I LOVED this book!

If you enjoy gory horror this is the book for you! I could totally see The Midnight Muse adapted into a horror movie!

*On the anniversary of the disappearance of their lead singer, the band gets together at the place she went missing. An isolated cabin in the woods. Something is lurking in the woods.... something that lured Brynn there.*

Thank you Netgalley, the publisher and Jo Kaplan for the opportunity to read an ARC of "The Midnight Muse"!

Firstly, I love fungi. So, when I saw the premise of this book I was very excited. I ended up enjoying this much more than I expected!

*Longer review to come*

My second horror read of the year ans j might just be adding horror to my really short list of favourite genres. The fine line being drawn to distinguish between being human and not is really intriguing and the overall story was captivating. Beautiful writing and I will be adding this to my physical library (I only buy books i absolutely love and this is one of them)
3 star read for me

I love body horror. I love botanical/mycelium based horror. I love how the story seamlessly includes supernatural horror in a modern environment without it feeling tacky or forced. I loved how the story included mixed media and non-linear timelines, jumping from the past to the present, including news articles and scientific documents and interviews. The story was fast paced, and truly anxiety inducing. The characters were all awful yet at the same time you were rooting for them to survive. I’m excited to see what Jo Kaplan does next.

Horror is my favorite genre but I found this one to be a little too gross for me. I couldn’t get past the necrophilia in the first part of the book. I’m so sorry, it’s just not for me.

I really loved this book and was hooked from the beginning!
It's gory, graphic, grotesque and will leave your mouth hanging open. I really enjoyed the different POV's, the time jumps and dynamics between the band members. Highly recommend!

Not a bad book in my opinion. At times it dragged on but ultimately I enjoyed reading this book!

The moody/gothic atmosphere was exactly what I’d hoped it would be.

Can’t wait for this book to be released!

The Midnight Muse by Jo Kaplan is a lush, eerie descent into grief, obsession, and fungal horror. Set against the haunting backdrop of an Oregon forest, it blends metal music vibes with creeping mycelial dread. Atmospheric, strange, and psychologically rich—a hypnotic read for fans of weird horror.

This is really, really good. Having found myself in a reading slump, this brought it all back to me. I enjoyed it immensely from the horror, to the claustrophobia to the undeniably goriness encased within. It's as refreshing as a cold drink on a roasting beach. Revitalising

I received this book through NetGalley for a review. The Midnight Muse is a gothic blend of body horror and paranormal activity. The story is written from multiple POVs. The story is complex, the character development is good, and the pace is fast if you love mystery/thriller/horror books.

I wanted to love this, being both a horror and featuring a cast of characters in a metal band but this just fell flat for me. I think in order to write a compelling fungi horror it needs to be more compelling to its rivals on the market. The horror aspect itself lends aspects from existing media without a unique and powerful development of those tales, and perhaps was too on the nose. The characters I struggled to connect with, in part because the metal aspect of the book seemed to try too hard to be subversive and cool. The first half of the book was much more compelling than the second half, and I wonder if structurally it would’ve worked better by seeding the novel with parts later to build tension?

I was so stoked to be able to read an ARC of this book. Brynn and her muse will stick with me forever. There was body horror, biology, witchcraft, metal music, multiple perspectives and more. Fantastic book and Im looking forward to reading more from this author.

This is an eco horror nightmare which turns into something cosmic horrorish with a killer set up that delivers on the terror.

The lead singer of a heavy metal band goes to a cabin in the woods to find what she calls her muse. She's never seen again. Well, not in living form anyway.

One year later the rest of the band goes to the same woods to either mourn her or find out what happened. And what they uncover is absolutely horrifying. There's something in those woods which will infect people, change them, and yet retain some essence of that being. It's almost like The Thing meets the horrors of nature!

But the more they discover the worse things get as they start dying and being consumed by what lies below. And the real truth becomes an other worldly nightmare.

Heavy metal, creepy woods, terrifying threats from something, and secrets to uncover makes this novel a knockout. I highly recommend it.

very spooky atmosphere and lots of gross imagery, perfect for the horror reader! As the POV switched between past and present, I definitely felt the dread building, wondering when the inevitable was going to happen.

Wow, where do I start... This book was like if Daisy Jones & The Six had a fungi filled demon baby, and that would just be scratching the surface. The story was complex and layered and completely addicting. The body horror, dread, and fear inducing scenes were perfectly timed and placed. At no point did I know where the story was headed and I loved that!

The Midnight Muse is a dark, eerie mix of body horror, paranormal mystery, and dread—all set in an isolated cabin in the Oregon woods. When the remaining members of metal band Queen Carrion return to the site where their lead singer vanished, they’re pulled into something otherworldly and terrifying. The vibe is intensely atmospheric, blending classic horror tropes with deeper themes like obsession, sanity, and the cost of creativity. It’s gory, graphic, and deeply immersive, with a slow-building tension that explodes into surreal, violent chaos. Strange, haunting, and unforgettable—this is a must-read for fans of weird, literary horror.

A band that plays a possible curse in a cabin in the woods. Yes, please! This book was atmospheric, in the middle of the woods, haunting, and spectacular. This book was graphic, grotesque and glorious. The remaining members of Queen Carrion rent a cabin in the woods where their singer and songwriter, Brynn, disappeared the year before. The members begin taking mushrooms and while tripping, one even thinks she sees Brynn. This book was unhinged in the best way possible, which is my kind of book. I absolutely loved it, and the twist was chef's kiss!

Unfortunately for me, this was a DNF at about 30%. I really wanted to enjoy this book as I am a massive horror fan and this one sounded right up my street. However, for me, I struggled with connecting to the main character Harlow, I found her irritating and finding myself not really caring.
There were moments that I struggled with all of the characters and how they all seemed to be such individual characters but lack all character at the same time.
There was a particular chapter where the characters are in the woods and Rhys has vomited black sludge and the biggest reaction was “I’m not cleaning that” or when he crawls down a trapdoor headfirst and his girlfriend thinks “he’s been acting strange”. There were a few times through this book where I would read something like this and think I’m struggling, and ultimately it was this chapter where I realised I just wasn’t enjoying it enough to continue.

I am very sorry I didn’t like this book as much as I wanted to, as it sounds right up my street. However we live in a world where everyone has different tastes and I really hope that others enjoy this book more than I did.

A trip of epic metal proportions. A real page turner with a colorful cast of metal heads thrown into a fight for their lives in a remote PNW setting. Kaplan did a superb job in blending the subject matter of shrooms, inter-dimensional beings, and metal to make this horror fun and suspenseful. I highly recommend it!

The Midnight Muse was definitely creative, I’ll give it that. It also felt overly long, which dragged my enjoyment down from 5 stars to 3.75.

Essentially, a death metal band’s lead singer disappeared a year ago, and her bandmates went to the place she disappeared from to feel more connected to her. Then, lots of hi-jinx with mold before the book takes a screeching turn and ends up in The Cabin in the Woods/Stranger Things territory.

Well-written prose kept me interested, even when reading about something that could have been omitted. A stronger editor could have made this book completely sparkle.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing an ARC. This review contains my honest, unbiased opinion.