There were far too many prose red flags in the opening chapter--like mentioning her dead brother four times in a handful of pages and the MC suddenly realizing why the postcard she's had for FIVE YEARS weirds her out because she just so happens to take a magnifying glass to it the first instance the reader is introduced to the image. Not worth the slog through poor writing decisions. It might be intriguing for other readers, but I couldn't push myself to read further.

A gruesome mash-up of What Moves the Dead and The Last of Us. This novel takes the ordinary thriller and turns it on its head. The science isn’t too sciencey and while some visceral imagery rivals John Carpenter’s The Thing, it does not come across as gratuitous or merely for shock value. The characters each had their part and even though this story is heavily plot driven, we did spend the requisite amount of time knowing them.

I'm really sad to have to be posting this review. I've been really looking forward to reading this book, it sounded super interesting. Unfortunately, I'm DNF'ing this one at about 30%.

The idea behind this book is really interesting and I'm super into Mushroom Horror/Mystery, but the characters in this are realyl difficult to like/relate to. The main character, Erin, is pretty flat and I wish we'd gotten to know her a little more before we'd been thrown into this group dynamic. There was a lot of her being attracted to every woman she's met so far, and maybe also a guy? Whatever relationship is brewing with her and Madison felt forced.

And as far as the mystery, it just wasn't enought to get past the annoying characters and clunky dialogue. My favorite parts of this book were the parts from the people and animals taken over by the Strangeness. I wish that interest had carried over to the rest of it. :/

After Erin's brother Bryan went missing five years ago, she has traveled to Mt. Hood in the Pacific Northwest to write a travel/tourist article about the area. Bryan is not the first hiker to vanish, and Erin starts her own investigation on the side while she's there. When she stumbles on a body in the creek, Erin first notices the fungi spores she is covered in. When the same body goes missing from the morgue, Erin continues to dig.

A mixture of Sci-Fi, Thriller and Body Horror, Wendy N. Wagner delivers a creepy, thrilling read with Girl in the Creek. I felt the book, which is less than 300 pages so a quick read, really picked up in the second half as each discovery built on the last. The highlight of the book of the descriptive body horror that felt like it jumped off the page. My critique would be the amount of characters; there were so many that it was impossible to get fully invested because we didn't get to learn much about them or why we should care about them.

My overall impression of the book is that it's a good book, that will appeal to fans of body horror.

Thank you TorNightfire Books for the gifted copy.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (4 stars)

This book quite literally got under my skin-- I loved the plot, especially the Strangeness. Wendy Wagner's ability to layer unsettling imagery with immersive storytelling had me hooked from the start. Erin's character arc is compelling, but I felt that the secondary characters were a little underfleshed, and tended to blend together. Personally, the plot could be a bit dense and disorienting at times, but the pacing and end made it worthwhile.

I'd absolutely recommend this book to anyone who enjoys botanical horror, mysteries, and the eerie ambiance of the woods. I would love to read more from Wagner in the future!

I really wanted to love this story. The townspeople were certainly creepy enough. My problem was with the fungi. The recent popularity of The Last Of Us made the storyline feel far too familiar. This was one of those times when guessing the outcome near the beginning actually ruined the experience.
I give it a mid rating because I could have loved the missing people storyline by itself.

To be honest, this was really hard for me to get into. It sounded right up my alley but the references to the PNW felt cringe. The dialogue between characters didn’t feel realistic. I loved all the parts of the strangeness, the girl in the creek, the fox, etc. The author really shined in those parts.

First, let me just say that I'm over the deadly mushroom trope in horror books. Or alien mushrooms or whatever the "strangeness" is. Anyway, Erin's brother Bryan has been missing for five years. Erin refuses to accept that he is gone or has committed suicide. Determined to uncover the truth, Erin heads to the foothills of Mt. Hood where Bryan was last seen alive. He isn’t the first hiker to go missing in this area, and their cases go unsolved.
When she discovers the corpse of a local woman in a creek, Erin unknowingly puts herself in the crosshairs of very powerful forces—from this world and beyond—hell-bent on keeping their secrets buried.

*Special thanks to Netgalley and Tor Nightfire for this digital e-arc.*

3.5 rounded up

I had a good time with the book; it had all the elements for a book I would have a good time with. Police investigation, weird fungus, serial killer and creepy forest. What didn't work for me was that the main character was kind of a blank slate (very business), and it took me a bit to be invested and that is weird for me in a book this short.

Thank you to NetGalley and Libro.fm for a free copy of the ebook and audiobook in exchange for my honest review.

I was drawn to Girl in the Creek by its cover art and synopsis. The fungi and body horror were very, very cool, but I was frustrated at the characters’ actions and lack of planning amidst an investigation.

This writing style and dialogue were not necessarily for me. It took me about 50% of the book to truly get into it.

That being said, this review should not discourage anyone from reading it because a lot of people could really love it. Towards the end, it got pretty intense. I did enjoy reading the more horror-centric, jump-scare scenes and I personally liked the closing scene.

I read ALL of the sporror! And I am working through any horror with sentient plants, so I consider myself almost an expert!

I really enjoyed Girl in the Creek by Wendy N. Wagner. The use of a POV for this sentient "Strangeness" is unique and interesting. I would recommend this to any of my cosmic-horror friends, but the book is pretty out-there, so not for someone just looking for a missing persons mystery.

Thank you to NetGalley and TOR Nightfire for the ARC of this title to review!

This was so interesting! Thank you for giving me the opportunity to read this ARC.

I was fully immersed into this from the beginning, and the body horror was truly horrifying. I have never read anything like this before either and I loved the modern take as I’ve only read Victorian style bog-ish books.

The only negative I have is I don’t feel like characters or certain story lines were fully fleshed out. I didn’t really care for any of the characters or what was happening to them but it didn’t keep me from reading this fully in like 1 sitting. Thank you so so much!

I received a complimentary copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

I really wanted to love this book but I found it just okay. The premise was creepy and had an environmental bent to it. The ending was strong. It was the last 2/3 of the book that went awry. If the book had been a novella I think it would’ve been amazing.

Erin takes off to a small town to investigate her missing brother in hopes to find some answers. While searching for information, she unravels a spore-filled mystery that’s been plaguing the area for quite some time. Erin is determined to get to the bottom of it with the help of her friends and some locals.

In a short span of time multiple characters are introduced, but Erin is the only one we really get to know on a deeper level. The other characters could have used a little more development and background.

The pacing isn’t perfect but isn’t terrible either. It is a slow burn in the beginning and at about 60% it really starts to pick up, hitting you left and right with some crazy things happening.

This sporror story was vivid and the perfect blend of mystery and fungal horror. An absolute strange story that does not disappoint. If eco-horror and aliens are your thing, this is the summer horror book for you.

<i> Thank you to NetGalley and TOR Publishing for this ARC opportunity. This is an honest and voluntary review. </i>

The fungal horror was super interesting as this was my first book in that subgenre. The book started a little slow but really picked up at the last 2/3rds and I couldn’t put it down. This book was reminiscent of Alien Clay but set on earth so if you liked that book I think you will enjoy this one as well. The twists were twisty and overall this was an enjoyable read for summerween! Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC!

Like many horror fans, I have found myself fairly enamoured with the recent influx of fungal themed fright-fests—or “sporror”—to be peppering the literary landscape, and other popular media. The appeal of such a niche sub-genre, I feel, lies in its often subtle and atmospheric approach to more classic horror themes surrounding autonomy, control, metamorphosis, and abandonment. In that vein, Girl in the Creek is an unsettling paradigm that focuses on a carefully crafted slow-burn mystery narrative, the likes of which both disgusted and beguiled me.
Genuinely, my favourite part of this novel was how little focus there was on terrorizing the reader with quick but cheap jump scares. Instead, the language and changing perspective was used to create this sense of deliberately increasing dread that follows and disturbs the reader as they progress through the plot. The interspersed chapters that are told from the POV of The Strangeness and those affected by it did so much in terms of establishing this formless and mostly silent entity as a tangible threat even when Erin, the protagonist, was completely unaware of it.
Personally speaking, I found this novel a short but definitely commendable entry into what is slowly becoming a powerhouse of a sub-genre. I think it would also be the perfect starting point if you’re new to sporror, or maybe ecohorror novels in general, due to the fact it does contain a really well crafted and surreal mystery element. Mark my words, I’ll probably be tossing this out as a recommendation repeatedly once spooky season hits, but I would also suggest picking it up sooner if you find yourself in need of a little creepy TLC this summer.

A hike in the woods with friends quickly turns squishy in THE GIRL AND THE CREEK. This book is perfect for fans of eco-horror and/or cli-fi.

Erin comes to the small Northwest Pacific town ostensibly to write a travel article. In fact, she's searching for her missing brother and several missing girls and writing a true crime book with her friend, Hari. Along with a squad of friends, they hike into the woods and quickly discover something even scarier and more sinister is afoot beyond an ordinary serial killer.

THE GIRL IN THE CREEK is a letter of both love and apology to the natural world for the ways we have ravaged it, not just now, but for centuries. It's gorgeous and horrifying by turn, which is everything I want from eco-horror. I recommend it!

This book knocked my socks off. It wears its Strangeness right on its sleeve from the very first chapter, introducing us to a coyote that hasn't been a regular coyote for some time, and after that things get progressively weirder, darker, and finally absolutely terrifying. This is eco=horror done right, with a story that is suspenseful, tense, taut, and full of just the right amounts of mystery, nature, and fungal horrors. It kept me reading past my bedtime, and the Wagner sticks the landing too with an ending that delivers in every way.

Erin, a journalist, has come to the sleepy town of Faraday, Oregon with a mission - investigate the town where her brother disappeared five years before. The town has its odd residents, but with a team of friends and locals behind her, Erin feels that she is finally following in the footsteps that her brother took just before he vanished. There is something strange about this place, though. Missing girls, hostile men, and a creeping dread haunt the town and Erin will need to face all the horrors - both human and not - before she can find what she came for.

This book was an extremely enjoyable, extremely gory ride. I have so many, many words to say about this book, but I will try to keep it as short and accessible as possible while I try to convince you that you should give this one a shot.

The cast of characters is big with six major characters to follow, but at no point does this group feel daunting. Erin and her friends are all given their moments, but at no point do they feel forced or intrusive to the plot. Things in the group flow, and the author very cleverly splits them up numerous times to keep the reader's brain from juggling all those characters for every scene. Still, each character feels complete in their own right, and the personalities are easy to tell apart. Even more minor characters - like the innkeeper-slash-ultra-rich-matriarch - feel like real members of a real community. Creating stakes like this is, I think, one of the strongest part of the story. As we all know, horror stories without likable characters are just slash-fests. Stories with characters you root for are where real horror begins.

The other strength of this book is the absolutely visceral descriptions of body horror that appear throughout the book. The overall premise of this story centers around something called "the Strangeness", which infects living things and assimilates them. Several chapters even come from the point of view of the Strangeness itself and offer a unique perspective to the mystery that our characters and the town at large are facing. The finer details are harrowing, and I will absolutely not be discussing them here because you deserve to read them in all their glory yourself. Just believe me when I say that many of the scenes had me curled in a disgusted ball on my couch, utter unable to look away from the page.

Pacing of the book is a tad slow in the first half with Erin & co. doing a lot of investigating and finding a whole lot of spooky clues. The assorted adventures that the crew take in the beginning are important to the build-up of the book, and there is always a pervasive sense of dread hanging over the expeditions (even those just to the local coffee shop). But the true brilliance of the novel really starts to set in as questions begin to be answered and bodies start to drop.

Lovers of Jeff VanderMeer's Southern Reach trilogy and Carpenter's The Thing, prepare to be absolutely devoured by this book and its denizens. If any story could be described as "infectious", it's this.

Disclosure Statement: I received an ARC of this novel from the publisher. My thoughts and feelings expressed in this review are an honest reflection of my sentiments and have not been influenced by either publisher or author in any way.

Girl in the Creek wants to span several genres, from true crime to eco-horror to something much weirder, and that's perhaps its greatest strength as a novel. The book's tropes are very familiar to readers of eco-horror (especially fungal horror, which has been having a moment), but Wagner's combination of elements of other genres give the tropes enough of a fresh dimension to keep things feeling pretty fun.

The back half of the book is where the book really takes off, and I think it's when Wagner cuts loose with the weird that the book comes into its own. Along the way, Wagner plays with her prose depicting the natural world, with some narrative sequences really singing. I really enjoyed those lines of prose dealing with the book's natural landscape, and I think it's when Wagner's work reads the best.

Nevertheless, I will say that I found the book to be overfull of different characters, such that it actually detracted from what I think was most interesting in the book. So many minor characters exist to serve one or other of the book's couple of genres, but not necessarily both, so that it could become disorienting as to why these characters matter to the book and its bigger exploration of thematic questions about evolution or human influence over the environment and one another. There's a strong inclination toward commenting on human influences over nature and social interaction that's right on the money, but I do think the book can struggle at times to make these thematic statements stand out because too many characters lack the critical development that would make these themes clearer.

But even aside from my criticisms of the book's structure, I really found the second half of the book to take big strides, such that its ending felt right. There's so much fun to be had as the pace picks up and the book gets into its gristle, and I really enjoyed just how weird and gross it could get. If you're into fungal body horror, Wagner is here to deliver.