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Tatratea
From Shirley Jackson Award-nominated editor Alex Woodroe, comes an eco-horror novel of hyperactive flora, ancient manors, and the terrifying wilderness of Transylvania.
Tatratea, a manor home reclaimed by nature deep in the Romanian wilderness, has stood in isolation for decades. Researcher Errata's sole mission is to track down the strange signals coming from inside and uncover why the whole world's gone insane.
With the doors locking shut behind her, and the local flora very much determined to keep her from leaving, her sanity check protocols, voice recorder, and a bit of camping gear are all she can use to figure out what's crashed in the hedge maze, and why it's disrupting reality. Relying on her intuition, Errata must solve the mystery and escape Tatratea before it’s too late.
With an unsettling and dread-filled atmosphere, Woodroe crafts a novel about a researcher trying to make sense of the unexplainable and survive the deadly manor.
Tatratea, a manor home reclaimed by nature deep in the Romanian wilderness, has stood in isolation for decades. Researcher Errata's sole mission is to track down the strange signals coming from inside and uncover why the whole world's gone insane.
With the doors locking shut behind her, and the local flora very much determined to keep her from leaving, her sanity check protocols, voice recorder, and a bit of camping gear are all she can use to figure out what's crashed in the hedge maze, and why it's disrupting reality. Relying on her intuition, Errata must solve the mystery and escape Tatratea before it’s too late.
With an unsettling and dread-filled atmosphere, Woodroe crafts a novel about a researcher trying to make sense of the unexplainable and survive the deadly manor.
164 pages, Paperback
First published October 20, 2026
About the author
Alex Woodroe
43 books128 followersRomanian writer and editor of dark speculative fiction. Editor-in-chief of Tenebrous Press and writer of WHISPERWOOD, THE NIGHT SHIP, and TATRATEA, as well as short stories and articles.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 68 reviews
October 22, 2026
Drawing you into a near future nightmare where society has already collapsed but the cause remains elusive, Alex Woodroe's Tatratea is a wonderfully unsettling blend of weird fic, cosmic horror, psychological thriller and botanical body horror. My thanks to CLASH Books for the arc.
The atmosphere is utterly phenomenal. Gothic, surreal and deeply unsettling, the decaying isolation of the manor and its encroaching gardens create a world where everything feels hostile. The botanical illustrations are a particularly creepy touch, bringing the strange plant life into sharper focus while amplifying the sense that nature has become something alien and dangerous.
Woodroe keeps the tension simmering throughout, balancing the overarching mystery of what brought humanity to the brink of collapse with the more immediate question of what lurks within the manor and its overgrown grounds. The psychological tension deepens as the mind altering phenomenon begins to erode the boundaries of reality. The unreliable narration takes on another dimension as Errata knows her perceptions may not be trustworthy adding another deliciously unsettling twist. When both narrator and reader are left questioning what is real, even the smallest revelation becomes fraught with uncertainty.
Woodroe excels at crafting an endlessly bleak world, where hope flickers just long enough to be snatched away. Every glimmer of possibility feels previous against the encroaching darkness, making the journey all the more vivid, immersive and utterly captivating.
Erica’s story at the end is a wonderful addition, widening the lens to reveal another perspective on the crisis, the missions and the ways people respond to a world turned upside down. It fills in some of the blanks, enriching the wider picture and bringing a satisfying sense of closure without fully dispelling the uncertainty.
For those who like their horror strange, their reality fractured and their nature actively hostile, Tatratea is a must read. Vivid, unnerving and impossible to feel entirely comfortable in, it's the kind of nightmare you'll be glad you stepped into.
The atmosphere is utterly phenomenal. Gothic, surreal and deeply unsettling, the decaying isolation of the manor and its encroaching gardens create a world where everything feels hostile. The botanical illustrations are a particularly creepy touch, bringing the strange plant life into sharper focus while amplifying the sense that nature has become something alien and dangerous.
Woodroe keeps the tension simmering throughout, balancing the overarching mystery of what brought humanity to the brink of collapse with the more immediate question of what lurks within the manor and its overgrown grounds. The psychological tension deepens as the mind altering phenomenon begins to erode the boundaries of reality. The unreliable narration takes on another dimension as Errata knows her perceptions may not be trustworthy adding another deliciously unsettling twist. When both narrator and reader are left questioning what is real, even the smallest revelation becomes fraught with uncertainty.
Woodroe excels at crafting an endlessly bleak world, where hope flickers just long enough to be snatched away. Every glimmer of possibility feels previous against the encroaching darkness, making the journey all the more vivid, immersive and utterly captivating.
Erica’s story at the end is a wonderful addition, widening the lens to reveal another perspective on the crisis, the missions and the ways people respond to a world turned upside down. It fills in some of the blanks, enriching the wider picture and bringing a satisfying sense of closure without fully dispelling the uncertainty.
For those who like their horror strange, their reality fractured and their nature actively hostile, Tatratea is a must read. Vivid, unnerving and impossible to feel entirely comfortable in, it's the kind of nightmare you'll be glad you stepped into.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
As the book begins we are already in the midst of the world ending. There are approximately 200 humans left on the Earth. An unknown plague swept across the globe driving the people infected insane.
"The sanity bug generated hallucinations that were rich, complex, and real, but not perfect. They still had to draw from the victim's experiences and known imagery in order to create anything at all."
Errata is one of the remaining survivors living with the Mother's at the Institution. All the survivors will be sent on a mission with only a voice recorder for company to investigate a place where unknown phenomenon has taken place. For Errata that means Tatratea. The goal is to eradicate the source of the plague.
Upon arrival it appears the mansion has been overtaken with flora, flora that is sentient. Errata is unnerved to say the least but then they begin to communicate.
"We are not here for you. Nothing is here for you."
This is a weird horror sci-fi mash up that was short in page count but packed a big punch. I was completely invested even if I felt a little lost in this world Woodroe created. At the end there is another short story attached following another survivor that has been sent to a space station and that one was out of this world, no pun intended! 😉🚀 Having read that last story it gave me a better grip on what was actually happening and that bumped up my star rating. If you like weird trippy stories then maybe give this one a try. 4 stars!
Thank you to NetGalley and Clash Books for my complimentary copy.
"The sanity bug generated hallucinations that were rich, complex, and real, but not perfect. They still had to draw from the victim's experiences and known imagery in order to create anything at all."
Errata is one of the remaining survivors living with the Mother's at the Institution. All the survivors will be sent on a mission with only a voice recorder for company to investigate a place where unknown phenomenon has taken place. For Errata that means Tatratea. The goal is to eradicate the source of the plague.
Upon arrival it appears the mansion has been overtaken with flora, flora that is sentient. Errata is unnerved to say the least but then they begin to communicate.
"We are not here for you. Nothing is here for you."
This is a weird horror sci-fi mash up that was short in page count but packed a big punch. I was completely invested even if I felt a little lost in this world Woodroe created. At the end there is another short story attached following another survivor that has been sent to a space station and that one was out of this world, no pun intended! 😉🚀 Having read that last story it gave me a better grip on what was actually happening and that bumped up my star rating. If you like weird trippy stories then maybe give this one a try. 4 stars!
Thank you to NetGalley and Clash Books for my complimentary copy.
October 20, 2026
"We are not here for you. Nothing is here for you."
A Romanian manor overtaken by sentient flora, a world-ending plague that makes people lose their minds, and a researcher sent to investigate with nothing but a voice recorder for company? Eco-horror meets cosmic weirdness, and you absolutely have my attention. Woodroe throws us straight into the fever dream without bothering to explain what the hell is happening, which I generally love. The atmosphere is deliciously disorienting, the botanical horror is wonderfully strange, and the illustrations are a thoughtful and welcome addition. I mean at the end of the day, I don't need an encyclopedia's worth of worldbuilding before a story gets underway; sometimes I want reality to take a flying leap and leave me to figure things out in the wreckage.
That said, there's a fine line between deliberately disorienting and wait, did I miss an entire chapter? and I occasionally found myself on the wrong side of it. Errata's voice recordings initially added to my confusion, and while I enjoyed piecing together Woodroe's bizarre little world, the plot sometimes felt too compressed to fully land. The additional short story helped clarify some of the bigger questions and bumped up my rating, but it also left me wanting considerably more. I have follow-up questions, Alex. So many follow-up questions. Consider this my formal request for a novella duology. Overall, Tatratea is a trippy, atmospheric bite of Romanian eco-horror for readers who like their fiction strange, their plants sentient, and their reality fundamentally untrustworthy.
Thank you to NetGalley and CLASH for the eARC of Tatratea in exchange for an honest review. It is always an honor to be trusted with unpublished work, and I look forward to the next opportunity.
A Romanian manor overtaken by sentient flora, a world-ending plague that makes people lose their minds, and a researcher sent to investigate with nothing but a voice recorder for company? Eco-horror meets cosmic weirdness, and you absolutely have my attention. Woodroe throws us straight into the fever dream without bothering to explain what the hell is happening, which I generally love. The atmosphere is deliciously disorienting, the botanical horror is wonderfully strange, and the illustrations are a thoughtful and welcome addition. I mean at the end of the day, I don't need an encyclopedia's worth of worldbuilding before a story gets underway; sometimes I want reality to take a flying leap and leave me to figure things out in the wreckage.
That said, there's a fine line between deliberately disorienting and wait, did I miss an entire chapter? and I occasionally found myself on the wrong side of it. Errata's voice recordings initially added to my confusion, and while I enjoyed piecing together Woodroe's bizarre little world, the plot sometimes felt too compressed to fully land. The additional short story helped clarify some of the bigger questions and bumped up my rating, but it also left me wanting considerably more. I have follow-up questions, Alex. So many follow-up questions. Consider this my formal request for a novella duology. Overall, Tatratea is a trippy, atmospheric bite of Romanian eco-horror for readers who like their fiction strange, their plants sentient, and their reality fundamentally untrustworthy.
Thank you to NetGalley and CLASH for the eARC of Tatratea in exchange for an honest review. It is always an honor to be trusted with unpublished work, and I look forward to the next opportunity.
August 14, 2026
I love it when reality takes a flying leap. This novella is weird. The plants are weird. The creatures are weird. Reality is weird. The atmosphere is *chefs kiss* foggy dark and weird. As soon as the plot is “goes to creepy abandoned manor on forlorn damp island to investigate” sign me up.
It would be nice to make this a novella duology, hint hint. I have so many follow up questions.
P.S. I almost forgot about the funky botanical illustrations. <3 I wish more books had accompanying artwork.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this advance reader copy it was right up my alley.
It would be nice to make this a novella duology, hint hint. I have so many follow up questions.
P.S. I almost forgot about the funky botanical illustrations. <3 I wish more books had accompanying artwork.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this advance reader copy it was right up my alley.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
What a weirdly lush and vivid tale Woodroe has woven for us readers. It’s short but impactful. Giving off “Annihilation” by Jeff VanderMeer vibes, it was fantastic and disturbing in equal measure.
The prose was descriptive and often poetic. The characters were interesting but didn’t have a ton of backstory and depth, but probably only because this is a shorter story. They could’ve been maybe a bit more fleshed out.
“Here’s one thing I know: there’s no need to be afraid of ghosts. Even if they’re here, we’re all the same, now. Waiting to find out what happens next, hoping it isn’t worse than what’s happening now.”
I also enjoyed Erica’s little story at the end; it added more details to the main tale and provided more info on the status of the human race too.
Thank you to the author, NetGalley, and CLASH Books for a copy!
The prose was descriptive and often poetic. The characters were interesting but didn’t have a ton of backstory and depth, but probably only because this is a shorter story. They could’ve been maybe a bit more fleshed out.
“Here’s one thing I know: there’s no need to be afraid of ghosts. Even if they’re here, we’re all the same, now. Waiting to find out what happens next, hoping it isn’t worse than what’s happening now.”
I also enjoyed Erica’s little story at the end; it added more details to the main tale and provided more info on the status of the human race too.
Thank you to the author, NetGalley, and CLASH Books for a copy!
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
This was a quick and compelling novella that combines sci-fi and cosmic horror with a dash of gothic. I especially enjoyed the atmosphere and the descriptive writing style. It was my first time reading this author and I am interested to read more!
Thank you to Clash Books for providing me with an ARC.
Thank you to Clash Books for providing me with an ARC.
July 27, 2026
This book has Annihilation vibes in the best way. Set in the end of the world, this book does creepy mind control monsters in a scary way. I like to read stories where humans act the way humans would actually act in this scenario.
Creepy monsters, mind control terror, old castles, and suspicious plants? Yes, please!
Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!
Creepy monsters, mind control terror, old castles, and suspicious plants? Yes, please!
Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!
October 21, 2026
There’s an interesting eco-horror story in here, but the writing was a little rough and the story could have used more nuance. The glimpses we get of this dystopian future were intriguing, but everything felt super rushed, leaving little room for the story or its characters to develop. The main character in particular felt paper thin and could have used a lot more depth. I knew going in that this was a novella, but I’ve read plenty that manage to do more with their limited page count. Overall, the premise had potential, but I struggled with the execution.
August 27, 2026
3.5 stars
A really weird (in the best way) horror novella with the creepiest and most unsettling environment. I liked the writing a lot, it was uneasy and the impeding doom/unknown element was executed well. A great mini horror.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for kindly providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review. #Tatratea #NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
A really weird (in the best way) horror novella with the creepiest and most unsettling environment. I liked the writing a lot, it was uneasy and the impeding doom/unknown element was executed well. A great mini horror.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for kindly providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review. #Tatratea #NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
October 24, 2026
Sanity-questioning horror swerving into body horror in near future, when strange impactors from space turn humanity into a soon-to-be extinct species, this is moist and uncomfortable and definitely not uplifting. Well-written, though!
August 12, 2026
First, and I cannot be more clear here, Alex Woodroe is becoming one of my favorite authors.
This book is super cool. I love how little information we’re given upfront. Instead, we’re thrown into the world and left to figure things out as we go. That, I would contend, is strong worldbuilding. I don’t need an encyclopedia’s worth of information before I’m allowed to get into the story.
The general vibe is that it’s the 2080s, some cosmic-horror mind bug is taking over people’s brains, and a small order of individuals is trying to find the source so they can destroy it. Might this be commentary on AI? Maybe a more general statement about brainrot? Who’s to know!
Anyway, I totally dug this one. 4/5, mostly because I felt like there was still some meat left on the bone by the end. But for a tight novella, this rocked.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing the ARC. All opinions are my own.
This book is super cool. I love how little information we’re given upfront. Instead, we’re thrown into the world and left to figure things out as we go. That, I would contend, is strong worldbuilding. I don’t need an encyclopedia’s worth of information before I’m allowed to get into the story.
The general vibe is that it’s the 2080s, some cosmic-horror mind bug is taking over people’s brains, and a small order of individuals is trying to find the source so they can destroy it. Might this be commentary on AI? Maybe a more general statement about brainrot? Who’s to know!
Anyway, I totally dug this one. 4/5, mostly because I felt like there was still some meat left on the bone by the end. But for a tight novella, this rocked.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing the ARC. All opinions are my own.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Review of Tatratea by Alex Woodroe
Thank you very much to NetGalley and CLASH Books for the eARC of this book!
Ratings out of 5 stars.
- Overall Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
- Heartfelt rating: 🖤🖤
- Interest Rating: 📖📖📖📖📖
- Spooky Rating: 👻👻👻
- Tension Rating: 🪢🪢🪢🪢
- Predictability Rating: 💭
- Writing Style Rating: 📝📝📝📝📝
Favorite character?
Most memorable scene/moment?
Did the ending satisfy you?
I was very satisfied by the ending despite feeling like there could have been more explanation as to the world and what was going on within it. I actually kind of liked that you can speculate on it and create your own interpretations of how the world functions (or doesn't).
Would you read this book again?
I would absolutely read this book again and I hope to sometime soon if I can find the time.
Additional Notes:
- I think that for a short book, this story and it's writing/elements absolutely blew me away. I feel like the questions that it left me with by not describing everything in full detail made me enjoy it more because I consistently was left thinking about what was happening and creating my own theories and ideas surrounding what was happening or would happen. This is most definitely a mindf*ck book that works really, really well and makes you question what's real and what isn't while still making it so that you know the difference between real and hallucination.
- I will say that one of my favorite parts of this book was that some of Errata's journal pages with her sketches are included. One of my absolute favorite things about an eco-horror book is when it really leans into the speculative biology and scientific research which is exactly what this story does from the very beginning. The only thing I could have wished for in this regard was that there was more time to learn about and describe the things that Errata was seeing. I want to know more so badly, but I also like to be able to speculate on my own. I feel like the scientific research aspect was also really well done in a way that reminds me a lot of Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer while the creep factor reminds me of What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher (two of my all time favorites).
- I cannot emphasize enough just how much I love this book. It's fast-paced, it's creepy, it's heartfelt in it's own weird way as you get closer to the end, and it's perfectly eco-horror. It is the exact kind of book I love seeing out of this sub-genre and I would love to see a full-length horror novel from this author at some point because I am absolutely blown away by her writing and how the descriptions/atmosphere make you feel like you're actually within the story. I would especially like to see something where the animal aspects (like the bones in this story) play a bigger role in the horror of it all!
Thank you very much to NetGalley and CLASH Books for the eARC of this book!
Ratings out of 5 stars.
- Overall Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
- Heartfelt rating: 🖤🖤
- Interest Rating: 📖📖📖📖📖
- Spooky Rating: 👻👻👻
- Tension Rating: 🪢🪢🪢🪢
- Predictability Rating: 💭
- Writing Style Rating: 📝📝📝📝📝
Favorite character?
Most memorable scene/moment?
Did the ending satisfy you?
I was very satisfied by the ending despite feeling like there could have been more explanation as to the world and what was going on within it. I actually kind of liked that you can speculate on it and create your own interpretations of how the world functions (or doesn't).
Would you read this book again?
I would absolutely read this book again and I hope to sometime soon if I can find the time.
Additional Notes:
- I think that for a short book, this story and it's writing/elements absolutely blew me away. I feel like the questions that it left me with by not describing everything in full detail made me enjoy it more because I consistently was left thinking about what was happening and creating my own theories and ideas surrounding what was happening or would happen. This is most definitely a mindf*ck book that works really, really well and makes you question what's real and what isn't while still making it so that you know the difference between real and hallucination.
- I will say that one of my favorite parts of this book was that some of Errata's journal pages with her sketches are included. One of my absolute favorite things about an eco-horror book is when it really leans into the speculative biology and scientific research which is exactly what this story does from the very beginning. The only thing I could have wished for in this regard was that there was more time to learn about and describe the things that Errata was seeing. I want to know more so badly, but I also like to be able to speculate on my own. I feel like the scientific research aspect was also really well done in a way that reminds me a lot of Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer while the creep factor reminds me of What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher (two of my all time favorites).
- I cannot emphasize enough just how much I love this book. It's fast-paced, it's creepy, it's heartfelt in it's own weird way as you get closer to the end, and it's perfectly eco-horror. It is the exact kind of book I love seeing out of this sub-genre and I would love to see a full-length horror novel from this author at some point because I am absolutely blown away by her writing and how the descriptions/atmosphere make you feel like you're actually within the story. I would especially like to see something where the animal aspects (like the bones in this story) play a bigger role in the horror of it all!
October 23, 2026
A botanical horror that is somehow moodily gothic and yet has a pinch of scifi and the apocalypse to it. It’s very much in the same vein as Van Der Meer’s Annihilation, and that’s a fantastic place to be if you’re interested in a solidly weird fic novella with a scarily sentient botanical-flora core.
Reading it felt disorienting in all the right ways, and I loved investigating this beautifully creepy and mysterious manor home (loveloveloved the accompanying field sketches!) and the peculiar affliction that seems to be emanating from ‘it’ and affecting the entire world’s population, to the extent that humanity is basically on the verge of ‘self’ mass extinction.
Our main character, Errata, whose name literally means a list of errors and their corrections (which is a very interesting choice for this world where it seems so many biological and mental ‘errors’ are occurring), is sent alone to a remote manor house that may be the epicentre of the worldwide epidemic of insanity. As she investigates the disturbances, she notes the nascent and idiosyncratic evolution of the local flora and fauna. When presented with an abhorrent opportunity to end the infection she may just have to sacrifice her humanity while clinging to a very tenuous reality.
Beautiful and weird and wonderful, but oh I did want more!! (And that added short story hints at all the ways this could use a sequel.)
My thanks to NetGalley and CLASH Books for the ARC. I am leaving this review voluntarily and all opinions are my own.
Reading it felt disorienting in all the right ways, and I loved investigating this beautifully creepy and mysterious manor home (loveloveloved the accompanying field sketches!) and the peculiar affliction that seems to be emanating from ‘it’ and affecting the entire world’s population, to the extent that humanity is basically on the verge of ‘self’ mass extinction.
Our main character, Errata, whose name literally means a list of errors and their corrections (which is a very interesting choice for this world where it seems so many biological and mental ‘errors’ are occurring), is sent alone to a remote manor house that may be the epicentre of the worldwide epidemic of insanity. As she investigates the disturbances, she notes the nascent and idiosyncratic evolution of the local flora and fauna. When presented with an abhorrent opportunity to end the infection she may just have to sacrifice her humanity while clinging to a very tenuous reality.
Beautiful and weird and wonderful, but oh I did want more!! (And that added short story hints at all the ways this could use a sequel.)
My thanks to NetGalley and CLASH Books for the ARC. I am leaving this review voluntarily and all opinions are my own.
October 29, 2026
I wasn't sure what to expect going into this one, and I feel like that worked well for me. This has a very dystopian vibe to it and an end of days kind of feel. I love how we basically followed a character who was expecting to fail but they still had to try. It really raises the moral questions of, if you were put in the same position, what would you do? I honestly couldn't tell you what I'd do.
There's the fear here of humanity dying, of the planet dying, of our species dying out because of something that we can't control. Which for me is very prevalent because of how big the machine is getting, IYKYK. Is it improbable that humanity will one day face dwindling numbers and hopelessness if we keep going the way that we are? I also loved how there was an element in this story that had the same goals, and how it felt quite ironic given what it was. I'm being cryptic here because I don't want to spoil anything. There were some creepy scenes, the fear of hopelessness and of humanity's end, and there was also a teensy bit of body horror as well which was done fantastically. When that particular thing was being described, I didn't expect it to affect me as much as it did, but it did and I canstillfeelitonmytonguegetitoff.
All in all, this was a short read, but it packed a punch in a few different ways. I loved the additional little story at the end as well. I feel like it really rounded things out. I'd love to see Woodroe explore this world a bit more as there were other locations mentioned which could be expanded upon.
If you're looking for a quick, engaging read to finish out the month, give this one a crack.
There's the fear here of humanity dying, of the planet dying, of our species dying out because of something that we can't control. Which for me is very prevalent because of how big the machine is getting, IYKYK. Is it improbable that humanity will one day face dwindling numbers and hopelessness if we keep going the way that we are? I also loved how there was an element in this story that had the same goals, and how it felt quite ironic given what it was. I'm being cryptic here because I don't want to spoil anything. There were some creepy scenes, the fear of hopelessness and of humanity's end, and there was also a teensy bit of body horror as well which was done fantastically. When that particular thing was being described, I didn't expect it to affect me as much as it did, but it did and I canstillfeelitonmytonguegetitoff.
All in all, this was a short read, but it packed a punch in a few different ways. I loved the additional little story at the end as well. I feel like it really rounded things out. I'd love to see Woodroe explore this world a bit more as there were other locations mentioned which could be expanded upon.
If you're looking for a quick, engaging read to finish out the month, give this one a crack.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
I loved this eco horror book, thank you so much to Clash for sending me this gifted copy. This is a creepy novella with supernatural horror and wonderful gothic vibes, that really worked for me. There just is this looming doom throughout the book. I loved the sentient plant, and the artwork provide this book was perfect!
Read if you like
eco horror
dystopian setting
gothic feel
Read if you like
eco horror
dystopian setting
gothic feel
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Thank you to Netgalley and CLASH Books for providing me with this free ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I really loved this eco horror dystopian novel where sentient plants are taking over the planet. Our main protagonist is sent to investigate an overrun mansion after most of human life has been decimated. The story is gripping, we are projected straight into the action in this well built world where plant creatures use human cadavers and fight with incredible tactics. I really appreciated the illustrations as well which helped me feel I was truly discovering scientist's research papers. My only wish for this is that it was longer. Spending more time with the characters might have helped me build more empathy for them. However, it was a really great one all around. I also appreciated the second short story but less so perhaps only because of personal taste. Alex Woodroe is an author I look forward to reading again in the future. She does body horror brilliantly!
I really loved this eco horror dystopian novel where sentient plants are taking over the planet. Our main protagonist is sent to investigate an overrun mansion after most of human life has been decimated. The story is gripping, we are projected straight into the action in this well built world where plant creatures use human cadavers and fight with incredible tactics. I really appreciated the illustrations as well which helped me feel I was truly discovering scientist's research papers. My only wish for this is that it was longer. Spending more time with the characters might have helped me build more empathy for them. However, it was a really great one all around. I also appreciated the second short story but less so perhaps only because of personal taste. Alex Woodroe is an author I look forward to reading again in the future. She does body horror brilliantly!
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
In this relatively short read we follow Errata, one of the few surviving humans of a plague of unknown origin which has driven most of the population insane. She's been sent to investigate a possible source of this mind virus and see if there is anything to be done about it, even though it seems much too late to save humanity from extinction. Alone, with only a voice recorder to talk to and a set of sanity protocols to try and keep her grounded in reality, she enters an abandoned mansion that has been invaded by plants that appear to have their own agenda, which is slowly revealed as the story progresses.
The author does a terrific job of creating a melancholy mood as well as describing the increasingly fantastical scenes both within and without the old house. Errata's lonely plight is upsetting but also uplifting in her refusal to simply give in to what seems an inevitable fate. Her name alone sets the tone as she attempts to be the correction to an error/monster that is wiping out the world's population not only through its own influence, but through the inept and even evil response by governments and moneyed individuals pursuing their own selfish goals. Adding extra weight to the dystopian feel are the obvious shades of the way the Covid pandemic played out around the world, which left many of us feeling rather hopeless about how humanity would respond to ever greater threats in future.
My main complaint (which is really a compliment in its way) is that the story feels too truncated. The author drops us into the middle of a big, sprawling narrative with intriguing hints of what has led up to this point and struggles going on across the globe (the manor house is not the only source that must be explored and defeated), but then gives us only a very small taste of it all in Errata's tale. This feels in some ways like a sketch that begs to be expanded into either a longer novel or a series of novellas exploring more of this world. There is a bonus short story at the end that shows us what happens to a character mentioned only in passing in the main tale, but there is so much more that the reader is left wondering about. It's certainly no sin to leave us wanting more, but just a warning for readers who prefer a less open-ended experience.
Overall, this is a well-written combination of eco, cosmic, body... well, let's just say a lot of different horrors all bundled into one. There are some charming, if occasionally disturbing, botanical illustrations sprinkled throughout that reinforce Errata's role as first and foremost a researcher, and indeed, the sentient plant life she encounters was by far the highlight of the story for me. This tale is unsettling and even psychedelic at points, for how do you know what is real in a world gone mad when you can't believe the evidence of your own eyes? A question that seems ever more pertinent in this period in history and an ambitious but important theme for today's horror writers.
This review is based upon a NetGalley ARC provided by the publisher.
The author does a terrific job of creating a melancholy mood as well as describing the increasingly fantastical scenes both within and without the old house. Errata's lonely plight is upsetting but also uplifting in her refusal to simply give in to what seems an inevitable fate. Her name alone sets the tone as she attempts to be the correction to an error/monster that is wiping out the world's population not only through its own influence, but through the inept and even evil response by governments and moneyed individuals pursuing their own selfish goals. Adding extra weight to the dystopian feel are the obvious shades of the way the Covid pandemic played out around the world, which left many of us feeling rather hopeless about how humanity would respond to ever greater threats in future.
My main complaint (which is really a compliment in its way) is that the story feels too truncated. The author drops us into the middle of a big, sprawling narrative with intriguing hints of what has led up to this point and struggles going on across the globe (the manor house is not the only source that must be explored and defeated), but then gives us only a very small taste of it all in Errata's tale. This feels in some ways like a sketch that begs to be expanded into either a longer novel or a series of novellas exploring more of this world. There is a bonus short story at the end that shows us what happens to a character mentioned only in passing in the main tale, but there is so much more that the reader is left wondering about. It's certainly no sin to leave us wanting more, but just a warning for readers who prefer a less open-ended experience.
Overall, this is a well-written combination of eco, cosmic, body... well, let's just say a lot of different horrors all bundled into one. There are some charming, if occasionally disturbing, botanical illustrations sprinkled throughout that reinforce Errata's role as first and foremost a researcher, and indeed, the sentient plant life she encounters was by far the highlight of the story for me. This tale is unsettling and even psychedelic at points, for how do you know what is real in a world gone mad when you can't believe the evidence of your own eyes? A question that seems ever more pertinent in this period in history and an ambitious but important theme for today's horror writers.
This review is based upon a NetGalley ARC provided by the publisher.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Tatratea
By Alex Woodroe
Published by CLASH Books.
Copy provided via NetGalley for an honest review.
Publishing Date: 3rd December 2026 (UK)
Welcome to the end of humanity.
Tatratea is Alex Woodroe’s third book, following on from The excellent dark fantasy Whisperwood and the brilliant weird horror The Night Ship, the latter which was launched in January of this year. Alex is a native Romanian author and Shirley Jackson award-nominated editor, living and working in her home in the beautiful Transylvanian region. She is one half of the Independent New Weird Horror upstarts of Tenebrous Press.
Errata arrives at the Manor called Tatratea on a mission that she may not live to fulfil. Set in the near future, the population of the planet has been decimated by a mind-virus, and she is part of a dwindling group of survivors, dedicated to finding out why we’re facing certain extinction.
What she finds there are ecological and mental terrors as she tries to get to the heart of the problem. To say more would be too much of a spoiler, but before the end, Errata has to push herself physically and mentally to her limits.
This novella is firmly in the world of weird horror, with Jeff VanderMeer’s Annihilation clearly having a strong influence. Tatratea is definitely its own thing, with added references to David Lynch’s Twin Peaks, and even a sneaky call-back to The Night Ship is buried in here. The prose is unsettling, with the strange occurrences in the manor giving the sense that the world has changed, where there are unexpected alliances to be found as well as an existential nightmare as a enemy.
Overriding it all is a strong theme of nihilism, and there are strong hints that this is the last roll of the dice for humans. Life will go on without us, and a short story at the end of the novella rounds this out. There isn’t a happy ending for the future, but there’s a happy right now to be found.
Errata is a very interesting character, and we learn little about her. The exception to this being a jaw-dropping sequence that neatly up-turns everything we know about her up to that point. She’s engaging – smart and competent, but with an air of desperation. She takes risks because she has no alternative, is well aware that she is living on borrowed time, and I found myself cheering her on the whole way.
Alex has a great skill in handling mundane incidents with as much aplomb as the dramatic, and I found scenes where Errata using bushcraft in her camp just as interesting as when she was risking her life and sanity against the protagonist. There’s a charm in the minutiae of her methods of survival, even when she’s not certain that what she’s doing is going to keep her alive.
I read this in roughly one sitting, and it flows, even skips along at times. The pacing is excellent and Tatratea is definitely a page turner.
As with Alex Woodroe’s previous books, I would highly recommend Tatratea.
By Alex Woodroe
Published by CLASH Books.
Copy provided via NetGalley for an honest review.
Publishing Date: 3rd December 2026 (UK)
Welcome to the end of humanity.
Tatratea is Alex Woodroe’s third book, following on from The excellent dark fantasy Whisperwood and the brilliant weird horror The Night Ship, the latter which was launched in January of this year. Alex is a native Romanian author and Shirley Jackson award-nominated editor, living and working in her home in the beautiful Transylvanian region. She is one half of the Independent New Weird Horror upstarts of Tenebrous Press.
Errata arrives at the Manor called Tatratea on a mission that she may not live to fulfil. Set in the near future, the population of the planet has been decimated by a mind-virus, and she is part of a dwindling group of survivors, dedicated to finding out why we’re facing certain extinction.
What she finds there are ecological and mental terrors as she tries to get to the heart of the problem. To say more would be too much of a spoiler, but before the end, Errata has to push herself physically and mentally to her limits.
This novella is firmly in the world of weird horror, with Jeff VanderMeer’s Annihilation clearly having a strong influence. Tatratea is definitely its own thing, with added references to David Lynch’s Twin Peaks, and even a sneaky call-back to The Night Ship is buried in here. The prose is unsettling, with the strange occurrences in the manor giving the sense that the world has changed, where there are unexpected alliances to be found as well as an existential nightmare as a enemy.
Overriding it all is a strong theme of nihilism, and there are strong hints that this is the last roll of the dice for humans. Life will go on without us, and a short story at the end of the novella rounds this out. There isn’t a happy ending for the future, but there’s a happy right now to be found.
Errata is a very interesting character, and we learn little about her. The exception to this being a jaw-dropping sequence that neatly up-turns everything we know about her up to that point. She’s engaging – smart and competent, but with an air of desperation. She takes risks because she has no alternative, is well aware that she is living on borrowed time, and I found myself cheering her on the whole way.
Alex has a great skill in handling mundane incidents with as much aplomb as the dramatic, and I found scenes where Errata using bushcraft in her camp just as interesting as when she was risking her life and sanity against the protagonist. There’s a charm in the minutiae of her methods of survival, even when she’s not certain that what she’s doing is going to keep her alive.
I read this in roughly one sitting, and it flows, even skips along at times. The pacing is excellent and Tatratea is definitely a page turner.
As with Alex Woodroe’s previous books, I would highly recommend Tatratea.
October 9, 2026
I’m a sucker for eco-horror, especially when it involves sentient plants, and nature turning against humanity. So when Tatratea by Woodroe promised hyperactive flora, ancient manors, and a post-apocalyptic wilderness steeped in the eerie isolation of Transylvania, I was instantly sold. The ingredients were there for something wonderfully unsettling. Unfortunately, while this novella delivers on atmosphere, some of its other elements struggle to take root.
The story follows Errata, one of only 200 people left in the world, who is sent to investigate an overgrown, isolated mansion and locate something known as “The Source.” It may hold the key to the so-called “sanity bug,” a disease responsible for the world’s descent into madness, inflicting its victims with rich, complex hallucinations that blur the line between reality and delusion. With an ominous mansion to explore and flora that seems determined to keep its visitors from leaving, Errata’s mission promises a creeping descent into botanical and psychological terror. And atmosphere is where Tatratea truly flourishes.
Woodroe does an excellent job bringing the mansion and its surrounding wilderness to life, creating an environment that feels strange, hostile, and brimming with creepy possibilities. The flora is a great highlight, and the pencil illustrations of the plants scattered throughout the book are a fantastic addition.
I also appreciated the sanity-check protocols. Since the disease messes with people’s minds, these checks give us a way to keep track of Errata’s mental state and make us wonder when, or if, the sanity bug will get to her. It adds a nice psychological edge to the story, especially when you’re not entirely sure what’s real and what isn’t.
Unfortunately, the novel’s biggest strength is also what makes its shortcomings more noticeable. The setting is so richly imagined that Errata herself feels comparatively underdeveloped. At times, she comes across less like a fully realised character and more like a cardboard figure navigating an otherwise fascinating world. This creates an imbalance that becomes increasingly difficult to ignore, especially as the story approaches its climax. I wanted to feel more invested in her survival, to genuinely fear what might happen to her, but the emotional connection simply wasn’t there.
The horror itself also left me wanting more. With such a promising setup, I was hoping for body horror that would really get under my skin, but the gruesome elements never quite reach the level of visceral detail I’d hoped for. I wanted more vivid, disturbing imagery - something that would make the botanical mutations feel truly nightmarish. And when the story builds towards a major confrontation, having the big fight happen off-page feels like a missed opportunity. After all that anticipation, the payoff is disappointingly anticlimactic.
Ultimately, Tatratea is a novel with a fantastic concept and an impressively atmospheric setting, but one that left me wishing it had dug deeper. Perhaps a full-length novel, rather than a novella, would have provided the breathing room needed to develop Errata, expand the plot, and fully explore the gruesome potential of its world. As it stands, the lack of character depth and the restrained execution of its horror prevent the story from reaching the heights its premise promises.
If you’re into cosmic horror and nature-inspired sci-fi, there’s still plenty to enjoy here. Just don’t go in expecting wall-to-wall, full-throttle horror. Tatratea has some intriguing seeds of terror, but not all of them come to fruition.
Many thanks to CLASH Books for providing an ARC of this title. All opinions are my own.
Expected publication date: October 20, 2026.
The story follows Errata, one of only 200 people left in the world, who is sent to investigate an overgrown, isolated mansion and locate something known as “The Source.” It may hold the key to the so-called “sanity bug,” a disease responsible for the world’s descent into madness, inflicting its victims with rich, complex hallucinations that blur the line between reality and delusion. With an ominous mansion to explore and flora that seems determined to keep its visitors from leaving, Errata’s mission promises a creeping descent into botanical and psychological terror. And atmosphere is where Tatratea truly flourishes.
Woodroe does an excellent job bringing the mansion and its surrounding wilderness to life, creating an environment that feels strange, hostile, and brimming with creepy possibilities. The flora is a great highlight, and the pencil illustrations of the plants scattered throughout the book are a fantastic addition.
I also appreciated the sanity-check protocols. Since the disease messes with people’s minds, these checks give us a way to keep track of Errata’s mental state and make us wonder when, or if, the sanity bug will get to her. It adds a nice psychological edge to the story, especially when you’re not entirely sure what’s real and what isn’t.
Unfortunately, the novel’s biggest strength is also what makes its shortcomings more noticeable. The setting is so richly imagined that Errata herself feels comparatively underdeveloped. At times, she comes across less like a fully realised character and more like a cardboard figure navigating an otherwise fascinating world. This creates an imbalance that becomes increasingly difficult to ignore, especially as the story approaches its climax. I wanted to feel more invested in her survival, to genuinely fear what might happen to her, but the emotional connection simply wasn’t there.
The horror itself also left me wanting more. With such a promising setup, I was hoping for body horror that would really get under my skin, but the gruesome elements never quite reach the level of visceral detail I’d hoped for. I wanted more vivid, disturbing imagery - something that would make the botanical mutations feel truly nightmarish. And when the story builds towards a major confrontation, having the big fight happen off-page feels like a missed opportunity. After all that anticipation, the payoff is disappointingly anticlimactic.
Ultimately, Tatratea is a novel with a fantastic concept and an impressively atmospheric setting, but one that left me wishing it had dug deeper. Perhaps a full-length novel, rather than a novella, would have provided the breathing room needed to develop Errata, expand the plot, and fully explore the gruesome potential of its world. As it stands, the lack of character depth and the restrained execution of its horror prevent the story from reaching the heights its premise promises.
If you’re into cosmic horror and nature-inspired sci-fi, there’s still plenty to enjoy here. Just don’t go in expecting wall-to-wall, full-throttle horror. Tatratea has some intriguing seeds of terror, but not all of them come to fruition.
Many thanks to CLASH Books for providing an ARC of this title. All opinions are my own.
Expected publication date: October 20, 2026.
Review of advance copy received from Author
A big thank you to Alex, for providing me with a digital ARC. All views and opinions are my own.
-
An anthropocentric view of our world, of the cosmos, leads us to expect that intelligence takes a human like form. Call it a classic Star Trek mode of thinking. As a conglomerate civilization, as a species, we have taught ourselves to expect something that looks akin to what we see in a mirror, or reflected in a pool of water. This is our hubris, our evolutionary blindness. Beneath the surface, at our core we are simply a brain, with a complex nervous system branching out from that point of origin. A Mycorrhizal network, that delicate, and widespread web of interconnecting plants and fungi, begins to look not so alien, when viewed besides a diagram of our own nervous system.
For the human animal, that’s a troubling thing to consider, difficult to process. Such things activate deeply rooted survival instincts, those hidden tools we keep buried deep inside. We ignore it, we cover our eyes. Because if we can’t see it, it can’t hurt yes. In Tatratea, Alex Woodroe, bids us look at one way, in which humans seek to survive, when faced with the shattering of that illusion of anthropocentrism. How do we as a minuscule species, in a vast cosmos, hold a grip on survival, in the face of intelligence that is deadly to perceive?
Reading this book, I found myself thinking about displays of human Nervous systems, the preserved nervous system of Harriet Cole (1888) and the preserved nervous system of a medical cadaver of medical students in Missouri in 1925. that Complex organic computer, resting in our skulls, moving with it’s web of filaments, navigating the perceived world. At the same time I was thinking about those experiments, now viral on the web, where plants and fungi are wired to sensors, and play music. The petri dish of 200k human brain cells, taught to play doom, and that same game set to run via e-coli.
Tatratea is a bleak reminder that, despite our presuppositions of dominance, and advancement. That intelligence, simple or complex, is not the sole purview of humanity, let alone mammalian life. Yet even so, Alex’s book is full of examples of how, due to that deeply ingrained desire to survive, humans will craft tools to survive, and expand their thinking to more accurately understand the world around them. For good or ill, we will always attempt to ascribe human characteristics, to the inhuman. Be they inanimate objects, animals or plants.
The scope of plant life on earth, is itself full of complexity. Plant evolution has brought forth species that attract pollinators. That pollinator attraction, may also keep certain predators. as is with the case of the Titan Arum, which produces a smell similar to decaying flesh. Georgia O’Keefe didn’t just paint pictures of flowers, because they were pretty. Ask yourself how often you’ve glanced at a tree, and due to pareidolia, thought you saw a face. Can you be sure you didn’t?
A thought struck me, early into reading this book. It continued to haunt me, as Tatratea unspooled before me, page by page. Writing about it now, I know it’s still lingering in my mind. Were there any people at all in this book. Was it perhaps all plants interacting with plants. Anthropocene mimicry. I kept picturing a Mycorrhizal network in miniature, bound together like a Brain, eyes and human nervous system, navigating Tatratea, playing out an absorbed memory of human life, a simulacrum of the past. In the end I don’t think that’s what happened in Alex’s book...yet part of me can never be sure. That lack of total confidence, is the mark of a good book. Because I’ll be returning to this story, this world, for awhile. In those moments in the middle of the night, when my nervous system sparks, my synapses fire, and I lie awake in bed at 2am, awash in momentary existential horror.
-
An anthropocentric view of our world, of the cosmos, leads us to expect that intelligence takes a human like form. Call it a classic Star Trek mode of thinking. As a conglomerate civilization, as a species, we have taught ourselves to expect something that looks akin to what we see in a mirror, or reflected in a pool of water. This is our hubris, our evolutionary blindness. Beneath the surface, at our core we are simply a brain, with a complex nervous system branching out from that point of origin. A Mycorrhizal network, that delicate, and widespread web of interconnecting plants and fungi, begins to look not so alien, when viewed besides a diagram of our own nervous system.
For the human animal, that’s a troubling thing to consider, difficult to process. Such things activate deeply rooted survival instincts, those hidden tools we keep buried deep inside. We ignore it, we cover our eyes. Because if we can’t see it, it can’t hurt yes. In Tatratea, Alex Woodroe, bids us look at one way, in which humans seek to survive, when faced with the shattering of that illusion of anthropocentrism. How do we as a minuscule species, in a vast cosmos, hold a grip on survival, in the face of intelligence that is deadly to perceive?
Reading this book, I found myself thinking about displays of human Nervous systems, the preserved nervous system of Harriet Cole (1888) and the preserved nervous system of a medical cadaver of medical students in Missouri in 1925. that Complex organic computer, resting in our skulls, moving with it’s web of filaments, navigating the perceived world. At the same time I was thinking about those experiments, now viral on the web, where plants and fungi are wired to sensors, and play music. The petri dish of 200k human brain cells, taught to play doom, and that same game set to run via e-coli.
Tatratea is a bleak reminder that, despite our presuppositions of dominance, and advancement. That intelligence, simple or complex, is not the sole purview of humanity, let alone mammalian life. Yet even so, Alex’s book is full of examples of how, due to that deeply ingrained desire to survive, humans will craft tools to survive, and expand their thinking to more accurately understand the world around them. For good or ill, we will always attempt to ascribe human characteristics, to the inhuman. Be they inanimate objects, animals or plants.
The scope of plant life on earth, is itself full of complexity. Plant evolution has brought forth species that attract pollinators. That pollinator attraction, may also keep certain predators. as is with the case of the Titan Arum, which produces a smell similar to decaying flesh. Georgia O’Keefe didn’t just paint pictures of flowers, because they were pretty. Ask yourself how often you’ve glanced at a tree, and due to pareidolia, thought you saw a face. Can you be sure you didn’t?
A thought struck me, early into reading this book. It continued to haunt me, as Tatratea unspooled before me, page by page. Writing about it now, I know it’s still lingering in my mind. Were there any people at all in this book. Was it perhaps all plants interacting with plants. Anthropocene mimicry. I kept picturing a Mycorrhizal network in miniature, bound together like a Brain, eyes and human nervous system, navigating Tatratea, playing out an absorbed memory of human life, a simulacrum of the past. In the end I don’t think that’s what happened in Alex’s book...yet part of me can never be sure. That lack of total confidence, is the mark of a good book. Because I’ll be returning to this story, this world, for awhile. In those moments in the middle of the night, when my nervous system sparks, my synapses fire, and I lie awake in bed at 2am, awash in momentary existential horror.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
𝚃𝚑𝚊𝚗𝚔 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚝𝚘 𝙲𝚕𝚊𝚜𝚑 𝙱𝚘𝚘𝚔𝚜 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚙𝚛𝚘𝚟𝚒𝚍𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚋𝚘𝚘𝚔 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚛𝚎𝚟𝚒𝚎𝚠 𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚜𝚒𝚍𝚎𝚛𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗 𝚟𝚒𝚊 𝙽𝚎𝚝𝙶𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚎𝚢. 𝙰𝚕𝚕 𝚘𝚙𝚒𝚗𝚒𝚘𝚗𝚜 𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚖𝚢 𝚘𝚠𝚗. This book was marked as Request on NetGalley and I'm so glad the publishers were kind enough to grant me a digital copy of the ARC.
────────────────────────────────────────────────
Tatratea by Alex Woodrue is a supernatural, eco horror novel where a researcher named Errata is sent to a manor called Tatratea, which was once a focal point for botanical research.
────────────────────────────────────────────────
𝚆𝚑𝚘 𝚠𝚘𝚞𝚕𝚍 𝚕𝚘𝚟𝚎 𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜?:
- Story set in Transylvania in the future with futuristic technology.
- A sickness that alters the way the brain works.
- Blair Witch Project vibes (kind of). You have your voice recorder and your sanity as the means to live and document what happened.
- An FMC alone in a former health facility that is overgrown with plants that won't allow you to leave. Doors shut and lock by themselves and indoors looks more forest like and are damp or submerged with water in some areas.
- Every two or three chapters there is a hand drawn artwork of a plant in Tatratea mansion.
- Plants that seem to have a mind of their own.
- This story was like a drug addicts fever dream. Something is happening slowly and you feel you are imagining things.
𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚐𝚘𝚘𝚍:
- I was glad to read something based in Transylvania. Usually we have books that are based in UK or US or may be Australia. But books with a Transylvanian setting are rare.
- he story was crazy and weird. It was like you are filled in a vacuum of silence amongst plants and the only thing that can save or kill you are the plants.
- The plants having a mind of their own was great to read. (Spoiler) The scene where the animals with barely hanging eyes eating at the dinner table was wild to read.
-
𝚆𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝙸 𝚍𝚒𝚍𝚗'𝚝 𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚗𝚎𝚌𝚝 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑:|
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────────────────────────────────────────────────
Tatratea by Alex Woodrue is a supernatural, eco horror novel where a researcher named Errata is sent to a manor called Tatratea, which was once a focal point for botanical research.
────────────────────────────────────────────────
𝚆𝚑𝚘 𝚠𝚘𝚞𝚕𝚍 𝚕𝚘𝚟𝚎 𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜?:
- Story set in Transylvania in the future with futuristic technology.
- A sickness that alters the way the brain works.
- Blair Witch Project vibes (kind of). You have your voice recorder and your sanity as the means to live and document what happened.
- An FMC alone in a former health facility that is overgrown with plants that won't allow you to leave. Doors shut and lock by themselves and indoors looks more forest like and are damp or submerged with water in some areas.
- Every two or three chapters there is a hand drawn artwork of a plant in Tatratea mansion.
- Plants that seem to have a mind of their own.
- This story was like a drug addicts fever dream. Something is happening slowly and you feel you are imagining things.
𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚐𝚘𝚘𝚍:
- I was glad to read something based in Transylvania. Usually we have books that are based in UK or US or may be Australia. But books with a Transylvanian setting are rare.
- he story was crazy and weird. It was like you are filled in a vacuum of silence amongst plants and the only thing that can save or kill you are the plants.
- The plants having a mind of their own was great to read. (Spoiler) The scene where the animals with barely hanging eyes eating at the dinner table was wild to read.
-
𝚆𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝙸 𝚍𝚒𝚍𝚗'𝚝 𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚗𝚎𝚌𝚝 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑:|
-
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Finished Reading:
Tatratea by Alex Woodroe
__________
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️,75/5
Format: e-book
Pages: 150
Genre: Sci-fi / Horror
LGBTQIA+ rep
__________
Synopsis:
Tatratea, a manor home reclaimed by nature deep in the Romanian wilderness, has stood in isolation for decades. Researcher Errata's sole mission is to track down the strange signals coming from inside and uncover why the whole world's gone insane.
With the doors locking shut behind her, and the local flora very much determined to keep her from leaving, her sanity check protocols, voice recorder, and a bit of camping gear are all she can use to figure out what's crashed in the hedge maze, and why it's disrupting reality. Relying on her intuition, Errata must solve the mystery and escape Tatratea before it’s too late.
__________
First of all, thank you @netgalley for gifting me a free copy of this book, in return for an honest review and my honest opinion about this book.
I have really been liking my sci-fi reads the last couple of weeks and this one definitely became one of my favourites! It's a quick and interesting read, that immediately gripped my attention and did not let go anymore until the end.
One thing I particularly loved about this story? The Flora! It was sentient, it could communicate and for once, it was NOT out to get us and kill us, but it wanted the MC to help them and in return, it would help humanity. I really liked that!
The mind-bug that is living in the humans and how it worked was also a very interesting concept to me. How people had to isolate themselves to save what was left of humanity, how you were constantly checking whether or not what you were seeing and experiencing is true,...
The story was equally fascinating as it was dreadful. The feeling of hopelessness was acutely present but you couldn't help rooting for the MC and that she would succeed in her mission!
The short-story at the End of Tatratea (Adrift) was also very impactful and left you with the same dread and hopelessness as Tatratea, which I appreciated a lot.
The only reason it didn't get 5 stars was because I really wanted the story to keep going, or to be longer and more fleshed out. It ended way too soon 🥺
Anyway, I highly recommend it to anyone who wants a quick read, filled with a lot of dread but where you feel the passion of the author in every nook and cranny of the story!
Tatratea by Alex Woodroe
__________
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️,75/5
Format: e-book
Pages: 150
Genre: Sci-fi / Horror
LGBTQIA+ rep
__________
Synopsis:
Tatratea, a manor home reclaimed by nature deep in the Romanian wilderness, has stood in isolation for decades. Researcher Errata's sole mission is to track down the strange signals coming from inside and uncover why the whole world's gone insane.
With the doors locking shut behind her, and the local flora very much determined to keep her from leaving, her sanity check protocols, voice recorder, and a bit of camping gear are all she can use to figure out what's crashed in the hedge maze, and why it's disrupting reality. Relying on her intuition, Errata must solve the mystery and escape Tatratea before it’s too late.
__________
First of all, thank you @netgalley for gifting me a free copy of this book, in return for an honest review and my honest opinion about this book.
I have really been liking my sci-fi reads the last couple of weeks and this one definitely became one of my favourites! It's a quick and interesting read, that immediately gripped my attention and did not let go anymore until the end.
One thing I particularly loved about this story? The Flora! It was sentient, it could communicate and for once, it was NOT out to get us and kill us, but it wanted the MC to help them and in return, it would help humanity. I really liked that!
The mind-bug that is living in the humans and how it worked was also a very interesting concept to me. How people had to isolate themselves to save what was left of humanity, how you were constantly checking whether or not what you were seeing and experiencing is true,...
The story was equally fascinating as it was dreadful. The feeling of hopelessness was acutely present but you couldn't help rooting for the MC and that she would succeed in her mission!
The short-story at the End of Tatratea (Adrift) was also very impactful and left you with the same dread and hopelessness as Tatratea, which I appreciated a lot.
The only reason it didn't get 5 stars was because I really wanted the story to keep going, or to be longer and more fleshed out. It ended way too soon 🥺
Anyway, I highly recommend it to anyone who wants a quick read, filled with a lot of dread but where you feel the passion of the author in every nook and cranny of the story!
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
I really enjoyed The Ruins, so I was hoping more out of this story. We are thrown into a world that we quickly discover has been ruined/taken over by something called a 'mind bug' that causes loss of sanity. Our main character, Errata, is introduced whilst being assigned to 'The Mansion', where she is going to look for the source of the problem.
Unfortunately, this would have done well to be far more fleshed out. We know very little about Errata except that she is one of the few remaining survivors, she has some colleagues that are named but barely described, and she comes from a group of Sisters that started as religious and are now just dedicated to the eradication of the Mind Bug. Learning more about the state of the world, what exactly the mind bug does and how it's affected society, who these colleagues are, who ERRATA is, would have brought me more fully into the story. She is essentially a blank slate protagonist.
The tone of the book I found somewhat jarring. We are moved from scene to scene, introduced almost immediately to a sentient plant, and I found it extremely funny that Errata goes from shouting "holy heck!" to "FUCK!"
The instances where Errata find herself taken by the mind bug and experiencing delusions were interesting; however, when she returns to herself, it is written choppily and I never really found myself experiencing a sense of Place in the Mansion, which I feel like for a novel centered around a Creepy Place, is very important to grounding the reader. She falls through multiple floors and wakes up and the entire experience seems somewhat reset.
The main climax of the story seems to take place somewhat off screen, only for us to be hit with a "...but it's not over YET! The heroes must PERSIST!" and a few scraped together reflections on the events of the story before we continue. The sentient plant seems to have disappeared, and Errata does not seem to make any real note of this.
I think the concept was absolutely fascinating but needed far more flesh on its bones to make it effective. I read it in less than 45 minutes.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a free ARC copy in exchange for my honest opinion.
Unfortunately, this would have done well to be far more fleshed out. We know very little about Errata except that she is one of the few remaining survivors, she has some colleagues that are named but barely described, and she comes from a group of Sisters that started as religious and are now just dedicated to the eradication of the Mind Bug. Learning more about the state of the world, what exactly the mind bug does and how it's affected society, who these colleagues are, who ERRATA is, would have brought me more fully into the story. She is essentially a blank slate protagonist.
The tone of the book I found somewhat jarring. We are moved from scene to scene, introduced almost immediately to a sentient plant, and I found it extremely funny that Errata goes from shouting "holy heck!" to "FUCK!"
The instances where Errata find herself taken by the mind bug and experiencing delusions were interesting; however, when she returns to herself, it is written choppily and I never really found myself experiencing a sense of Place in the Mansion, which I feel like for a novel centered around a Creepy Place, is very important to grounding the reader. She falls through multiple floors and wakes up and the entire experience seems somewhat reset.
The main climax of the story seems to take place somewhat off screen, only for us to be hit with a "...but it's not over YET! The heroes must PERSIST!" and a few scraped together reflections on the events of the story before we continue. The sentient plant seems to have disappeared, and Errata does not seem to make any real note of this.
I think the concept was absolutely fascinating but needed far more flesh on its bones to make it effective. I read it in less than 45 minutes.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a free ARC copy in exchange for my honest opinion.
Review of advance copy received from Edelweiss+
𝐇𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐲 𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦𝐬 𝐤𝐞𝐩𝐭 𝐩𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐩𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬.
■▪︎■▪︎■▪︎■
Mixed feelings. That is what I would describe my verdict on this weird and intriguing novella. I personally thought at first that this was going to be purely botanical.
Turns out, it was more than that. I was really surprised that this did not just employ [ Eco Horror ] but also [ Cosmic]. In other words, it is an [ Apocalyptic, EcoFem & Cosmic Horror] in one.
Not only that, it briefly debated on [ nihilistic tendency] or the [ psychological aspect] as it faced the absolute terror or tragedy as it progressed into the supposed to be high stakes. Then, themes of [ autonomy loss] and an evident of [ Eco Fem].
Obviously, many things are going on here. The setting up to these said [ High Stakes] are most evident. Here then came my predicament in how this did end up overall.
Let's just say that the [ execution] to the said [ High Stakes] were pretty underwhelming. It was so anticlimactic for me and weak in storytelling. The supposed to be [ boiling point ] of the [ terror & horror] weren't really that impactful as it supposed to be. There wasn't that [ punch] or even an [ oh, shit! that's scary] reaction for me.
The characters arc on the other hand, I would say it was kind of okay. The MC was ever present. She was standing out enough for me the whole time. I would say her character was convincing enough to make me care for her. However, I did wish she had more layers than the snippets of her that resulted in the circumstances of the plot.
That's why I'm quite feeling unsatisfied in that department, considering how cool and exciting the combined horror concept is. A reviewer mentioned [Annihilation], and I kind of agree. However, I think I did enjoy this one better than the other.
As for the companion, it is a short story at the end. It really did give off this scenario that humanity is somehow still doom or in more [ fucked] than it was. I would definitely read a sequel to this of ever.
Final verdict, 3⭐️. Thank you, Clash Books, for the e-arc via Edelweiss and sending me a new digital copy of the novella.
■▪︎■▪︎■▪︎■
Mixed feelings. That is what I would describe my verdict on this weird and intriguing novella. I personally thought at first that this was going to be purely botanical.
Turns out, it was more than that. I was really surprised that this did not just employ [ Eco Horror ] but also [ Cosmic]. In other words, it is an [ Apocalyptic, EcoFem & Cosmic Horror] in one.
Not only that, it briefly debated on [ nihilistic tendency] or the [ psychological aspect] as it faced the absolute terror or tragedy as it progressed into the supposed to be high stakes. Then, themes of [ autonomy loss] and an evident of [ Eco Fem].
Obviously, many things are going on here. The setting up to these said [ High Stakes] are most evident. Here then came my predicament in how this did end up overall.
Let's just say that the [ execution] to the said [ High Stakes] were pretty underwhelming. It was so anticlimactic for me and weak in storytelling. The supposed to be [ boiling point ] of the [ terror & horror] weren't really that impactful as it supposed to be. There wasn't that [ punch] or even an [ oh, shit! that's scary] reaction for me.
The characters arc on the other hand, I would say it was kind of okay. The MC was ever present. She was standing out enough for me the whole time. I would say her character was convincing enough to make me care for her. However, I did wish she had more layers than the snippets of her that resulted in the circumstances of the plot.
That's why I'm quite feeling unsatisfied in that department, considering how cool and exciting the combined horror concept is. A reviewer mentioned [Annihilation], and I kind of agree. However, I think I did enjoy this one better than the other.
As for the companion, it is a short story at the end. It really did give off this scenario that humanity is somehow still doom or in more [ fucked] than it was. I would definitely read a sequel to this of ever.
Final verdict, 3⭐️. Thank you, Clash Books, for the e-arc via Edelweiss and sending me a new digital copy of the novella.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
One of my favourite type of books are standalone Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Horror novellas. I love diving in, immersing myself in a world for a short amount of time and enjoying a self-contained story.
Errata is a researcher, sent by the Institute – the last few remaining humans on Earth, to learn more about the mysterious manor of Tatratea. She is on a mission to find out what drove the rest of the human population insane and to stop it before humanity is wiped out completely.
Tatratea starts with Errata recording a voice message to her colleague Diane. It’s a sanity test – counting her fingers, checking the time, reading a tattoo on her arm and looking at her reflection in the mirror. I loved this convention and I was excited to start seeing this baseline of normal start to corrode. The manor house of Tatratea, with its crumbling rooms and large hedge maze is dark and foreboding and makes for a perfect horror setting.
As with any novella, there is a large amount of worldbuilding to fit in a very low word count, and I honestly wish the book was a longer. I would have liked more of the build-up of the setting of the manor itself, and some more backstory on what had happened to drive people to madness, as well as more backstory about the Institute. The fact that one of her colleagues had been sent to space on a mission also seemed a little strange without additional context.
The book wraps up well to a good conclusion that still had a sense of foreboding to it. At the very end, we switch perspectives to Errata’s colleague in space and what had happened to her, which I was not expecting. This ending had a great twist which worked in tandem with the main storyline.
Overall Tatratea is a great sci-fi/horror novella – an interesting setting with an intriguing backstory. I just wish it was a little longer - or perhaps I hope there is another story set in the same universe to come! Thank you to NetGalley & Clash Books for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
For more of my reviews check out Kindig Blog
Errata is a researcher, sent by the Institute – the last few remaining humans on Earth, to learn more about the mysterious manor of Tatratea. She is on a mission to find out what drove the rest of the human population insane and to stop it before humanity is wiped out completely.
Tatratea starts with Errata recording a voice message to her colleague Diane. It’s a sanity test – counting her fingers, checking the time, reading a tattoo on her arm and looking at her reflection in the mirror. I loved this convention and I was excited to start seeing this baseline of normal start to corrode. The manor house of Tatratea, with its crumbling rooms and large hedge maze is dark and foreboding and makes for a perfect horror setting.
As with any novella, there is a large amount of worldbuilding to fit in a very low word count, and I honestly wish the book was a longer. I would have liked more of the build-up of the setting of the manor itself, and some more backstory on what had happened to drive people to madness, as well as more backstory about the Institute. The fact that one of her colleagues had been sent to space on a mission also seemed a little strange without additional context.
The book wraps up well to a good conclusion that still had a sense of foreboding to it. At the very end, we switch perspectives to Errata’s colleague in space and what had happened to her, which I was not expecting. This ending had a great twist which worked in tandem with the main storyline.
Overall Tatratea is a great sci-fi/horror novella – an interesting setting with an intriguing backstory. I just wish it was a little longer - or perhaps I hope there is another story set in the same universe to come! Thank you to NetGalley & Clash Books for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
For more of my reviews check out Kindig Blog
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Tatratea Alex Woodroe is a dreamy, surreal novella about one of the last humans on Earth exploring an abandoned manor house, in order to investigate a strange signal that has driven nearly everyone else around her insane. With only a tape recorder and the local plant life to talk to, Errata struggles to keep her sanity intact as she confronts humankind’s undoing.
More than anything else, this story is brief. Everything happens so quickly, and by the time you get your bearings and begin to understand the world presented, it’s already over. Tatratea feels like a video game in both story beats and mechanics, and I found myself wishing I was playing it and interacting with the world for myself. The sketches of the anomalous plant life are beautiful and really add to the vibe, and as always I’m a sucker for parasitic body-sharing. The short story after the main novella was my favorite, and I really wish we got more of that story as well.
Overall, this is a neat exploration of a type of post-apocalyptic horror that I haven’t seen much, and I really enjoyed the descriptions of the manor itself, with its rich plant and fungus life and its winding hedge maze. The book is at its strongest when it’s setting the scene. If you like sentient plants, cosmic horror, Twin Peaks references, pandemics driving humanity to the brink of extinction, or queer ladies who get shit done, this book is a good time.
Thank you CLASH Books for providing this advance copy for review via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
More than anything else, this story is brief. Everything happens so quickly, and by the time you get your bearings and begin to understand the world presented, it’s already over. Tatratea feels like a video game in both story beats and mechanics, and I found myself wishing I was playing it and interacting with the world for myself. The sketches of the anomalous plant life are beautiful and really add to the vibe, and as always I’m a sucker for parasitic body-sharing. The short story after the main novella was my favorite, and I really wish we got more of that story as well.
Overall, this is a neat exploration of a type of post-apocalyptic horror that I haven’t seen much, and I really enjoyed the descriptions of the manor itself, with its rich plant and fungus life and its winding hedge maze. The book is at its strongest when it’s setting the scene. If you like sentient plants, cosmic horror, Twin Peaks references, pandemics driving humanity to the brink of extinction, or queer ladies who get shit done, this book is a good time.
Thank you CLASH Books for providing this advance copy for review via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
deeply satisfying horror that lets nature reclaim everything with abandoned buildings swallowed by bizarre plant life, reality quietly slipping sideways, and the feeling that the world has already ended, we’re just arriving late to witness what’s left - Tatratea does atmosphere beautifully. 🕷️
as our fmc ventures deeper into an overgrown manor, never quite certain whether what she’s experiencing is real or another symptom of the “mind plague”. this creates this constant low hum of unease and i especially enjoyed recurring sanity checks.
there’s an entire world sitting just beneath the surface here between the lurking madness, strange religious order and bizarre ecology slowly overtaking civilisation. within a novella there’s only enough room to brush against those ideas before moving on so i found myself far more interested in everything surrounding the central story than the story itself.
ambiguity absolutely has its place in horror, but here there were scenes that did feel less intentionally disorientating and more as though pieces of the puzzle had simply been left behind (again likely due to length/format). i’d happily spend another three hundred pages wandering this strange, overgrown world and learning far more.
·༻𐫱༺·
4 stars. 🤍
i really enjoyed this creepy crawly lil read. if anything, my biggest criticism is simply that i wanted a novel instead of a novella, because I’m greedy and this world absolutely had enough roots to grow into something much bigger!! 🕸️
as our fmc ventures deeper into an overgrown manor, never quite certain whether what she’s experiencing is real or another symptom of the “mind plague”. this creates this constant low hum of unease and i especially enjoyed recurring sanity checks.
there’s an entire world sitting just beneath the surface here between the lurking madness, strange religious order and bizarre ecology slowly overtaking civilisation. within a novella there’s only enough room to brush against those ideas before moving on so i found myself far more interested in everything surrounding the central story than the story itself.
ambiguity absolutely has its place in horror, but here there were scenes that did feel less intentionally disorientating and more as though pieces of the puzzle had simply been left behind (again likely due to length/format). i’d happily spend another three hundred pages wandering this strange, overgrown world and learning far more.
·༻𐫱༺·
4 stars. 🤍
i really enjoyed this creepy crawly lil read. if anything, my biggest criticism is simply that i wanted a novel instead of a novella, because I’m greedy and this world absolutely had enough roots to grow into something much bigger!! 🕸️
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Thank you to NetGalley for a free digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Tatratea is a post-apocalyptic horror novella following the character Errata, on a last-ditch mission. She goes to a giant, mysterious Transylvanian manor, Tatratea, to figure out what slowly killed humanity, for closure and maybe revenge. It’s very inspired by the Southern Reach series, specifically the first book, Annihilation, so if you’ve read that you know what you’re in for.
The book plays out like a tabletop game, with Errata acting as an audience surrogate to exploring this nightmare landscape. The prose is a bit purple, so mileage may vary there. For me, the story was good enough that I was able to excuse it by the end.
My absolute favorite parts of this book are spoilers. There was basically a moment about 2/3 of the way through this book where I just went “oh HELL yeah,” and locked in. It’s enough to say that the creatures featuring are so deeply cool, with some great body horror in the last scenes. If you’re an animorphs fan, maybe check this out.
This book does have a lack of tension and long-term consequences at points, which I find frustrating in the horror genre, especially if that choice isn’t supported by strong characterization. I especially didn’t think the epilogue was necessary for a horror standalone.
Overall I had a really good time with this book. Its highs were very high, and it was short enough that its lows didn’t bother me all that much.
Tatratea is a post-apocalyptic horror novella following the character Errata, on a last-ditch mission. She goes to a giant, mysterious Transylvanian manor, Tatratea, to figure out what slowly killed humanity, for closure and maybe revenge. It’s very inspired by the Southern Reach series, specifically the first book, Annihilation, so if you’ve read that you know what you’re in for.
The book plays out like a tabletop game, with Errata acting as an audience surrogate to exploring this nightmare landscape. The prose is a bit purple, so mileage may vary there. For me, the story was good enough that I was able to excuse it by the end.
My absolute favorite parts of this book are spoilers. There was basically a moment about 2/3 of the way through this book where I just went “oh HELL yeah,” and locked in. It’s enough to say that the creatures featuring are so deeply cool, with some great body horror in the last scenes. If you’re an animorphs fan, maybe check this out.
This book does have a lack of tension and long-term consequences at points, which I find frustrating in the horror genre, especially if that choice isn’t supported by strong characterization. I especially didn’t think the epilogue was necessary for a horror standalone.
Overall I had a really good time with this book. Its highs were very high, and it was short enough that its lows didn’t bother me all that much.
September 29, 2026
A lot of my interest in eco-horror can be traced back to Aldiss' 'Hothouse,' which I read back in 2012-13 when I was an impressionable teenager. I don't think 'Hothouse' was meant to be horror, but the kind of future depicted was one that I found personally horrifying, although I never questioned why. Reading 'Tatratea' helped clarify why I felt that way. Set in a post-apocalyptic future where the human race as we know it is endangered due to an unknowable, inconquerable, sentient, and likely omniscient threat, a dying group of survivors sends their last two researchers on last-ditch missions, one to outer space, and the other to a crumbling manor called Tatratea. Errata, unfit for space travel, knew early on that she was destined for Tatratea. She studied it, trained for it, and now finally, she's going.
We learn that the point of these missions is to find out what is causing the plague that drove humans insane. Upon arrival at Tatratea, Errata feels keenly that the source is located within. Getting closer to the source means getting stronger exposure to whatever is causing the "sanity bug," and Errata has two failsafes to break free from the hallucinations and get her body back. Just two chances, after which she will be lost. How does a single human being fight against an overpowered entity that can literally take over any creature with brain tissue? To make matters more confusing, the manor is covered entirely by plant matter—sentient plants matter that tries to talk to her by leaving messages on the wall or by approximating human speech. This was a trippy fever-dream of a story with a gutsy protagonist you want to root (haha) for.
At the end, there is a short story about Errata's colleague who got sent to space and the horrors she encountered when she went into another space station. This addition gave a lot more helpful context to the diegetic universe of 'Tatratea' and elevated the horror element, in my opinion, by showing how scarily sentient and sneaky the opponent can be. This would make a great two-part horror movie.
We learn that the point of these missions is to find out what is causing the plague that drove humans insane. Upon arrival at Tatratea, Errata feels keenly that the source is located within. Getting closer to the source means getting stronger exposure to whatever is causing the "sanity bug," and Errata has two failsafes to break free from the hallucinations and get her body back. Just two chances, after which she will be lost. How does a single human being fight against an overpowered entity that can literally take over any creature with brain tissue? To make matters more confusing, the manor is covered entirely by plant matter—sentient plants matter that tries to talk to her by leaving messages on the wall or by approximating human speech. This was a trippy fever-dream of a story with a gutsy protagonist you want to root (haha) for.
At the end, there is a short story about Errata's colleague who got sent to space and the horrors she encountered when she went into another space station. This addition gave a lot more helpful context to the diegetic universe of 'Tatratea' and elevated the horror element, in my opinion, by showing how scarily sentient and sneaky the opponent can be. This would make a great two-part horror movie.
Review of advance copy received from Edelweiss+
Part Hazelthorn, part Annihilation, part The Ruins, I found there was a lot to love about this little book! We follow our MC to a mysterious manor that's believed to be the origination point of a mysterious mind bug that causes people to lose their minds and kill people. Fun!
My favorite character was probably Flora, a mysterious talking vine who wants to take down The Source and help save the world. Aw! And I enjoyed the drawings of other flora found within the manor, that was a really nice touch! I also really liked the bonus story that took place at the space station.
I wanted to rate this higher but the climax happens off page and I wanted to see a battle between The Source (the originator of the mind bug) and the MC/Flora, is that so wrong?! Also I kinda wanted to know more about the mind bug and how it infected other people, I wasn't really clear on that. It didn't seem like that was the focus of the book and we followed the fallout of the mind bug, but I can't help that I'm nosy! C'mon, just give us 100 more pages and flesh this story out, I beg!!
Overall this was a really fun & interesting book that didn't do what I expected at any point. I'm definitely interested in reading more from this author!
Thank you to Edelweiss and the publisher for this advance DRC. All opinions are my own.
My favorite character was probably Flora, a mysterious talking vine who wants to take down The Source and help save the world. Aw! And I enjoyed the drawings of other flora found within the manor, that was a really nice touch! I also really liked the bonus story that took place at the space station.
I wanted to rate this higher but the climax happens off page and I wanted to see a battle between The Source (the originator of the mind bug) and the MC/Flora, is that so wrong?! Also I kinda wanted to know more about the mind bug and how it infected other people, I wasn't really clear on that. It didn't seem like that was the focus of the book and we followed the fallout of the mind bug, but I can't help that I'm nosy! C'mon, just give us 100 more pages and flesh this story out, I beg!!
Overall this was a really fun & interesting book that didn't do what I expected at any point. I'm definitely interested in reading more from this author!
Thank you to Edelweiss and the publisher for this advance DRC. All opinions are my own.
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