The Writhing, Verdant End

by Corey Farrenkopf, Tiffany Morris, Eric Raglin

An ailing community traverses a chasm of nightmare animal amalgams to reach the lush paradise beyond. Lovers in a plant apocalypse fight for survival and search for meaning in the face of immeasurable loss. Reunited friends resurrect an extinct bird through grisly sacrifices that bring about unexpected consequences.

The Writhing, Verdant End collects weird ecological horror stories by Corey Farrenkopf (author of Living in Cemeteries and Haunted Ecologies), Tiffany Morris (Green Fuse Burning), and Eric Raglin (Extinction Hymns), exploring the awe, terror, and strangeness of the natural world in dire times.

Genres: Horror

197 pages, Paperback

Published December 9, 2025

Reviews

[Ga.selle (Semi-hiatus) Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

'There’s a reason the Watchers don’t leave their seats. There’s a reason they have accepted the lives they’ve inherited. The withering. The supposed glory of the final sight. The realm after this realm.'


☠️ You might like this collection if you are drawn to horror that is weird, ambitious, deeply atmospheric, and challenges conventional views of nature and humanity's place in it. If you crave memorable and intellectually stimulating eco-horror that is high on atmosphere, gore, and social commentary.
A compelling read with its visceral 'sticky' atmosphere, unique take on the apocalypse, diverse voices and styles, and challenging themes.

The Final Sight - 4.5✨
The Neon Dread of Leaves- 3✨
A New and Different Hunger -3.5✨
The Honey Harvest -4.5✨
Looking for the Flower-Man- 2.5✨
On Phantom Wings - 4.5✨


I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.




3.75✨

[Danielle (Danni) Vinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this short anthology. I've become a fan of eco-horror since reading Corey Farrenkopf's collection, Haunted Ecologies. His story in this book is thoughtful, tragic, and unsettling, and the writing is excellent. The stories by Tiffany Morris are glorious. This is a new-to-me author, and one I'll be looking out for. Her writing is stunning. Eric Raglin is also a new find. I loved his novelette about...just read it. It's so good.
Thank you for the eARC, Corey. I think you knew that I'd love it.

[Elford Alley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been a fan of all three authors for years now, and was excited to pick up this anthology. They did not disappoint. Farrenkopf brings the weirdness, an eco-horror bordering on the cosmic. Morris has multiple short stories of eco-horror that never go where you think. Raglin caps the collection with a tale of vengeance from an unexpected source. Easily a five star read!

[Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Disclaimer: I received an e-ARC from the publisher.

This anthology collects the works of three authors, 5 short stories and one novella, all of them different takes on eco-horror themes. There’s post-apocalyptic body horror, a world choked in Kudzu, an ecosystem that strikes back with teeth and claws and more. Trying to survive or support the horrors they encounter, we get to know a cast of interesting characters for each story. The stories themselves grow, decay and writhe on the page and even the very short pieces by Tiffany Morris shine through strong and lush atmospheres.
All in all, a very fun anthology with three authors whose works I’ve encountered before, but loved getting to revisit here in one of my favorite horror genres. My favorite short stories where The Final Sight, The Neon Dread of Leaves, A New and Different Hunger and On Phantom Wings, but there was no story that I didn’t like.

The Final Sight by Corey Farrenkopf: Set in a world where ecological disasters have caused animals and humans to mutate and merge into one hungry beast, a few survivors try to carve out a living. Their hometown is no longer salvageable, but to leave they need to cross the chasm that’s become filled with the creatures. Told from a variety of POVs this is a really interesting eco-horror apocalyptic story with some really intriguing takes on body horror, the dissolution of human and animal, grief and survival. I really enjoyed this story.
TW: animal death, body horror, gore, injury, parent death

The Neon Dread of Leaves by Tiffany Morris: This story follows a world where Kudzu has taken over the planet, as well as developed a method to spawn inside human bodies and take them over. As a big fan of Kudzu and its terrifying abilities to grow over a wide swathe of land rather quickly, this was a really great story exploring that. Mila and her wife, Greta, are two of the only survivors. After finding out her aunt has died, Greta is infected and Mila faces an uncertain future. Great body and infection horror, I really loved the depictions of the environment.
TW: grief, insects, mass death, suicidal ideation

A New and Different Hunger by Tiffany Morris: A young woman returns to the farm she spent many beautiful summers with her aunt after her death. Now, after the river takes back what it gave years ago, she only wants to find the escaped horses. Haunting and beautifully written, I loved this gore-heavy story about a terrifying countryside farm.
TW: animal death, animal cannibalism, death, gore, murder

The Honey Harvest by Tiffany Morris: A farmer in a small community has been forced to take over the aviary work as punishment for his discretions. Haunting and heartbreaking, this story follows a man, who was too afraid to follow his lover when he ran away and the grief and change that follows afterwards. Very short, but very atmospheric.
TW: homophobia, strangulation, violence

Looking for the Flower-Man by Tiffany Morris: This very short story takes place in a world where strange things are happening. It is rather strange and less focused than the other pieces, but I did enjoy the atmosphere that it created.
TW: suicidal ideation

On Phantom Wings by Eric Raglin: Two old friends reconnect for a short birding vacation in the forest. Gael, adrift and directionless after he was fired for being trans, and Maya, overworked with her high-stress job and task of caring for her ailing grandmother and desperate to get away from it all for just a few days, are both excited to see if they still fit together well and to enjoy their lives away from their regular trot. But something very, very weird is going on in the forest and its not just the deforestation threatening a bird that was long believed extinct. This was a really incredible novella, combining interesting (and flawed) characters with climate revenge of the gore-filled variety. Very well written and deeply haunting, I utterly adored this one!
TW: death, misogyny, gore, police brutality, racism, self-harm, transphobia

[The Blog Without a Face · Rating 4 out of 5]

BWAF Sinister Selection
BWAF Score: 8/10

TL;DR: This is end of the world as compost, not spectacle. Forests, kudzu, horses and bees all want a piece of your soft human meat and your bad history. It is weird, ambitious and sticky as hell, the kind of book that makes you feel small, guilty and absolutely thrilled you picked it up.

Corey Farrenkopf has been quietly building a reputation as an eco-weird guy with Haunted Ecologies and a stack of magazine credits; The Final Sight feels like him turning the dial to apotheosis. Tiffany Morris brings her L’nu’skw Mi’kmaw eco-horror chops from Green Fuse Burning and Elegies of Rotting Stars and just lets loose here. Eric Raglin, who runs Cursed Morsels and already proved he can juggle politics and viscera in Antifa Splatterpunk, anchors the back half with a grounded, socially loaded weird novella.

Across the collection, the world has basically decided it is done with us. In The Final Sight, a small, dying community perched over a chasm full of fused animal–human “amalgams” debates whether to stay in their rotting town or cross through that living pit toward an impossibly lush forest. In Morris’s suite of stories, lovers, kids and workers navigate kudzu-choked cities, kelpie horse hauntings and hive-minds of bees and ghosts that may offer transcendence or just a prettier way to die. Raglin’s On Phantom Wings follows estranged friends on a birding trip where impossible birds and real-world bigotry collide and things with wings start to feel like both salvation and doom. Everyone is trying to cross something, everyone is food for something else.

I love how the book deeply commits to “verdant” as both beauty and threat. Farrenkopf’s chasm full of stitched-together beasts feels like a long, slow panic attack. Limbs and beaks and hooves weld together from industrial runoff and bad decisions; it is grotesque, but the real horror is how banal it feels, like this is simply where capitalism and climate collapse were always heading. Morris takes that same impulse and turns it up until it is neon. Her kudzu city in The Neon Dread of Leaves is one of those settings that instantly lives in your head: gasping vines, golden spores, two exhausted wives trudging through a world that smells like sweetness curdled into rot. Kelpie transformations, death-courting flower men, bee cults that might actually love you back, all hit that sweet spot where folklore, grief and body horror snuggle up together. Raglin closes the set by making the monsters share the stage with police brutality, transphobia and burnout. The phantom birds are cool as hell, but the real punch is how he shows systemic violence as another kind of predatory ecosystem.

Nobody here phones it in. Farrenkopf writes in a rotating close third that feels like an oral history of the end; his sentences are long, sandy, a little choked, like everyone is out of breath and still trying to explain. The Final Sight moves between leader, farmer, child and dying Watcher, and the structure lets the chasm feel communal rather than just set-dressing. Morris’s prose is lush and sticky; she leans into scent and texture so hard that you practically feel pollen in your lungs and salt spray on your face. Her stories are shorter and more dreamlike, but they never dissolve into pure vibe, there is always a beating emotional heart under the moss. Raglin’s style is more direct and nervous, full of social awkwardness, road-trip pacing and then these sharp eruptions of uncanny shit that feel like a panic spike on an EKG. Together, the three voices feel distinct yet weirdly braided, like different roots feeding one ravenous tree.

Eco-dread is the big undercurrent, obviously, but it is not the lazy “humans bad, trees good” thing. The book keeps worrying at complicity, at how much of the apocalypse we carry in our bodies, our faiths, our families. The cannibal religions and Watchers in Farrenkopf read like a roast of reactionary nostalgia; they would rather stare at a forest they will never touch than risk changing anything. Morris keeps coming back to hunger and seduction: horses from the sea, bees that know your secrets, ghosts selling bouquets that double as exit doors. The horror machinery is always tied to longing, to grief and to colonization of land and body. Raglin, meanwhile, threads in how marginalized people live in a constant state of haunting even before any spectral wings show up. It’s all a thick mix of honey, blood and fertilizer, and the nagging question of whether joining the writhing ecosystem might actually be less monstrous than what we are doing now.

In the the larger context of eco-horror, this sits comfortably amongst the best, but the Indigenous perspective from Morris and the explicitly anti-fascist pedigree of Raglin’s other work give it a particular bite. Farrenkopf’s Haunted Ecologies felt like a thesis; The Writhing, Verdant End feels like the next-level group project where the thesis sprouts limbs and claws and drags three writers and a small press into something bigger.

This is excellent, weird and memorable eco-horror from front to back, the kind of fucked-up, leafy nightmare that will have you eyeing your houseplants and your own shitty species with the exact same mix of awe and fear.

Read if you crave fucked-up eco-apocalypse that feels intimate rather than panoramic spectacle.

Skip if you need your end of the world stories clean, hopeful and low on gore or systemic ugliness.

[Josh Buyarski · Rating 5 out of 5]

Final Sight: so much going on in this post apocalyptic climate change damaged world. Really great and played out like a very tense movie.
Neon Dread of Leaves: a wife waiting for her wife, sees her coming but she’s contracted the plague that’s decimated the world….eco-horror striking back
A new and different hunger: an apocalypse story that connects to mythology, sign me up!!
The Honey Harvest: love, bees, apocalypse. It ended up being a sweet story, much like the name implies.
Looking for the flower man: a search for the flower man, and when we find him it was not what I expected.
On Phantom Wings: a forest haunted by the spirits of long extinct animals is visited by two friends, these spirits need a very special thing to grow, something Gael and Maya decide to help them with.

All very intriguing end of the world stories, all were great, but On Phantom Wings really stood out!!

[Books For Decaying Millennials · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked up a digital copy from the editor and co-author Eric Raglin, while attending "One Of Us" Midwest Horror Convention. All views and opinions are my own.
-
This may come across as a bit vociferous, but I am serious when I say that The Writhing, Verdant End is nothing short of the literary equivalent of a Power Trio Metal album that goes hard from cover to cover. Eric Raglin, Tiffany Morris and Corey Farrenkopf are each authors of note in their own rights. Furthermore, each is someone whose rcently published works I have had the pleasure of reading and reviewing. Each has their unique tone and style, and the ability to imagine truly haunting and strange yarns. Bringing them together is nothing short of crafting a web Eco-Horror that catch you in the moment and cling to your brain well after you've finished the book.
I first stumbled upon the existence of Ec0-Horror back in High School (I was but a Mutating Teenage Millennial back then) . While searching the cart of my local libraries "Sale Cart" I found a copy of
"The Earth Strikes Back: An anthology of Ecological Horror" (White Wolf Publishing, 1996). As the kids say these days, reading that anthology was something that "Changed my DNA". I held onto that book for years and re-read it many times. From that point one, I sought out Eco-Horror and had a benchmark by which to compare it. A few years later, I read John Brunner's famous novel "The Sheep Look Up", another benchmark set. The Earth Strikes Back, I sold some years back, a mistake I still kick myself about, Brunner's book I still have today.
Raglin, Morris and Farrenkopf have each on their own passed this literary litmus test, I subconsciously have been using all this time. Bringing their combined voices together in "The Writhing, Verdant End" was another one of those brain changing moments. Here in 2025, as the Earth continues to convulse... to push back. Reacting to the harm done by humanity and the forces of Extractive Capitalism. This Trio of authors calls us to not shy away from imagining the as yet unknown ways nature could react, that the biosphere could change. Each of these three authors show us ways that, even if for a moment, the pulse of our species could persist, find connections, and make our way as the Green closes in.

[ScarlettAnomalyReads · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was such an odd collection and I loved it.
Thank you for letting me check this out!

I loved The Neon Dread of Leaves and A New and Different Hunger the most I think out of all of these, but every story was so good it was hard to choose.

The Neon Dread of Leaves was dark and had me breathing hard along with Greta, coughing and crying. The description oh my goodness. Everything about this story was a vibe, you really felt along with Mila as the story unfolds, and I know I’m being vague, but it’s something you need to read to understand.

A New and Different Hunger was possibly my second pick and yup it was. My heart broke for Erin and the horses too. Until the one horse or whatever that was, sounded horrifying.
I kept reading along with this one, not sure where it was going, but had a hint of an idea, and oh my goodness. I just read the last few paragraphs over after finishing this story and it’s just so dark in a way I did not expect, but oh so fitting for this collection.

I loved this collection overall, it’s dark and twisty and deep, but so entertaining, these stories will sit with you long after finishing them. Not all blood and gore, but deep and dark in a way that haunts you.

I’ve read eco horror stories here and there over there years and always find them fascinating, so to get a whole collection of them, and they are so well done, I’d love to see more of this.

[Rachel Wren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Received as free E-arc

Absolutely loved this! Each story played out like a movie in my head. Perfect mixture of beauty and grotesque in my opinion. I also feel like the stories did a good job of showcasing real world issues. I know anthologies are usually meant to be on the short and powerful side, however, I would love to see the worlds inside be expanded on too. I have found myself thinking about the characters and the journeys that got them there and what comes after for each of them often, so I would say this definitely hit all the marks for me. I’ll be on the look out for more from each author!

[Kat M · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a strong ecological horror collection of stories, it had that element that I was wanting and enjoyed in this type of book. I thought each book worked well in this universe and was able to weave something that I was wanting and enjoyed the use of the natural world. Each author was able to weave something engaging and thought worked in this collection.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Katie Janssen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed 2 of the stories while the others were just okay. My 2 favorites were The Final Sight and On Phantom Wings. I also think some of the other stories had great ideas and were well written but maybe just a tad too short and therefore felt rushed or lacking for me. Overall a quick and fun read.

[Eva · Rating 5 out of 5]

“The Writhing, Verdant End” is a kind of triptych book, featuring tales from three authors: Corey Farrenkopf, Tiffany Morris, and Eric Raglin, published by Cursed Morsels Press. The first story, by Farrenkopf, starts with a strong eco-horror energy. “There’s a reason the Watchers don’t leave their seats.” They have accepted lives they’ve inherited, but they are also withering. There’s also a saying that the last thing a person sees before dying will be the place a person inhabits in the afterlife, although there’s a group who are determined to avoid sharing the fate of the Watchers, which partly involves not using binoculars. Then, there’s cannibal religions that are afoot. Corrupt flesh, talk of followers, and a section section about someone who discusses their parents talking about leaving. The perosn’s father is already in the ‘pit.’ It’s a very “The Last of Us” and also “I Am Legend.” More talk of scientists and their predictions. Of people turning on one another. Staying behind is not an option. I found myself gravitating toward one of the points of view more than the others, and at the same time, in the end things ended in a very powerful way.

Next is “The Neon Dread of Leaves” by Tiffany Morris. I loved the start of this story—the lushness of the nature. Kudzu vines, lilacs, yellow-green leaves, spores, pollen. Morris excels at eco-horror and also paints with vivid strokes throughout her prose. This story revolves around Mila and her wife Greta, trudging through the wasteland. Again, a scenario where no one knows where the particular plague came from, and with symptoms that could remain dormant for weeks before becoming infectious, then, too late. Some symptoms can be mistaken for hives, coughing from other sources. This plague is a thrumming, green iskcness. Mila also having to deal with menopause, which comes with its own set of horrors, on top of everything going on, makes things more acutely worse. I’m going to avoid spoilers, but let’s just say that things progressively get worse and more intense. It is a verdant horror, land changing too quickly.

Tiffany’s next story is “A New and Different Hunger,” revolving around Erin. There are screams everywhere. Silhouettes of horses. After having grown up on her Aunt Jo’s farm, she did not want to go back to the city with school, homework, bullies, and the slick newness of everything. Things unfold at a slower pace in this story as the reader wonders what will become of Erin.

“THe Honey Harvest” is another story from Morris, this one featuring George who is readying a harvest where there’s an apiary and bees nearby. It’s a time of second reaping. He reminded me of Candyman in some ways. He deals with different kinds of apparitions. Again, I don’t want to give spoilers so I will say that it was painful to watch things unfold for George the way they did, and of a situation he was forced into. In the end, he finds a different path.

In “Looking for the Flower-Man,” Morris tells us a story of the Flower-Man, who, every day, “carries bouquets in a large wicker basket on his back.” He wanders fields and looks for the promise of things going into bloom. The creepy folkloric energy was excellent in this story. There’s talk of offerings and of cemetery gates and a mythological quality here.

Next up, we get a novella from Eric Raglin called “On Phantom Wings.” The story follows Gael and how he thinks of Maya, with whom he had been good friends in their early 20s, and how they attended a sort of Greenpeace-like organization with its meetings. Although it’s been a long time, he reaches out, and she responds favourably. They’re going on a kind of nature retreat or long hike. As they spend the time filling in the gaps of their years apart, it becomes clear that there are more secrets between them than meets the eye. They are here to find specific birds, but also more. Things start to unravel until they hit a breaking point. Tensions escalate and then get to a cool-off point temporarily until they ramp up again and the characters face a point of no return. Overall, an impactful tale of eco horror and why some places should not be poked or trodden into. (Review copy from publisher).

[Vinicio · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an ARC review. Thank you for giving me the opportunity!

The Writhing, Verdant End is an anthology of short stories and novellas in the realm of eco horror and if you like this genre, I'd definitely recommend reading it.

The authors weave tales that sometimes feel too close to our current reality to be comfortable, sometimes offer a glimpse of "could be"s and "what if"s and "This could happen right now"s which are all equally compelling to read and think about. Some of these stories stick around, even after finishing them.

My personal favorite was "The Final Sight", a tale about longing for paradise or, rather, longing for hope in the shadow of the consequences long-past crimes summoned upon humanity. Different perspectives, different forms of striving for something better against all odds. Watching, stagnation, calling to action bearing eerie parralels to contemporary society.

Eco horror can be many things. It can be returning to nature in unexpected ways, it can be succumbing to nature, merging with nature, but also nature dying, fighting back, consuming, reclaiming what it has been robbed of.

"The Writhing, Verdant End" explores many of these themes through the eyes of characters of various ages or identities and does a really great job with this, effortlessly weaving common, often overlooked struggles into the narrative.

It's definitely worth reading.

[sPaCeCoYoTe · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Writhing, Verdant End isn’t a book you read, it’s one you crawl through. It’s humid, claustrophobic, and weirdly gorgeous in that “I think the forest is watching me” way.

Corey Farrenkopf, Tiffany Morris, and Eric Raglin have built a shared apocalypse that feels as if Jeff VanderMeer’s Annihilation and Clive Barker’s Books of Blood made unsettling, chlorophyll-stained offspring. The writing is lush to the point of suffocation, sometimes breathtaking, sometimes too much, but always deliberate. You can practically taste the rot and decay in the air (excuse me while I rinse my mouth).

Each author adds their own flavour of ruin: Farrenkopf’s “The Final Sight” turns devotion and decay into religion; Morris’s stories bloom into myth and madness; Raglin closes things with empathy that somehow makes the horror worse.

It’s beautiful, bleak, and unrelentingly sincere. Occasionally, it feels like being lectured by a haunted forest that’s a little too proud of its vocabulary, but that’s part of the charm. You don’t come here for subtlety, you come here to drown in moss and despair and call it art.

Highly recommend for fans of eco-horror, weird fiction, and stories that make you want a shower and a sitcom afterward. If you can read while lying on a bed of moss, call it a double bonus!

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was lucky enough to receive the ARC! Cursed Morsels is one of my favorite publishers & I was so so excited to read this before its release date.

I really admire each of the writers in this collection. The stories were beautifully sad, disturbing, and believable with a speculative and weird bend to them. I loved how each title evoked such poignant emotions in different ways, and I found the different writing styles really satisfying. Each voice came through deliciously.

I loved that there was an element of hope in each story too; I think we could all use a bit of pensive optimism right now. This is such a timely and unique set of stories, especially if you love eco-horror and weird fiction. It's just really cool! I don't know of anyone else doing it quite like this.

[Emma E. Murray · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a wonderful first read of the year! Farrenkopf's weird, emotional journey through a Barkeresque nightmare future is brilliant and I'll certainly be revisiting. The short stories that follow by Morris are equally mesmerizing, with absolutely stunning descriptions and the ability to bond you to characters so quickly before breaking your heart. Raglin's contribution provides some much needed bits of levity while also keeping you on edge and turning pages to find out what will happen. Highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys eco-horror and grotesque but beautiful prose.

[brooke]

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This collection of eco horror tales from Cursed Morsels is so relevant to our times and packs a huge punch. Comprised of novellas and short stories from Corey Farrenkopf, Tiffany Morris, and Eric Raglin, I thoroughly enjoyed all of the stories, and I enjoyed the variety of tales. Highly recommended.

[Eric Raglin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm hella biased because I have a novella in this book, so this five-star review is for Corey and Tiffany whose contributions absolutely rule. Weird eco-horror fans, check it out!