As much as the premise piqued my interest, the rest fell flat for me. I had to push through, even though it was less than 300 pages.
I prefer reading the mini chapters in between the main storyline. Those little stories actually captured my attention more than the main story itself.

I give kudos to the author for vivid descriptions of the little town. It's dark, lush, and surreal. Almost hauntingly beautiful.

I would definitely check out other books by this author, but this book was not for me.

surreal, wet, and puzzling. the closest vibe comp I can think of is the third story in Netflix's THE HOUSE anthology, where those cats are struggling to get along in a drowning world.

but this book has more ghosts.

to be honest, I'm still not totally sure what happened there at the end, and I can understand that this level of dreaminess might now be everyone's cup of tea. but honeyeater was a lush, lyrical fever dream of a novel, and i enjoyed every moment basking in its strangeness.

Honeyeater
Kathleen Jennings
Rating:⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Book: 40
Favorite quote:
“We look at the lowered stars, and dredge up stories we once knew, or borrowed, or stole”

Firstly, thank you to NetGalley and TOR publishing for allowing me to read this ARC of Honeyeater by Kathleen Jennings.
I will be honest, for the first about 20% of this book, I was confused as to what was going on. I understood that Charlie and Cora Wren’s aunt Ida died and they were in charge of clearing out her house. However, all of the circumstances around Charlie were a bit muddled but I think they were supposed to be. As someone who LOVES Silvia Moreno-Garcia and T Kingfisher, this book was right up my alley. It had the same convoluted and creepy vibes and some of her works. I can honestly say I did not expect the plot twist of the mastermind behind everything even though I feel like I should. I also loved the description of Grace as she decayed. I can’t wait until the book is officially released and we could potentially see some artwork. Overall this book was a great read and I kind of hope it has a collectible hardback with green vines and blue roses along the spine. Instant pick up!

Honeyeater is a strange and beautiful journey through a world that feels both haunting and alive. Lush with eerie atmosphere and gothic undertones, it reads like a quiet, lingering ghost story whispered through the trees. The prose evokes a landscape where nature is not just background but an active presence—calm and lovely in one moment, then brutal and reclaiming in the next.

The imagery stands out as the heart of the novel, casting a dreamlike quality over the entire narrative. It feels as though the characters are simply passing through, witnesses to a much older story playing out around them. The plot is secondary to the mood and tone, but that works in favor of the book’s haunting, almost folkloric feel.

This is a book best appreciated for its atmosphere rather than action. It’s strange, slow, and poetic—perfect for readers who love quiet stories with a creeping sense of dread, rooted deeply in nature and the unknown.

Thank you NetGalley & Tor Publishing Group for the ARC!

The beautiful cover pulled me in, and honestly, the authors writing is just as hauntingly beautiful.

The story follows a boy from a small Australian town who goes to back to help his sister clean out their family home. A girl with no memories appears at his door needing help, only knowing his last name, and blue flowers coming from her body. As they try to find answers on who she is, where she came from, and her fixation on the boy and his family, the flora rapidly takes over her body. They uncover secrets about the town and his family lines influence that may disrupt its balance.

The writing describing the flora and world in which this takes place is ghostly poetic. So much detail is poured into an eerie, gothic landscape, painting a vivid world of Australian flora and fauna that can creep into nightmares. The story has such beautiful prose, but unfortunately the characters fell a little flat for me. The POV it was written in made it a bit more confusing for me as well. With 3 main female characters and it rapidly switching who were speaking about but just always calling them she or her made me have double back to see who were talking about. One girl was never given a name, just the cab drivers daughter. By the end of the book, all the pieces begin coming together and motivations are very clear, but we’re just not given enough to understand or deeply care about the characters to keep engaged until then.

This earned 3 stars for me, because really it is still such an immersive botanical horror, the characters just aren’t the spotlight, the landscape is.

The writing style is lyrical and beautiful. But I had trouble feeling anything for the characters. There was not enough character development for me. At least not enough for me to actually really become invested in their story. The descriptions of the of botanical horrors was wonderful. Poetic at times and that is why I continued to read the story. This story has so much potential but the story falls flat simply because there is not enough character development to actual feel anything for them. So instead of feeling haunted like I imagined I would from the synopsis, I just felt blah, not immersed like I was hoping for.

Why I gave it a 3 even though I felt little connection to the characters? The 3 is all because the writing style is beautiful and the world building is exquisitely haunting. The author does exceptionally well when the writing botanical horror descriptions. They are so vivid and beautifully macabre. So it was the atmosphere the novel created that kept me intrigued.

Overall I enjoyed the descriptive world and botanical horror creation but the characters fell flat for me. I still recommend giving it a read though because the beauty of the writing style is well worth it.

This was so strange but wonderfully gothic. The plant-based body horror was fantastic. I loved how beautifully nature was described but also how violently. The writing was so lush and full and gave such an eerie feeling to the story, like a place you might've stopped briefly during a road trip but can't quite remember except that something was off. I really need more horror like this in my life.

This one was really out there. Dealing with his aunts house, he meets with a girl who has flowers growing from her skin, and as they make their way through the macabre parts of town, they have a lot of decisions to make.

You already know the cover was my vibe so I clicked request on netgalley.

This was a bizarre and beautiful read, ghostly and gothic. I really liked the imagery of this world, it was lush and haunting. There is a lot of nature that's pretty, calm and quiet but also violent and taking back what belongs to ot. The feeling of this for me was kind of a ghost story told between the trees and the characters were just there for the ride. Living in the unsettling town being manipulated along the way. I read someone else's review that said this sort of felt like coming home to a place that's half forgotten, half feral and entirely alive and that is 100% how I felt. I really enjoyed this and seeing how everything unraveled and rewrapped to the ending. The first half of the book I did feel the characters were a bit flat and their reactions seemed odd but the story and everything in this world really had me hooked.

The murkiness of the prose here overwhelmed me. I think the lack of handholds at the beginning was part of the point, but unfortunately I was never able to get my bearings enough to fully commit to the story being told. I'd definitely keep an eye out for other works by Jennings, but this was a bit of a rocky road for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and Tor Publishing for the gifted copy.

The world-building in this book is intriguing. It is dark and paints a very gothic, horror, fairytalesque setting. The book starts off fairly slow for me, but it does pick up halfway through. When I say the world-building is intriguing, it feels as if the setting is the star of the show for me on this one. The characters are okay, but I'm more captivated by our dystopian world. I do enjoy that it's got that paranormal fantasy and whimsical feel paired with oddities and horror. I think overall, I like that it's different from what I am used to reading. I like books that have dark twists and turns, but aren't necessarily the ones that just has that jump scare type of horror stories.

This was my first time reading a book from this author and I'm not sure if I'm a huge fan of their writing style. While the prose is without a doubt beautiful and detailed, its also tedious to read. I found myself having to re-read lines over due to the strange sentences. The overall story is interesting and I enjoyed the idea. I still think you should give it a shot as it's a short read, it may just not vibe with me personally.

If you liked Wilder Girls or What Moves the Dead you might enjoy this twisted tale.

The town and murky unsettling water is the main character. The setting is alive and manipulating our characters. Naturalistic body horror. A town with lots of backstory.

The setting is the star of the book. The characters were a little flat for me. The circumstances around the characters peaked my interest

Bellworth is an unchanging place--wet, muddy, sunken, and grey--except for the floods and the creek, which bring unknown truths and unsolved mysteries. This book starts as a cacophony of stories, sounds, adjectives, phrases that describe everything and nothing all at once. Just like walking through a muddy creek, you sink into this book immediately and quickly, however whether that is because of the curious writing style or the curious characters, that is subjective.

The plot of this book runs thin at first but picks up around the halfway mark as it hits full speed and maintains pace to the end, while our main character Charlie flounders in his pacing here and there--only kept afloat by others who really do more than their share of work to keep this story going. The imagery evoked by the author through their unique writing style is often beautiful even in it's own grotesque way. The body horror images that are evoked through vivid (well sometimes muddy) phrasing really brings to life the characters.

Reading this was an experience for certain, as surely enough I felt as if I was putting together a big puzzle, but someone was standing at the table holding all the pieces back, only giving me one random piece at a time to put where I could best guess it went. By the end, I would hope to have enough pieces to put everything where it goes, however it felt like there were never enough pieces to begin with, and while the big picture could be seen with all the gaps, the gaps felt like large chunks of missing information that would have really brought everything together.

I think, depending on the age of a reading group/book club (likely teens to 40ish group--a large variety of ages for sure), this would be a wonderful pick for a sweaty summer/early fall (before the cool comes) choice where a group could really pick apart every single piece of this book bit-by-bit. The discussion surrounding this book would be just wonderful for a book club to tear into and I am positive opinions would very so greatly that everyone would have something different to say or focus on.

Honeyeater is a beautifully bizarre plunge into a world both haunting and lush, where nature quietly—and sometimes violently—reclaims what once was hers. Though technically set in a dystopian version of Australia, the mood and setting evoked something closer to Appalachia for me: misty, overgrown, humming with ghost stories whispered between the trees.

If you were drawn to the eerie lyricism of Motheater or the dark mythic pulse of The Knight and the Butcherbird, this novel will feel like coming home—to a place that’s half-forgotten, half-feral, and entirely alive. Jennings masters the gothic and the ghostly, wrapping readers in a tale thick with root-bound secrets, aching loss, and the strange, wild beauty of decay.

I’ve been loving the recent wave of botanical horror—stories where the natural world isn't just a backdrop but a living, reclaiming force—and Honeyeater delivers on that theme in spades. And that cover? Absolutely stunning.

Huge thanks to NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group | Tor Books for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest thoughts. This one will stick with me like the scent of rain on soil.

If you're someone who thrives on the eerie beauty of dark fairytales and spine-tingling, mesmerizing horror, this book is an absolute treat. From the very first page, the author draws you into a world that feels both hauntingly familiar and entirely new—an uncanny dreamscape where magic hides behind every shadow and danger breathes just beneath the surface.

The world-building is nothing short of immaculate. Every scene feels like it was painted in vivid, surreal brushstrokes. The imagery alone is worth the read; it lingers in your mind long after you’ve put the book down.

I’d wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone in love with fiction—especially those who seek stories that are as beautiful as they are unsettling.

Unfortunately I had to DNF at 18% because nothing about the book was captivating me enough to continue.