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Glowrot: No way out of Wonderland
What if Wonderland was a parasite that fed on your desires?
Every night, I wake up from the same dream: a vibrating nightclub with melting walls, no way out, and the taste of someone I’ve never met still burning on my tongue.
Every day, the shadow only I can see claws at my skull, screaming that I’m slipping again. He says it’s all fake, that I should forget it, forget Them, and focus only on Him.
But for the first time, He’s wrong.
I just have to find it again.
Find Them again.
We are meant to be together.
Even if They don’t know it yet.
Glowrot is a queer psychological horror novel written by Venezuelan author Beatrice Lebrun. It mixes found family gone wrong, toxic obsession, and a twisted version of Alice in Wonderland. It’s got toxic longing, liminal spaces, and nonbinary representation at the heart of the story.
It follows Bo, a bisexual Latina unraveling into obsession, dissociation, and a surreal nightclub that might not be real, all in her desperate, delusional search for someone who doesn’t want to be found.
Every night, I wake up from the same dream: a vibrating nightclub with melting walls, no way out, and the taste of someone I’ve never met still burning on my tongue.
Every day, the shadow only I can see claws at my skull, screaming that I’m slipping again. He says it’s all fake, that I should forget it, forget Them, and focus only on Him.
But for the first time, He’s wrong.
I just have to find it again.
Find Them again.
We are meant to be together.
Even if They don’t know it yet.
Glowrot is a queer psychological horror novel written by Venezuelan author Beatrice Lebrun. It mixes found family gone wrong, toxic obsession, and a twisted version of Alice in Wonderland. It’s got toxic longing, liminal spaces, and nonbinary representation at the heart of the story.
It follows Bo, a bisexual Latina unraveling into obsession, dissociation, and a surreal nightclub that might not be real, all in her desperate, delusional search for someone who doesn’t want to be found.
- GenresHorror
424 pages, Hardcover
Published June 11, 2025
3 people are currently reading
115 people want to read
About the author
Beatrice Lebrun
3 books27 followersBeatrice Lebrun writes the kind of stories that make people cry, scream, or whisper “I shouldn’t relate to this.” She’s an author and illustrator obsessed with emotional horror, queer longing, and the quiet devastation of being alive.
Born in Venezuela and now based in the U.S., Beatrice grew up living in another world entirely. Dealing with intense maladaptive daydreaming since a very young age, she spent her childhood caught between realities: one
mundane and expected, the other wild, dangerous, and hers. When the world
demanded she stay grounded, she turned to writing since then, just to keep the other realities alive.
Glowrot, her debut novel in English. It’s deeply personal to her, a love letter to the versions of herself she never got to be, and a cautionary tale she once needed to hear. Her protagonists are raw, flawed, and cathartic reflections of her own wounds. If someone wants to call that a self-insert, she’s not offended. It just means they’ve never needed to write themselves back together.
When she’s not writing about haunted girls and broken realities, she’s helping others do the same as the Creative Director of StoryForge, where she builds safe spaces for writers and stories that don’t fit the mold.
You’ll usually find her drawing, dancing, dreaming, or whispering to her characters like they’re real people. (Sometimes, they whisper back.)
Born in Venezuela and now based in the U.S., Beatrice grew up living in another world entirely. Dealing with intense maladaptive daydreaming since a very young age, she spent her childhood caught between realities: one
mundane and expected, the other wild, dangerous, and hers. When the world
demanded she stay grounded, she turned to writing since then, just to keep the other realities alive.
Glowrot, her debut novel in English. It’s deeply personal to her, a love letter to the versions of herself she never got to be, and a cautionary tale she once needed to hear. Her protagonists are raw, flawed, and cathartic reflections of her own wounds. If someone wants to call that a self-insert, she’s not offended. It just means they’ve never needed to write themselves back together.
When she’s not writing about haunted girls and broken realities, she’s helping others do the same as the Creative Director of StoryForge, where she builds safe spaces for writers and stories that don’t fit the mold.
You’ll usually find her drawing, dancing, dreaming, or whispering to her characters like they’re real people. (Sometimes, they whisper back.)
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
June 10, 2025
My head may be swimming a little bit after going on the thrilling, harrowing mindtrip that is Glowrot. Lebrun could very well give a class on how to take a charming, nonsensical romp of classic children’s literature like Alice in wonderland and turn it into a bizarre nightmare journey for adults.
Bo’s adventures as she tries to unravel the mystery of NIU and her own, ever elusive white rabbit start out fairly slow and strange. Her visits to the disappearing/reappearing nightclub are wonderfully surreal and as the reader, you have just as hard a time holding on to happenings as Bo herself. Lebrun builds the mystery, the tension, and the strangeness perfectly until it becomes a furious, roaring descent downhill.
Aside from all you Alice fans out there, Glowrot is an excellent choice for readers of the bizarre, readers who enjoy unconventional story formats, fans of unreliable narrators, and those who enjoy exploring darker human impulses like obsession.
While we’re on the topic of darker human impulses, let me take this chance to remind you that Glowrot does explore dark, heavy themes, and it’s a good idea to consult those content advisories (find them here: beatricelebrunauthor.com/glowrot)!
Many thanks to Beatrice Lebrun for the eARC. I'm leaving my review voluntarily.
Bo’s adventures as she tries to unravel the mystery of NIU and her own, ever elusive white rabbit start out fairly slow and strange. Her visits to the disappearing/reappearing nightclub are wonderfully surreal and as the reader, you have just as hard a time holding on to happenings as Bo herself. Lebrun builds the mystery, the tension, and the strangeness perfectly until it becomes a furious, roaring descent downhill.
Aside from all you Alice fans out there, Glowrot is an excellent choice for readers of the bizarre, readers who enjoy unconventional story formats, fans of unreliable narrators, and those who enjoy exploring darker human impulses like obsession.
While we’re on the topic of darker human impulses, let me take this chance to remind you that Glowrot does explore dark, heavy themes, and it’s a good idea to consult those content advisories (find them here: beatricelebrunauthor.com/glowrot)!
Many thanks to Beatrice Lebrun for the eARC. I'm leaving my review voluntarily.
October 27, 2025
An extremely uncomfortable read, but in a good way. One of the reasons why I am so passionate about reading is because it allows me to obtain a certain understanding of how different people experience the world. This book, inspired by Lebrun’s personal experiences, was fascinating, disturbing, vulnerable and complex.
The writing and page formatting really helped slip into the obsessive mind of the protagonist, and fall down the psychedelic rabbit hole with her. I feel like a reread would be helpful as I probably missed some hints, or misunderstood certain situations. In any case, I can feel this story has wormed (caterpillared?) its way into my brain and will stay with me for a long time.
I do not typically read TWs, but I do highly recommend it for this book. Even though my mental health is quite good, it made me feel queasy and… mentally nauseous? I’m not sure how to describe it. I did have to take breaks from reading. And one of my inbetween “lighter” reads was Pet Sematary, to give you an idea 🤣
The writing and page formatting really helped slip into the obsessive mind of the protagonist, and fall down the psychedelic rabbit hole with her. I feel like a reread would be helpful as I probably missed some hints, or misunderstood certain situations. In any case, I can feel this story has wormed (caterpillared?) its way into my brain and will stay with me for a long time.
I do not typically read TWs, but I do highly recommend it for this book. Even though my mental health is quite good, it made me feel queasy and… mentally nauseous? I’m not sure how to describe it. I did have to take breaks from reading. And one of my inbetween “lighter” reads was Pet Sematary, to give you an idea 🤣
June 2, 2025
I love horror, creepy things, psychological thrillers, and things that are twisted. I love reading unreliable narrators. I love reading stories of obsession and things that are dark in nature. I love this book. I loved reading from the stalker, Bo’s point of view. I loved reading the descent into madness that occurs and how maybe Wonderland isn’t all that it seems. I am so glad that I was gifted an ARC of the book and I am so excited to read the prequel story and any more works that are in the Glowrot universe. This story is going to linger with me for a while and I’m completely fine with that.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / out of 5 stars ⭐️
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / out of 5 stars ⭐️
June 18, 2025
Didn’t even read it yet 🙃
5 ⭐️ solely for name, and premise of book. 🖤
5 ⭐️ solely for name, and premise of book. 🖤
December 1, 2025
Trippy, gnarly, and brutal indie nod to Alice in Wonderland. Interesting text treatments peppered throughout are reminiscent of House of Leaves.
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December 28, 2025read the first chapter and have been feeling nauseous hours later. this could be a seller or a drawback depending on what type of reader you are 🤣 unfortunately I am not the reader.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews