Kelson Reads reviewed Overgrowth by Mira Grant
Pod People
4 stars
I did like this book, but not as much as I'd expected to.
At the level of plot, it's like Invasion of the Body Snatchers. On a character level, it's about trying to go through life knowing you're different from everyone around you. And thematically, it's about friends and family vs. the world, and vs. each other, and figuring out where the lines are between who you can trust and who you can't.
The prologue is not for the squeamish. But the rest of the novel is more eerie sci-fi and less horror.
It's mostly told from Stasia's (the plant person) point of view. Most of the other characters aren't...well, maybe I shouldn't say "fleshed out" when half of them are plant people, but while Stasia's puzzlement over their motivations supports the story thematically, it makes it less engaging. Though there is an interesting shift in perspective as the …
I did like this book, but not as much as I'd expected to.
At the level of plot, it's like Invasion of the Body Snatchers. On a character level, it's about trying to go through life knowing you're different from everyone around you. And thematically, it's about friends and family vs. the world, and vs. each other, and figuring out where the lines are between who you can trust and who you can't.
The prologue is not for the squeamish. But the rest of the novel is more eerie sci-fi and less horror.
It's mostly told from Stasia's (the plant person) point of view. Most of the other characters aren't...well, maybe I shouldn't say "fleshed out" when half of them are plant people, but while Stasia's puzzlement over their motivations supports the story thematically, it makes it less engaging. Though there is an interesting shift in perspective as the advance vanguard becomes less human and more plant.
I also can't help but think of this as a more cynical, post-COVID take on some of the same themes as the Newsflesh trilogy. The author remarked recently that she no longer has the faith in humanity that we'd band together against an existential threat, and that echoed through my mind a lot while I was reading this.