I am a sucker for some fantastic fungi stories!

The character development in Symbiotes is top-notch. It was easy to care for the characters. The main character, Sora, found a soft spot in my heart.

When introduced to the world, especially the forest, the scenery was vivid in my mind.

Amanda Linnemeyer is certainly an excellent storyteller. I look forward to any other work she releases.

#NetGalley #Symbiotes

This book has a very fun concept, but I unfortunately did not enjoy the execution. It's sometimes enjoyable to read for it's strange and wacky dialogue and overall vibe, but I feel like that also highlights on the writing problems. You kinda just get thrown into the world and lots of information thrown at you, yet none at all at the same time. Very "show don't tell" ; I feel like the world was not described very well. The inner dialogue is very repetitive and gets stale quite quick. I found the plot a bit more interesting around the halfway mark, but I still found myself frustrated with the writing. The characters aren't that interesting, which makes the stakes feel lackluster. I wanted to like this, but it's just simply not for me.

I really liked the premise of this book and the start of it but unfortunately as I continued to read I liked it less and less. This seems more like a first draft to me, its got promise but it's just not done. I feel like some changes need to be made for it to be classed as YA correctly.
There is a lot of repetition, like constantly going back to the same place in the woods, it would be nice to see more of this place they live in. A lot of thoughts get repeated. And everyone just seems like an idiot, the adults are just brainless.
I got half way and then sped forward to the end just so that I could get it done.

A unique atmospheric read, taut with suspense and high-energy.

I really enjoyed the unique world-building and atmosphere within Symbiotes. Each member of society must choose a symbiote to bond with from a pre-approved selection provided by the committee that rules the town. Each symbiote provides a benefit to the community, such as providing the substance for their lights (glow lamps) or growing vines of various thicknesses to stabilize buildings as they're built.

The characters were full of life and feelings, reacting to the various events in believable ways. No character felt flat or two-dimensional.

The pacing was steady and continuous - the main protagonist Sora encounters problem after problem, resolving one just to find herself in the midst of another one. I thought at first it meant the story was going to move too fast but winded up being just right for the plot to develop.

A delightful and intriguing read based on the unique story-building.


Thank you for the e-ARC from Netgalley and Ringtale Publishing.

The concept was super interesting! That was what really got me interested in the first place. People having to bond with mushrooms to survive is already cool, then they also get different powers dependent on what type of mushroom they pick. Then it gets into a dystopian aspect with the controlling government, and the group of kids finding a new mushroom species. It truly drew me in. However, I did have some problems with the pacing of the book, it was fairly slow until right at the end. It also felt like not all of the questions were answered, probably because it was a shorter book. The romance also felt unnecessary to me. I enjoyed the small horror aspects in this book, though if you go into this looking just for horror you may be disappointed. I would say its more dystopian/thriller to me. Overall it was a fun, easy, shorter read that kept me hooked.

Symbiotes is a dystopian tale that takes place in a world where people in the community bond with specific symbiotic fungi to perform various jobs. If you are a young person who has a vague interest in the mycological then this book is for you. If you are a fungal-fanatic, the biological descriptions may leave you disappointed but you may have fun guessing the namesake fungal species of various characters.

The plot moves along at a fast clip and there were reveals and moments which genuinely greatly surprised me. I wouldn't say I walked away with a deep understanding of the world or every character's personal motivations but as Sora runs from crisis to crisis (usually in the forest) I found myself enjoying the journey.