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The Blooming: A Novel
Not yet published
Expected 2 Feb 27
In order to save her child, herself and the world as we know it, a single mother must battle a sentient fungal entity that has come to possess the body and mind of her six-year-old daughter in this chilling and unforgettable new novel from the acclaimed author of Girl in Ice and Into the Jungle.
Rain falls constantly in the northeastern suburbs of Boston. Seasons blur into each other. Sweltering temperatures and withering humidity linger, even in late fall. Every living creature suffers except Kingdom Fungi. Mushrooms bloom they cover lawns, strangle trees, break through sidewalks, reveling in the heat and wet.
Single mother and mycologist Dani Walters takes note of this, and it makes her uneasy. But it’s her six-year-old daughter Piper’s behavior after eating some wild mushrooms that really frightens her. The girl now claims she has an imaginary friend who tells her to do terrible things.
Dani struggles to fathom this new development in Piper, and takes her to therapy to get to the bottom of it. Everything from multiple personality disorder to early schizophrenia is on the table—after all, Dani’s mother suffers from the disease, unable to control the voices she hears in her own head.
But these are all false leads. Piper’s new friend is no ordinary childhood fabrication. Dani must determine what is possessing her daughter, and how to rid her of it.
Young Piper’s life—and humanity’s continued existence—hang in the balance.
Rain falls constantly in the northeastern suburbs of Boston. Seasons blur into each other. Sweltering temperatures and withering humidity linger, even in late fall. Every living creature suffers except Kingdom Fungi. Mushrooms bloom they cover lawns, strangle trees, break through sidewalks, reveling in the heat and wet.
Single mother and mycologist Dani Walters takes note of this, and it makes her uneasy. But it’s her six-year-old daughter Piper’s behavior after eating some wild mushrooms that really frightens her. The girl now claims she has an imaginary friend who tells her to do terrible things.
Dani struggles to fathom this new development in Piper, and takes her to therapy to get to the bottom of it. Everything from multiple personality disorder to early schizophrenia is on the table—after all, Dani’s mother suffers from the disease, unable to control the voices she hears in her own head.
But these are all false leads. Piper’s new friend is no ordinary childhood fabrication. Dani must determine what is possessing her daughter, and how to rid her of it.
Young Piper’s life—and humanity’s continued existence—hang in the balance.
Kindle Edition
Expected publication February 2, 2027
31 people want to read
About the author
Erica Ferencik
8 books971 followersOprah chose Erica Ferencik’s debut novel, The River at Night as a #1 Pick, calling the book “the page-turning novel you’ve been waiting for, a heart-pounding debut.” Entertainment Weekly named it a “Must Read,” and calls the novel “harrowing…a visceral, white knuckle rush.” Miramax has recently optioned the novel for a film.
Her new novel, Into the Jungle, one woman's terrifying journey of survival in the Bolivian Amazon, will be released on May 28, 2019. Publishers Weekly gave it a starred review, calling it: “[A] ferocious fever dream of a thriller…Ferencik delivers an alternately terrifying and exhilarating tale.” Her work has appeared in Salon and The Boston Globe, as well as on National Public Radio.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
Review of advance copy received from Edelweiss+
Erica Ferencik's previous three novels are among my favorite books of all time. Her prose is flowing and authentic, her observations insightful and her writing of the natural world revelatory. The stories in those three books are wholly original and incomparably engaging.
The Blooming is a departure from her recent work in that it's really not a suspense thriller, it's a horror novel. Specifically, it's a haunted house, sort of neo-gothic story. It's also eco-horror, centering around a natural phenomenon much as earlier Ferencik novels have.
While Into the Jungle dabbled in the supernatural, similar to the series Frontera Verde, this one repeatedly, clumsily insists on a premise that's harder to swallow than a greasy bluish mushroom cap from a squashed sandwich bag. The spoiler-heavy description of the book really ruins any chance the reader has of enjoying the wild speculation of the early chapters. Still on shaky ground in terms of character development, the second act plunges straight into outrageous Exorcist/Omen territory, barely distinguishing itself through its own mythology in between spells of cliched haunted-house amnesia.
If this book were a meditation on a deeper theme like permissive parenting or the stigma of single-parent families, that would be something. It's definitely not that. It's an episode of Tales from the Crypt--the setups are painfully predictable and the cliffhanger chapter endings frustrate the (viewer) reader because we're just waiting for the inevitable resolution. Seemingly significant characters drop out of the story, careers and areas of specialized knowledge are rendered irrelevant or nonexistent.
So many borrowed riffs and unresolved branches of the lore. At one point, the book took a distinctly Nostromo-Ridley-Scott turn, but then, that mycelial thread just dried up and disappeared. Is it like the movie Shrooms? Yes, kinda. It's also a little like Midsommar, if Midsommar were totally stupid. But it also resembles a whole fleet of Stephen King/Richard Bachman stories so closely that it's hard to give Ferencik any credit for the plot.
The setup is The Shining, pretty clearly, the main section of the story is The Mist. The ending is a sort of mashup of M. Night Shamaylan's The Happening and Bachman's Thinner.
These are admirable tomes to borrow from, timeless classics, arguably. But The Blooming is far from it. David Koepp, Taylor Zajonc, Jeff VanderMeer and others have written compelling, scary fiction about the cordyceps concept. Zombie fungus. It's a premise from nature that can infinitely be remade into an unlimited number of original, convincing and thrilling stories from the horror genre and others, across a broad range of literature. This isn't one of them.
Pack up your injection-port substrate bag and throw away your nitrile gloves--these mycelial threads don't go anywhere. Choose an earlier Ferencik, if you're just getting acquainted. You'll have a lot more fun.
A chitinous thank you to Edelweiss, to the author and to Gallery/Scout Press for the ARC.
The Blooming is a departure from her recent work in that it's really not a suspense thriller, it's a horror novel. Specifically, it's a haunted house, sort of neo-gothic story. It's also eco-horror, centering around a natural phenomenon much as earlier Ferencik novels have.
While Into the Jungle dabbled in the supernatural, similar to the series Frontera Verde, this one repeatedly, clumsily insists on a premise that's harder to swallow than a greasy bluish mushroom cap from a squashed sandwich bag. The spoiler-heavy description of the book really ruins any chance the reader has of enjoying the wild speculation of the early chapters. Still on shaky ground in terms of character development, the second act plunges straight into outrageous Exorcist/Omen territory, barely distinguishing itself through its own mythology in between spells of cliched haunted-house amnesia.
If this book were a meditation on a deeper theme like permissive parenting or the stigma of single-parent families, that would be something. It's definitely not that. It's an episode of Tales from the Crypt--the setups are painfully predictable and the cliffhanger chapter endings frustrate the (viewer) reader because we're just waiting for the inevitable resolution. Seemingly significant characters drop out of the story, careers and areas of specialized knowledge are rendered irrelevant or nonexistent.
So many borrowed riffs and unresolved branches of the lore. At one point, the book took a distinctly Nostromo-Ridley-Scott turn, but then, that mycelial thread just dried up and disappeared. Is it like the movie Shrooms? Yes, kinda. It's also a little like Midsommar, if Midsommar were totally stupid. But it also resembles a whole fleet of Stephen King/Richard Bachman stories so closely that it's hard to give Ferencik any credit for the plot.
The setup is The Shining, pretty clearly, the main section of the story is The Mist. The ending is a sort of mashup of M. Night Shamaylan's The Happening and Bachman's Thinner.
These are admirable tomes to borrow from, timeless classics, arguably. But The Blooming is far from it. David Koepp, Taylor Zajonc, Jeff VanderMeer and others have written compelling, scary fiction about the cordyceps concept. Zombie fungus. It's a premise from nature that can infinitely be remade into an unlimited number of original, convincing and thrilling stories from the horror genre and others, across a broad range of literature. This isn't one of them.
Pack up your injection-port substrate bag and throw away your nitrile gloves--these mycelial threads don't go anywhere. Choose an earlier Ferencik, if you're just getting acquainted. You'll have a lot more fun.
A chitinous thank you to Edelweiss, to the author and to Gallery/Scout Press for the ARC.
Review of advance copy received from Author
My favorite Ferencik novel yet!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews