Moonflow by Bitter Karella

I had heard of Bitter Karella before, I sometimes read and find amusing Karella’s bluesky posting of the Midnight Pals, and so I thought I would give his first novel a chance (note: it is my understanding that the author uses both he/him and she/her pronouns) and I requested an eARC from NetGalley and the publisher and exchange for an honest review.

From the blurb, I knew it had to do with mushrooms and was a horrible book and so I was hoping that it would be reminiscent of something by T. Kingfisher. I was very wrong.

I’m not exactly sure what this book is trying to be, or who the targeted audience is, but I am not it.  I think we’re supposed to feel sympathetic to the protagonist in the beginning of the book, because she is selling drugs and underemployed, but I just kept thinking in my head as I read the early chapters “get a job!”  to me, The drug selling and casual drug use removes much of the potential for sympathy for any of these characters.  The protagonist ends up trumping through the woods and encountering a brutal cult, but the offer also seems to go out of her way to bash law-enforcement at every opportunity, even when it distracts from the narrative.  

I was incredibly glad of the content warnings the beginning of the book because if I had encountered some of these scenarios called, I would have found it even more offputting and unpleasant than I did. 

The writing style isn’t bad, and I found several turns of phrasing, beautiful. I enjoyed the framing device of mushroom field guide intros at the beginning of the chapters.  I might try another book from this author again in the future, but for now, this is not a good fit for me.