What Feeds Below

I absolutely loved this book! Rating: 4,5/5⭐ Genres/Themes: YA Horror, Fanatsy, unique world-building, botanical horror, sentient flora and fauna, The book dives directly into the story with friends Petra and Jude leading a tourist into the Void. The Void is a massive chasm in the earth overrun with vicious monsters and carnivorous plants. The Void is described like uts own world with different rules and entirely unique flora and fauna. It's an extremly dangerous place, but as orphans, Petra and Jude are forced to be guides leading people into the Void in order to earn money. This book combines the concept of a chasm in the earth, like seen in the movie "The Gorge", as well as the sentient plants and horror known from authors like C.G.Drews. The pacing was pretty steady throughout but the world-building and mystery kept the story engaging. Thank you to NetGalley & the publisher for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

This was gory and creepy in all the right ways. I honestly feel like reading this alone at night would be even creepier than watching a horror movie. It reminded me a little of the movie The Decent, which gave me nightmares as a teenager, so I’m just hoping this book doesn’t do the same The imagination and details that went into the Void, its layers and creatures and the flora/fauna was really amazing and it’s what made this book so special to me. I was weirdly fascinated by the body horror and the detailed descriptions of it. I also really loved the little anecdotes at the beginning of the chapters that gave more insight into the Void. Plot- and character-wise, I did sadly see the twist coming from quite early on. I liked Flint and his relationship with Petra and I enjoyed how passionate and geeky Petra is about her plants and herbs. But that fascination also makes her unnecessarily reckless and I sometimes found her insufferable and was often annoyed with her and her actions. That said, she does have a solid character arc and shows real growth along the way. Jade is hard to describe without giving too much away so I won’t go into details about my feelings for her. While this book had some weaknesses I really liked it and was glued to the pages. I’d definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoys creepy body horror and wants to feel properly unsettled while reading.