This is a great short horror story with all the creepy and unsettling feelings while reading it.

This is about Thomas and Rosemary. Thomas is bringing a sick Rosemary home from the hospital so she can live out her remaining days in the comfort of her home. While she was in the hospital Thomas created a beautiful garden for Rosemary. On the same day he brings her home an incident happens in the garden that involves a lot of blood. Is it a miracle or is it a curse?

I was fully hooked for this entire story. The beginning reminded me a lot of The Hay Bale by Priscilla Bettis and had the same kind of horror in it. The reason this isn't a five star read is because we have a lot of questions by the end of it. Sometimes it works and makes the bad downright terrifying. However I couldn't stop asking myself the questions. What happened to Anna? What did Thomas do? How did Rosemary handle it? How long ago was all this? What is up with the horse? Even after all those unanswered questions, the ending was terrifying, in a good way.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for giving me an arc copy for my honest review.

⇢ 4.4 ★

thank you to netgalley for the ARC.

if you enjoyed the films "annihilation" or "mother!", get your hands on this short story immediately. i was enamored by this story. in horror, i am a firm believer that the "nature's revenge" trope is criminally underutilized. fritz did a STELLAR job at this. i was listening to the curated playlist the author included with the story, and it gave me chills the entire time i was reading. it's a quick read-- i finished it in one setting. i quite literally could not put this one down. i think this would be a superb A24 film, or even a short film. the poems implemented into the beginning of each chapter were right on point with each chapter's theme. the artwork between each chapter was stunning as well.

fitz does an excellent job at creating atmosphere. in the beginning, you are following along with the lives of this objectively wholesome older couple. the wife has stage four pancreatic cancer, and her dying wish was for her husband to plant her a gorgeous garden. however, you can literally feel this overwhelming sense of dread as the storyline progresses. the playlist the author provides in the book was SO perfect for each scene. it's my understanding fitz has another book, "a fig for all the devils", and i 100% plan to get my hands on it as soon as possible. the author's writing is gorgeous and haunting.

౨ৎ TRIGGER WARNINGS
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Thank you to the publisher and to Netgalley for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is weird horror at its finest. Incredibly unsettling and strange in the best ways.

You get a strong sense of unease and foreboding from the first page and that just grows as the story unfolds. The only downside for me is that because it is a short story, you don't get a chance to get to grips with the characters, which means that the wife's sudden transformation was really jarring and didn't seem to work.

You also don't get all the info, but in this case I really think it works. What happened to Anna? How was it the main character's fault? Not knowing genuinely makes this story creepier.

This was a great short read between more in-depth books and was a lot of fun.

Never going to look at cabbage the same way....

such a fun read. listening to the playlist while reading actually had my scared in my bed.