Book: What Feeds Below by Tatiana Schlote-Bonne
Reviewed by Rallie X
Rating: 4/5
<i>Thanks to NetGalley and Bindery Books for giving me the eARC, this review and opinions are my own.</i>
What a strange, creepy little read! I ate this up in one sitting. Tatiana Schlote-Bonne's writing channeled the really uneasy feeling of barely-controlled hysteria, an atmosphere that really made the most of this creepily haunting story.
She does such an excellent job foreshadowing while leaving room for other possibilities which I think worked really well for a book about humans going where they really shouldn't - I'm already so deeply suspicious of spelunking ESPECIALLY underwater spelunking, Schlote-Bonne really went "hehehe but what if it was even worse?" Sneaking a Nutty Putty Cave Incident reference in there too was just diabolical.
The setting is an awesome entry into the abyssal/cthonic horror of the deep dark, we've all encountered Mushroom Zmobies and Horrible Cave Creatures and the Underground Crazies, but she puts them together in a way that felt fresh and exciting. I'd love to see a map of the Void (even better a creepy hand drawn "found ephemera" style map!), because the idea of basically stratigraphic levels of Strange Fuckery melded this flavor of horror with an almost Dante's Inferno-esque in a very cool way.
I think anybody who likes botanical horror, creepy body stuff, or horrible cave Things will really enjoy this book! But read the trigger warnings just in case (e.g. tw for parasites and oviposition).