy.

I truly cannot wait to see what this author comes out with next and highly recommend this book for fans of horror, mushrooms, hiking, and nature!!

**Thank you to Tor Nightfire for the eARC and Macmillan Audio for the free listening copy, ILYSM**

This book is the very definition of edge-of-your-seat suspense. From the very first chapter, I was completely hooked and found myself compulsively turning page after page. The tension is perfectly paced, pulling you deeper into the story with every twist and revelation. I genuinely couldn’t put it down—I lost track of time and devoured it in one sitting.

The characters are compelling and well-drawn, making every moment feel urgent and real. The author knows exactly how to ratchet up the stakes, keeping you guessing and second-guessing until the final pages. It’s the kind of book that leaves your heart racing even after you’ve finished.

If you’re looking for a read that will completely consume you, this is it. Add it to your TBR immediately—you won’t regret picking it up. Whether you’re a seasoned suspense lover or just looking for something impossible to put down, this book delivers in every way.

The cover got me on this one, but it did not disappoint. Writer Erin sets out to explore Faraday, a small Pacific Northwest town where people keep disappearing. Under the guise of writing a travel piece for the town, Erin attempts to uncover the dark truth about this sleepy little town. However, the longer she stays the stranger things become, and she begins to discover a long buried secret that is slowly infecting the town.

The setting was claustrophobic, the twists and turns were a ride, and the ending honestly sealed her as a 5 star read for me. I enjoyed Erin’s experience of grief, and it felt real in the ways it came and went with her memories of her brother. You get hit with a lot of characters really fast, but they feel real and relatable. And y’all, things got so real, so fast. If you like environmental and body horror, as well as a touch of mystery and science fiction, I think this one will scratch every itch you’ve got.

A thank you to @tornightfire and @netgalley for the advanced e-copy of this novel, which I receive in exchange for an unbiased review

I loved this eerie eco horror about a creepy forest and the ravenous Strangeness within it. This one felt like an Xfiles or Twin Peaks episode in the best of ways.

Thank you netgalley and tornightfire for the opportunity to read this one early!

I featured Girl in the Creek in my July 2025 new releases video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5JWYTfUVq4, and though I have not read it yet, I am so excited to and expect 5 stars! I will update here when I post a follow up review or vlog.

🍄‍🟫 The Girl In The Creek Review 🍄‍🟫

Thanks to Netgalley and Tor Nightfire for the Arc!

Let’s talk about Girl In The Creek by Wendy N. Wagner.

A journalist travels to the small town where her brother went missing under the guise of it being a travel hot spot. There, Erin plans to investigate her brother’s disappearance along with a group of friends. But the latest missing person—a woman named Elena Lopez-turns up dead in the creek, covered in fungi. Something strange is going on in the town, and Erin and her friends are about to be caught in the middle of it.

This one was a bit hard for me to get into. I didn’t enjoy many of the characters and felt a bit overwhelmed by how many were in the group. The story moved pretty fast and I felt as if l didn’t have time to get to know them before the horror caught up with them.

But there were several things I did enjoy. The mystery was deeply rooted in lies and secrets. Some of the reveals near the ending were fantastic. The writing itself was beautiful! I loved all the descriptions of nature. I also learned a few things about mushrooms 🍄‍🟫 And the Sporror was fantastic!

There was a lot of mushroom body horror and it was gross yet fantastic! I also thought having a POV from the “Strangeness” was unique and added to the story!

Be warned though, there are a few animal deaths related to the Sporror aspect.

I’d give this one 3.5 stars. A quick read that’s great for a rotting summer 🙌🏻

I think I might be burned out on the whole “sporror” trend. Girl in the Creek didn’t offer much to keep me engaged, and despite its fast pace, it felt like not much was actually happening.

The biggest issue for me was the characters. There were too many introduced all at once, and most of them felt underdeveloped and hard to keep track of. I kept mixing them up, and because the story moved so quickly, none of them had time to become fully realized. As a result, I didn’t feel much when they started getting picked off.

The tone also leaned more YA than adult, which surprised me. The dialogue and interactions felt a bit too juvenile, which made it harder to take the horror elements seriously or stay emotionally invested.

Overall, this one didn’t stand out. It felt like it was following the current horror formula without bringing anything new or memorable to the table.

As someone who loves eco-horror, I knew right away this book was going to hit the mark—and it did. This was a slower, eerie burn that had me creeped out from page one.

Set in the Pacific Northwest, the forest in this story feels like its own character—alive, hungry, and watching. Between the abandoned hotel covered in strange fungus, the missing people, and the whisper of something ancient hiding in the trees, the setting alone gave me chills. Add in the fact that Erin, the main character, is searching for her long-lost brother? I was hooked.

This isn’t just a spooky mystery. It’s full of layers—climate change, loss, secrets, and survival. As the story unravels, it becomes less about one missing person and more about the haunting truth behind why people keep vanishing in this forest. There’s something out there… and it’s not just a serial killer.

I really liked how the book explored nature turning against us, almost like it’s fighting back. It made me pause and ask, "What are we doing if we’re not protecting the planet?" The horror is both emotional and physical, with some very gross, squishy, body-horror moments (think Nick Cutter squelchy vibes).

My only wish? A bit more scary in certain places. But overall, this one was smart, scary in the quietest ways, and way deeper than I expected. At under 300 pages, it’s a quick and meaningful read. If you’re curious about eco-horror or “sporror” (spore horror), this is a perfect intro. Also great for readers who enjoy stories about mysterious forests, missing people, and slowly losing your grip on reality. This one lingers. Like mold in the walls.

Girl in the Creek follows Erin as she follows in her missing brothers footsteps hoping to discover what happened to him five years ago. When she discovers the body of a woman in the lake instead, Erin, along with her friends, find themselves in pulled into danger, surrounded by the secrets of the town, it's extensive list of missing people, and the horrors within the forest itself.

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I was SO excited to read this ARC. I screamed when I was approved to read it. And I really wanted to love it, but unfortunately I felt a little let down.

The premise of this book was so interesting with it's blend of thriller (killers in the woods, people going missing, etc.) and sporror (the Strange). It did a great job of keeping up the mystery. There were many a night I spent wide awake reading far past my bedtime, because I just needed to know more. The body horror was honestly the best parts of the book. It was gross and brutal in the way that Sporror books tend to be.

Unfortunately, the book just fell flat on most other fronts. There was a constant cast of main characters outside of Erin that felt impossible to keep track of because everyone sounded the same. I kept having to go back and asking myself "sorry who is this? How do we know you? Are you a visitor or a local? What is your deal again??" And when more than two characters would be talking at a time, it would take me approximately 2 seconds to get lost. I couldn't ever tell who was talking. The extensive cast also never felt like it added anything to the story.

The dialogue was atrocious and that is putting it nicely. Conversations felt clunky and out of place at the best of times, and completely pulled me out of the story at the worst. I kept highlighting lines of dialogue in my kindle with just question marks as notes because it didn't make any sense. This is a spoiler free review for NetGalley, but I may create a spoiler heavy one after the release date, because some of these lines just Do Not Make Sense.

Overall, it felt like the book wanted to combine the two genre's into one plot, but instead it felt like multiple half started plot-lines that were stitched together. It left me more confused than satisfied.

We're watching the world burn. There's little disagreement about that among those following the science. Our planet loses between 200 and 2000 species every year. What would the forest say if it had a voice? How would the animals feel if they could tell us? Would they express rage or grief?

Wendy N. Wagner's new novel Girl in the Creek might have an answer. The novel sets us up with a big cast of outdoorsy 30-something REI Instagramer types all of which at first glance act more like teenagers in a Friday the 13th slasher than professional adults. They go out partying at night in the woods where they know people are disappearing. They drink and smoke on the job. These are high functioning athletic, beautiful people, each with their own nerdy interests. It isn't until we get deeper into the narrative that their cracks start to show.

Erin and Hari have a podcast, that's their main work even though the side hustle working as travel bloggers is the one that pays the bills. They use resources from their professional job to investigate missing persons which is why they are drawn to the Clackamas forest. This isn't any old morbid true crime obsession, it's personal. Erin lost a brother when she was younger in a presumed suicide but his body was never found and she's never given up the search. They've partnered with a couple, Kayla and Matt, as well as Kayla's sister Madison. Local instagram influencer Jordan and gear outfitter Dahlia finish off this millenial Scooby gang of forlorn misfits.

The town they're investigating has an abnormally high number of missing persons, nearly all of them being Latinx women. It doesn't take long for the investigation to run afoul of the locals and their distrust and hostility toward outsiders, sometimes in violent fashion.

Fenway is a character itself, perhaps pulling inspiration from Twin Peaks, the strange, larger than life characters that inhabit the small forest community are one of the highlights of the book. There's a weird incompetent deputy, mean as hell redneck brothers, an eccentric heiress with mysterious past who now runs a bed and breakfast, and a weird old guy who collects and sells mushrooms.

If environmentalism is your draw you'll likely be pleased. The most haunting passages come from the perspective of the forest, made alert and connected by the intoxicating presence of "the strangeness," a fungal invader carried by a meteorite. This invading corruption becomes a sort of metaphor for contemporary environmental anxieties but also grief.

When Erin and Jordan follow a tip to a ghost town, they discover the titular girl in the creek before being chased away by gunfire. The authorities are alerted the body is taken to the morgue then disappears.

Girl in the Creek is a fun summer horror read. Yes, it's bleak but has plenty of fun with the messy corporeal elements. The body horror is wonderfully nasty, delivering grotesque transmutations and monsters that would fit right in with John Carpenter's The Thing. Many of the victims changed are innocent, some with very real connections to nature, almost as if they're changed like our heroine by grief.

I wasn't completely won over by all the characters. Despite having a queer protagonist, one of the supporting cast, Hari felt like a caricature of a gay man in horror and follows nearly every trope and at one point ends up literally trapped in a closet. Some of the troop never make themselves distinct and are clearly waiting for their moment to be felled by the strangeness. As I received an uncorrected proof, I cannot say for certain but one character's name seemed to change at random. And while the active voice, impressively never falters, sometimes it's a bit too aggressive in choice of verbiage. Also, characters reactions or moods occasionally didn't quite fit their situation.

There's a love for ecology thrumming through this novel which is what I had the most fun with. Science factoids and nerdy ecology and biology conversations pepper the volume and give the fantastical elements a layer of believability. I'm also a sucker for whenever an author can work in the iridium deposited by the K-pg impact having actually taken samples from it in the field.

Girl in the Creek is a bleak novel, it deals with some really heavy emotional baggage and themes that likely will stir your own sense of grief and loss at what's happening to our planet. But in my mind, the active consumption of something like that, especially in the season when we're closest to nature might do us some good

So, if you like slime, environmentalism, fungus, nature, and/or body horror, pack this one in your camp sack; or take it to the vegan barbeque where you grill up some portobellos. It's a mystery full of surprises that keep coming all the way up to the final page with an ending that will leave you squirming. It just might spark a needed conversation.

3.5 stars

It’s odd that I can look at a book about a parasitic zombie fungus taking over animal and human hosts and think, yeah, but the last two books I read with that concept were even cooler.

Girl in the Creek aims to be a creepy horror novel in which a young woman, Erin, investigating the unexplained disappearances of her brother and various other missing persons in and around the small town of Faraday, OR, discovers that their disappearances may be stranger than initially suspected. On some levels, it works: the mycological ‘villain’ is an interesting alien intelligence and certainly a hefty threat. On some others, it felt a bit wonky, like all the creases haven’t been ironed out yet.

Let’s talk about the good: Firstly, Olivia Vanderpoel is hands-down my favorite character and the MVP of the book. If you love a middle-aged woman with more competence in her pinky finger than most people acquire in a lifetime, you’ll like her too. Secondly, I like parasitic horror; I appreciate the combination of monster horror featuring a nonhuman and incomprehensible intelligence with the body horror of losing control over your own mind and corpus.

My favorite chapters were those from the point of view of The Strangeness, the parasitic entity that has colonized insect, avian, and mammalian life in the woods around Faraday and is hoping to make inroads into human populations, and the creatures it has overtaken. I think early chapters from The Strangeness’s point of view were much more interesting and compelling than those from Erin, our protagonist.

Which brings me to what felt a little off: I didn’t much care for the protagonist, Erin, whose age I was never able to ascertain; she was apparently a fully independent adult but acted like a nineteen-year-old college student. If she and her crew were aged down from professionals in their late twenties to college sophomores working on a journalism assignment, I would 100% not notice the difference.

I also felt that the horror itself wanted to be creepy but veered into “odd” and “goofy” once the climax approached. There’s a scene that’s meant to be chilling body horror where a character has undergone devastating and irreversible physical changes, leaving Erin deeply saddened and horrified, and I just couldn’t take it seriously because of the mechanics of how the character was speaking.

The parasitic fungus is repeatedly described as resembling long white worms in and around people’s bodies, which just kept me thinking about Nick Cutter’s The Troop and how extremely well that book worked for me. This is unfortunate because I think that book did ‘parasitic worms’ better than this book does ‘worm-like parasitic fungus.’ I also preferred the alien intelligence of the parasitic fungus in What Moves the Dead over this one.

This isn’t a bad book; in fact, it’s a fun and snappy bit of body horror. I think it gets clunky when it tries to mingle with the True Crime genre, and the body horror itself gets a little goofy in the climax, but it’s overall a fun read I’d recommend to anyone who enjoys a scary story or liked Leech by Hiron Ennes but wants a more contemporary setting.

3.5 / 5 stars

Strange things are happening in Faraday, Oregon.

Five years ago, Erin’s brother disappeared near Mt. Hood, and now young women of color are going missing from the nearby community. Convinced these disappearances are more than just coincidence, travel writer Erin heads to the Pacific Northwest to investigate her brother’s cold case – and maybe find answers for the other missing too.

But the deeper Erin and her companions venture into the mossy forests and derelict buildings around Faraday, the clearer it becomes that something unnatural is taking root in the woods. Something that wants to grow. And when Erin discovers the titular girl in the creek, she finds herself caught in a creeping nightmare that might connect everything – if it doesn’t consume her first.

I was so ready to love this book. The comparisons to Jeff VanderMeer and T. Kingfisher were the perfect hooks for me, and the cover alone promised a fungalcore summerween treat. The good news? Girl in the Creek absolutely delivers on the weirdness and mushrooms I was hoping for.

The Pacific Northwest setting is a perfect backdrop for this kind of story – all lush, eerie forests and crumbling structures, made even more unnerving by the Strangeness creeping through them. There’s a tension in how the beauty of the place is slowly overtaken by decay, and the fungal horror here is genuinely effective. One scene near the end, where the infection’s true horrors are revealed, had me squirming in the best way (a solid 9/10 on my scary scale).

Jennifer Pickens’ narration is a great match for the material. Her tremulous alto captures the characters’ fear without tipping into melodrama, and she does an excellent job differentiating voices – her old woman voice is particularly fantastic.

My biggest struggle with the book was the sheer number of characters. Every time a new character appeared, it felt like they brought a plus one, and I found myself getting confused about who was who during critical scenes. I can’t help but wonder if the story might have been stronger with a tighter cast or by centering the locals in the narrative instead of bringing in Erin’s full entourage. Some of the themes around the missing women of color got a bit lost for me, though the book’s exploration of belonging versus exclusion landed more cleanly.

Still, if you’re craving a weird, atmospheric fungalcore read this summer, Girl in the Creek is worth adding to your TBR. Just keep a list of characters handy – and maybe leave a light on while you read.

This book has an interesting mystery and creepy setting. I liked the idea of a girl trying to find her missing brother in a strange town with dark secrets. But sometimes it was hard to follow because there were too many characters and point of views. I got confused and felt a bit lost in the middle or even from the start. The mystery is good, but I wish the story was easier to get into. Still, it's a fun read if you like fast-paced horror with weird stuff in the woods.

This book truly is a fast-paced whirlwind. Nonstop action, interesting characters, and fungus. Lots of fungus. We embark on a journey to solve multiple missing persons cases in a small town. While seemingly unrelated, disturbing clues and unexplainable happenings bring a group of people together to investigate further. I had to put this down at night- I was genuinely creeped out.

The storyline kept me hooked and I was rooting for everybody. There was some contemporary language that took me out of the story a bit (mansplaining and rizz) but it was engaging and easy to read. It would have been interesting to see the story fleshed out a bit more (no pun intended), allowing us to get to know the characters and the history a bit more before all the excitement happens.

Overall, I would recommend this to those who enjoy a fast-paced mystery with body horror and some science sprinkled in.

This book had a very strong start, with a weird and creepy introduction of this thing in the woods along with the girl in the creek. Then we were introduced to Erin, who is traveling to this small town of Mt. Hood, to try and figure out what happened to her brother, who has disappeared. While looking into this town, Erin and her friend realize that Bryan isn't the only one to go missing there. And this could be a huge story.

I was intrigued right from the beginning. I liked Erin and her determination to figure out what is happening in this town. There are a lot of POV's and characters to keep track of. Which sometimes made me lose track of who was what, and what was going on.
But I did love the setting, and when I was able to keep track of the characters, I did like them very much. Also, once the action started happening, it was nonstop and took some pretty good twists that I did not see coming.

Thanks to Tor Nightfire and NetGalley for the eARC in return for an honest review.

I liked this book OK, I like how it starts like an old fashioned Koontz or something, giving us the POV of "The Strangeness" right off the bat. Wagner switches back to this perspective often enough to keep us posted about what's going on in it's - mind? Consciousness? I don't want to get spoily here.

I really enjoyed the setting as well, at least the physical place. I spent a lot of time in the PNW and this gave me nostalgia. I say just the physical because at times I got a little lost with what time of day it was supposed to be, and how much time had passed.

I didn't love the characters. They were developed enough I suppose, I think I am not currently much concerned with the comings and goings of twentysomethings. I know this makes me sound like the fuddiest of duddies. I prefer curmudgeon. That being said, I can see how the cast of main characters will appeal to readers of an age.

Like with the time of day and time passed, I did find myself having a bit of difficulty following the series of events. It didn't have to do with the POV switching, that doesn't normally throw me off. Not sure what my problem with this was actually.

Lastly, the gore was great. This book had some great body horror, which I guess is par for the course for this subgenre of "cli-fi." I had to look this up but it's pretty self explanatory as climate fiction. As normal as it may be for this genre, it needs to be done well to land and I thing Wagner handles it quite well.

This was my first book by Wagner but I see she is pretty prolific; I wouldn't be opposed to see what else she offers in the way of horror.