Okay, so this one is a little tricky. On paper, this had everything I usually love with small town legends, creepy family secrets, ghostly vibes, and writing that is straight-up beautiful. But the actual story never fully pulled me in. I wanted to love it (that cover alone had me hyped), but the characters kind of fell flat for me and I wasn't really invested in anything they did. By the time the mysteries and impossible choices rolled around, I was trying to keep my eyes open.

Plot-wise, it’s whimsical and sometimes confusing. And yet, I finished the book with more questions than answers. It left me with that weird “that was pretty, but what just happened"

Overall, it was beautiful writing, a gorgeous cover, cool ideas, but not a book that worked for me. If you’re into lyrical prose and don’t mind being a little baffled the whole time, you might vibe with this one. I just wasn’t the right reader for it.

Final thoughts: Pretty sentences. Pretty cover. Me: confused but polite about it.

Give me botanical heavy horror and pretty words and I'm a sucker every damn time. And the cover? Yes please.

This isn't the type of horror you can half read, you really have to pay attention to the words on the page. Not because everything is so twisted up that you'll easily miss something, but because the writing is so beautiful and so heavy, that sometimes you have to really take it in to know what's going on.

The setting is heavy and delicious. The family secrets, the deep back history of everything. It just all comes together to really flesh out the where, when, and how. Sometimes though that can leave the who falling a little behind. But in this case the who delivered. Charlie and Cora were great but Grace. Love.

Gothic, botanical, body horror. What more can you ask for?

All around a fantastic read and I look forward to adding it to my shelf when the hardcover comes out.

I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley and Tor.

The prose is luscious and lyrical and heavy but the plot felt disjointed. I suspect this is a reader-fit issue rather than the book itself.

Kathleen Jennings’ Honeyeater takes the most ordinary backdrop, the suburbs, and twists it into something gorgeously uncanny. When siblings Charlie and Cora inherit their aunt’s house, they find themselves pulled into a world of hauntings, tangled family gravity, and Grace, a furious vine and memory creature who feels both dangerous and tragic. Jennings’ prose makes the manicured streets shimmer with menace and beauty, and the suburban legends threaded through the story add an eerie, lived-in texture. Sometimes the focus on Number 21 feels a little tight, but overall this is a fresh, inventive ghost story that pushes the genre in all the right ways.

There are certain settings that present a higher difficulty level for authors. Not that it’s easy to write a book even when the setting lends its heft to the narrative, but an old Victorian house looming behind iron gates for a horror story or a glittering high-rise for a locked room mystery certainly do some work. And then there’s Honeyeater, a gorgeous new novel from Kathleen Jennings, which sets an atmospheric, fantastical horror story in…the suburbs?

Yes, it’s possible, and yes, it’s wonderful. Given Jennings’ previous splendors, specifically the novella Flyaway, I would like to say “no surprise there,” but I was delighted to find that there is surprise here, too. I did not expect so much of it.

The setting is a major source of that surprise. A suburb is meant to be the best of both the urban and rural worlds. In reality, it’s a compromise verging instead on the worst of both, the green spaces too often manicured out of wildness, the moderate density breeding distrust and homogeneity rather than community. Jennings’ now-glittering, now-shadowy prose inverts the suburb and makes it seem possible to be that better version of itself, not harmless but therefore not neutered either. There is real beauty in the furious resistance of nature to the taming impulse of domesticity, and real menace, too.

In such a deceptively safe place is the Wren house, Number 21, which is now home to siblings Charlie and Cora Wren after the death of their aunt. Charlie is back to handle his aunt’s effect, returning again to the town he can’t ever seem to truly leave. He’s tried many times, but there’s a gravity to Bellworth. Or, at least that’s the convenient answer. Charlie is also a bit aimless and a bit feckless, so is his lack of drive something to be blamed on his family home, or on himself?

But crashing into this malaise of ennui comes Grace, a tangled construct of vines and disconnected memories that has wrenched free of the creek to walk, unsteadily, into the world. Grace is full of undirected fury, and wants to know why she’s achieved her unsteady consciousness. Her only ally seems to be Charlie, who knows little but might end up risking much. Charlie, and “the taxi driver’s daughter,” a girl whose absence of a name marks her very firmly as not part of the founding families of the town. What do these outsiders, by birth or by action or both, have in common? What can they even accomplish here?

Jennings definitely excels at atmosphere, and the book is amazingly, almost relentlessly atmospheria. It made me want to visit an Australian suburb, which is not a thing I thought I’d ever say. The beauty of individual flowers and overall landscapes is vivid, darkly splendid.

This was a very—very—contained narrative, and sometimes that became a little stifling. The action, whether physical struggles or investigation into the mysteries, barely left the confines of Bellworth, and in fact almost never left the confines of Number 21. There’s a certain interest in that, a density. It does feel intentional. But the clues themselves feel incidental, and any progress toward solving a mystery that itself is uncertain feels vague. This meant that Number 21 didn’t feel like a true haunted house, but instead more like a house with a haunting. Or rather, hauntings plural, a veritable infestation of ghosts. The house itself is not an agent of malice. If anything, it feels like another victim.

And that is an interesting effect, but I also didn’t know enough about the house, narratively speaking, to really root for it. It’s also not clear that the house’s existence is in any way threatened—it’s just the inhabitants who are in danger, and even that isn’t certain. Really, it’s just Grace, the strange interloper, and maybe the taxi driver’s daughter.

Or at least, they’re the ones in danger in this story. But there are lots of other stories of suburban threat, the legends that permeate every aspect of the landscape, from root to branch and bug to bird. These microfictions interspersed between the chapters are excellent, really top-notch understanding of what urban legends are (and aren’t). They’re not too over the top, but they do make the neighborhood seem awash in magic and danger. I only wish that the tellers of these tales, imagined from the prologue to be sitting around swapping stories during a flood, would have played a greater role in the main narrative. They never appear as meaningfully distinct characters, only as a kind of distant chorus. This lends the book a kind of eerie instability, the sense that the neighborhood is populated by impressions as much as people—more ghosts, if you will.

I’m enjoying the recent trend toward more unusual hauntings, notably The Haunting of Velkwood, which expand what is possible with ghosts and ghost stories. No longer contained to houses and darkness, the sun-drenched echoes of ambiguity, rather than singular lurid crimes, are making the ghost story interesting again. Jennings’ boundary-pushing Honeyeater is another excellent example that I have no doubt will push the entire subject and genre forward.

Honeyeater comes out September 2nd, 2025.

Honeyeater is a book that will absolutely transport you with its atmosphere. Kathleen Jennings's prose is lyrical and lush, painting a picture of a hauntingly beautiful, mud-drenched world that feels like a living character. The snippets of town legends and ghost stories sprinkled throughout are particularly effective, serving as compelling little tales that are often more engaging than the main plot itself. This book is for anyone who appreciates beautiful writing and eerie, gothic settings.

However, while the atmosphere is a triumph, the narrative itself felt a bit underdeveloped. The characters, especially the protagonist Charlie, were a bit flat, making it difficult to fully invest in their journey. The plot moved at a very slow pace, and while some of the abstract, surreal moments were intriguing, they sometimes came at the expense of a cohesive story. Ultimately, I was left feeling like I was an observer of a strange, beautiful place, but not a participant in its events.

Overall, Honeyeater is a stunning example of literary horror that prioritizes mood over plot. While it didn't fully work for me as a compelling story, I'm glad I read it for the experience of its unique and unforgettable atmosphere.

I was drawn in by the cover, slightly by the synopsis but as I continued reading I just found this wasn’t for me. At least not right now.

I’m not sure if this was a case of “right book, wrong time” for me, because on paper this story had so many elements I usually enjoy. The setting and imagery were evocative and easily the strongest aspect of the book—I loved the lush, eerie atmosphere that the author created.

Where it fell short for me was with the characters and plot. I found myself struggling to stay engaged, often realizing I had read several pages without absorbing much. Unfortunately, I never felt invested in the characters or their journeys, and the central twist was not particularly surprising.

What I did enjoy were the smaller interludes at the beginnings and ends of chapters. Those short stories within the story felt fresh and compelling, and I could have happily read an entire book made up of just those.

That said, I would absolutely pick up another book by this author. The style—lush, gothic, and atmospheric—is one I usually love, and I suspect this may have been more a matter of timing or personal preference than the book itself. With that in mind, I’m rating it 3 ⭐.

Many thanks to Tor Publishing and NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Nature has overtaken everything and left an eerie and unsettling atmosphere which is really the main character of the story. Perfect for fans of Wilder Girls and She Is a Haunting

A big thank you to NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group | Tor Books for the eARC in exchange for an honest review 💚

I really wanted to love this one more than i did.
it's an interesting story, the vibes are in point, my big issue with it was that it was so stream of consciousness and no backstory/character explanation at all for a very long time, left me puzzled for too long and not available to enjoy the actual story as I was just trying to understand where this fever dream was trying to take me.

I found this novel akin to joining in a conversation which has been going on for a while and references a past which you have not been a part of, in a language you don’t speak or understand very well. It felt disjointed and uncertain. The intention was unclear and the metaphors, if there were any, did not land. Simply not for me.

this story is very well written and comes from a very interesting place. reading some of the acknowledgement at the end tells me that this story draws heavily from where the author is from in australia, and you can feel that. it has a very interesting premise, though i can't honestly say i ever had that a ha! lightbulb moment that let me truly understand what was going on. there are "alt chapters" every other chapter that are like snippets of stories told around a campfire and those were, honestly, more interesting than the rest of the book itself.

if you are a fan of gothic, but a very specific kind of gothic, this is for you. if you're a fan of gothic with a very specific kind of body horror, which involves plants, this is for you. if you're a fan of T. Kingfisher, this is for you.

unfortunately I have learned that i am none of those things and so this book was just not for me, but i'm certain it will find its people.

I really wanted to like this book. The cover and the initial blurb was great and I was totally vested. As I began reading, I loved the "past" stories, they were great and gave a premise of how the chapter would follow. However, I am really struggling with following along. I unfortunately have to read a few things twice to make sure I understand what is happening.

I wanted to try and push through this, but alas, I decided to DNF after reading about 25%. I usually dont rate anything I DNF - especially on Goodreads - but Netgalley requires a rating.

I'm sorry it couldn't be more positive.

Founded on a floodplain in the midst of stolen land, Bellworth seems like an idyllic Australian community on its surface. But the river that runs through it is deep and full of the secrets Bellworth's residents have tried to bury. As the climate warms and the river rises, the people of Bellworth begin to discover that secrets never stay hidden forever and there is a price to be paid for their happy lifestyle.

Charlie Wren is a painfully ordinary young man notable only for having a remarkable sister and a history of departed friends. When he inherits a share of the old family house situated on the riverbed, he plans to get what he can from his inheritance and get out of town so he can try to get out of his sister's shadow and make what he can of his life. Then Grace appears, having crawled out of the river muck with no memory of who she is and a blossoming of roses growing beneath her skin. The longer Grace stays with Charlie, the more he is dragged into the town's dark history, and now that old secrets have been dredged up, they refuse to be hidden again. Once Charlie uncovers his family's most disturbing secret, he and Grace will have to make a decision that will change both their lives forever.

—


Whether you call it climate fiction, gothic horror, or both, Honeyeater is a wonderfully weird little book that honestly won't be to everyone's taste. Its prose is lush, its structure demanding. This is not a book that you can read with one eye on the television, and you may not want to take it to the beach. It is unsettling, full of ghosts, and makes you wonder if that rustling in the bushes was a squirrel or something else.

If you like a weird little book, though, this is absolutely for you. Honeyeater is a marvelous tale of strange beasts and ghosts, family secrets, love, ambition, and what we owe to each other as human beings. Heady stuff for a 272 page book, but Kathleen Jennings is proving to be adept at packing as much meaning as possible into a single, lyrical sentence. Her 2020 novella Flyaway gave readers a similarly airy weird book but at just 176 pages it didn't quite have the space to expand upon its ideas, leading to a story that was more abstract and somewhat less satisfying than Honeyeater.

That's not to say that Honeyeater lacks abstraction. A weird little book like this one revels in abstracted ideas and images that let the reader come to their own conclusions regarding its themes, meaning, and even what happens in the end. A less confident author would overstate their themes and repeat themselves to ensure the reader knows exactly what they were thinking at every moment to the detriment of the story. Fortunately, Jennings writes with a sure hand and faith in her readers, giving us a spellbinding story that pulls you in and doesn't let go until the bizarre, beautiful ending.

So as we approach the changing of the seasons, and as nature reminds us that nothing lasts forever, pick up a copy of Honeyeater. Then hide your smartphone for an afternoon, put on some eerie music, and let Jennings work her magic.

–

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Books for the advance copy for review.

DNF'd at 30%

I adored the little stories at the beginning of the chapters. They were my favorite part. I kept reading, hoping I'd love the main story just as much.
Alas, the overly descriptive language and cardboard feel of the main characters really drew me out of the immersion. I found myself wanting to just skip around to the beginning of the next chapter to read more of the little stories.
If you love immersing yourself in heavily descriptive language, down to the most minute detail, pick this one up.

Thank you NetGalley and Tor!

The atmosphere this book creates is absolutely perfect. This book just feels like hearing a scary story late at night. I've seen a lot of people compare it to T. Kingfisher--particularly the Sword Soldier series--and that's exactly the sort of vibe I pick up from it. I *loved* it.

I'm really glad we are seeing an uptick in botanical horror books because I'm loving it. The plant themed body horror with Grace was so perfectly unsettling. The story itself was incredibly interesting and had me very invested. You're given all the pieces to put together the end twist before the characters do, but I still didn't manage it entirely!

Spoiler: <spoiler>I laughed at the author dedicating the book to her "kind, well-adjusted" sisters after that ending. Blink twice if you need help</spoiler.>

I wish I didn’t have to rate the book, but I have to in order to give feedback here. I don’t like rating books that I DNF, and I normally wouldn’t, like I won’t on Goodreads. I am so sorry, I wanted to love this because the cover is gorgeous and it sounds like an interesting premise. But I just could not get into it. The writing is hard to follow. So instead of forcing myself to get through it, I’m just going to DNF for now. I would be willing to come back and try again though, maybe in a different mood it would hit me differently. The premise is a good one. (Please don’t hate me, I am so sorry.)

Thank you NetGalley, TOR, and Jennings for the eARC of Honeyeater.

I requested this book specifically for the beautiful cover and description - what I received was so much more. Jennings delivered a gothic dark fairytale that was rife with botanical imagery and ornithology. I loved the strong language that Jennings used to build her world and create a deeper image rather than draw out her descriptions. There were some instances where I wish Jennings did spend more time using descriptors to hash out her characters and their motives to gain a deeper understanding of the development that each character goes through by the end.

I hated Charlie, but loved him at the same time. His interactions with other characters (ahem, Grace and Cora) was infuriating at times, but completely relatable. I wanted to be in his head more to fully understand what was happening. Were we going insane? Were we supportive? Were we the only sane ones in the end? I loved the slight thriller/mystery that was intertwined in the body horror/gothic aspects as well, especially as Grace's body devolves into something...else.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading this e-ARC!

((3.75 for me))
The writing really is chaotic and peculiar.
I think it added to the charm and really fit the vibes of the setting in their odd little town of Bellworth, in my opinion. I could see how it would really turn people away. But, I enjoyed it!! It really had me on my toes. The way Jennings had me gasLIT to believe Charlie was the sole problem… girl. You sneaky. Sneaky. Sneaky. WOW. There wasn’t any room for complacency, and each line and chapter had much purpose.

I just had to sit with it. Let it sink in the way the roses worked their way through Grace. I was a little gobsmacked by some of the twists. What an interesting tale of kinda the butterfly effect of ghosts, reclaiming a space, and family evil/secrets.

I look forward to exploring some more of Jennings’ work!

Thank you NetGalley & Tor for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest thoughts! 💞📚

5 for the complexity
Amazing surreal magic realism, dark mystery, fantasy. I can't even settle on one single word to describe it. Complex, lyrical, and mindblowing. The best way I can describe it is that we experience it from the first time the Pov of the supernatural perspective instead of having a character suffer supernatural things that they can't explain. I appreciate that the author included a child. I love books that have different characters of different ages. These four characters are speaking the same language, although some are still victims and some are in control. This is a book that must be read slowly to easily digest what is being revealed.
Amazing cover as well.