#grim root

Books Read in 2025

Grim Root by Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam

Fear makes the heart grow stronger.

March 11, 2024:

This book comes out in June! I requested this ARC from the author via BookSirens so I could review it early! Cause I'm like that!

First, the premise: the last 4 contestants on legally-not-The-Bachelor, their basic-ass bachelor, and a camera crew go to a spooky mansion in the woods to film the season finale, but somebody has ulterior motives and shit gets weird.

Yes please! I love reality TV in horror novels. Weirdly, the characters in this book act more reasonably than I'd expect from characters in a reality show like this one. Also I strongly suspect the behind-the-scenes is not even close to how shows like this are made, BUT if that part was totally accurate none of this would happen and we would have no fun. I suggest we let it slide.

Positive notes:

The Scary Thing is pretty unique! There is eventually a physical being which is cool but I mean more the process and mechanism is pretty out there. It's telegraphed early, but why it's happening is left ambiguous

Interactions between contestants was so much fun. There's alliance, intimidation, attraction, paranoia... very cool watching their feelings toward each other constantly shifting

Great character arc as one overly-dependent woman becomes more powerful & confident but watch out!

Catharsis at having some of the contestants lose interest in the bachelor and start noticing each other. Everyone has always wanted that to happen, right? Not just me, surely

Camera crew polycule

Negative notes:

The writing is pretty unpolished. I understand this ARC is uncorrected, so hopefully most of the typos are cleaned up by time of publication, but there were a LOT of them by the end.

In a few places it was very unclear what the characters were doing/ talking about/ reacting to, which were likely just misedits that took out crucial scene information. At some points the narration seemed uncertain on exactly how many people had died, misplaced details like that.

Neutral notes:

I found it interesting how often the narration referred to the contestants as "women" vs how often the characters referred to them as "ladies." There's something there

There's not the kind of creepy progression I expect from a book like this. The bizarre tree-themed house is a fantastic setting and has some very good secrets, but scary happenings don't escalate in a familiar pattern

This results in a definite "feel" with this book. Like you can just tell it's a little unusual. It tastes like it didn't follow a recipe. Your mileage my vary on this: you could love it for its less-formulaic vibe, or you might prefer a more tried-and-true experience.

Overall, this is a tough one to review because on one hand it's rough around the edges and I can't say it's objectively great... but I feel some pressure to be kind to an author who likely won't get a lot of press. And here's the important thing: I did enjoy this a lot! How does it stack up to books in the same vein? I like it less than Hide by Kiersten White, but WORLDS better than The Holy Terrors.