Straight at the beginning of this novella we are charmed by Tilly’s love for her garden and all of the creatures living in it and beyond. Several chapters focus solely on this love for nature. We also get to know Tillys deceased wife and how their love still lingers. Yet this peaceful paradise is disrupted when new neighbors move to the village, right next to Tilly. No only do they disturb the fragile balance of nature with their forceful attempts to bend nature to their will, but they also show incapable of learning from their mistakes, despite Tilly’s patient and numerous attempts.
It’s easy to fall in love with Tilly and her careful and self sacrificing way of nurturing all around her. This story felt like a fairy tale and playing in nature as a child while also showing the true forces of nature.
I loved it!

This story can be summed up with “couple tries to file a restraining order against nature, repeatedly refuses to learn their lesson”. The beginning was so soft with a focus on detailed descriptions of Tillys garden, showing how they take care of each other and how greatly she respects her surroundings, that I began to wonder why it’s tagged as horror.
It made the build-up work so well, because immediately after seeing how much Tilly loves her domain, Yola and Karsten show up and are doing their utmost to cause me one headache after another. I began to think that their ignorance was the true horror in this book, and if I had to complain about anything at all, it would probably be Tilly’s endless patience when it came to their behavior, even though it needs to be that way.
It feels a bit like a fairytale, leaving you with wonder over how magic works and what all the rules are that you should follow as to not cross anyone, which the author unwraps slowly, but beneath that wonder you always find a warning, a guess to what happens if you show disrespect to a great old power. With how much the couple annoyed me, I was still wondering whether they’d eventually see reason (or at least pack their stuff and leave!).
Tilly is such a gentle character no matter who she interacts with, and the few scenes where she was with her wife felt very sweet. This is one of those short stories that make me wish for a whole lot more pages to learn more about the whole cast, both the humans and the Other.
With how I felt during the story, I liked the ending a lot for obvious reasons, and for getting to see how much of a force nature can truly be. It is, once again, such a good mix of warmth and horror.

4.5⭐️ rounded up.

Light & Earth & Marrow was an atmospheric novella about what happens when you don't respect the things that have lived in a place longer than any human construct ever could. A cozy little horror, the character development was beautifully done despite the length, and it managed to build just enough tension to be truly haunting by the end.

I would love to read more in this world, and see more of these characters - a little more length could have really grounded this story, but I enjoyed what we did get!

This story is out of my usual wheelhouse, but I think it might have to make it part of my wheelhouse after reading it! It's a story about boundaries, respecting the land, and knowing your place in it. It's about building community and being a part of that community, rather than living apart from it. Really lovely descriptions, well realized characters, and some folklore knowledge sprinkled in!

A wonderful, lyrical, novella about a witch needing to deal with ignorant neighbors and trying to find a peaceful way to prevent the harm their doing to the land and everyone living in and around it. I absolutely loved this, it was horror, but I was drawn in and relaxed by the cadence of the story and beautiful word choice, almost like I was under a spell of my own. Highly recommended!

This cozy but slightly creepy fantasy stole my heart. I adored Tilly, a wonderfully grumpy hedgewitch who just wants to tend her garden and live peacefully with the spirit of her late wife, Ralda. Watching her deal with clueless human gentrifiers who don't respect the paranormal elements of the town was both funny and a poignant reminder of who the real monsters usually are.