the fungus is among us

fiction books that feature fungus, mushrooms, or bacteria in sort sort of way! mainly horror leaning, because who isn’t scared of sentient mold?

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created by the_rags

last updated December, 2025

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Comments

Among us?!?! 👀 /j

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it truly was a curse to be online at all in 2020 because literally i can’t say or hear among us without the “call meeting” music from that game playing in my head 😭

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Among us was truly a moment 🖐️😔

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Ohhh, this is a neat list!!

I was gonna make a pun, but I see that you use she/her pronouns, so it doesn't quite work. But it was gonna be a fungi/fun guy pun, so insert either laughter or groaning, as needed xD

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love me a good fungus pun!! thank you for your contribution 🙌

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Always a pleasure~

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Use it on me instead >:) /lh /nf (idk if it would even make sense cause it might've been related to the creation of the quest but if not I'd love to hear it lol)

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Haha, it was "Since you created this list, you must be a fun guy!" Hehehe

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Hehe, that's great. You could switch it to "fun gal" (like fungal) for @the_rags! :)

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OHH THAT'S SO GOOD!!

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Glad to be of service 🫡

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Added!

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I love sporror (spore x horror)!!! I was gonna make my own list but I haven’t read enough sporror or know about enough to really curate a list myself, so I’m glad someone else did!!

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omg i LOVE fungal horror i just read the craziest one called Moonflow, splatterpunk fungal weirdness

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Edited

yes, fungal horror is one of my fav niche subgenres. and Moonflow just came out right? i didn’t realize it was a fungal horror…may need to investigate 👀

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Edited

it's fungal in the psychoactive way, the MC is a mycologist who is trying to find a rare type of mushroom called The King's Breakfast to grow/sell, and in her search she gets sucked into a cult that worships the mushroom, super trippy and weird now that i'm thinking about it i wonder if it's not quite the same as the other books i just got excited

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honestly my vision for this list is just “there’s a lot of fungus in here” so it may fit! also it sounds so amazing so i’m definitely putting it on my TBR

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if it's not fungal at the very least it's heavily botanical, there's lots of creepy nature imagery, nature taking back from people. i'd say the fungal/botanical part is the backdrop to the culty weirdness so it might fit but not quite the same way!!

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ooooo okay! maybe i’ll investigate a bit but i appreciate the recommendation either way! the cover is soooo pretty

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i know i totally picked it for the cover LMAO but ended up really liking it! even if it doesn't fit your list hopefully you end up liking it!!

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Root Rot by Saskia Nislow and The Marigold by Andrew F. Sullivan are both fungal horror, I enjoyed both of them.

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both seem interesting, thanks for the recs!

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Graveyard Shift by M.L. Rio would also fit. 🫡 Mushroom horror is just such a nice niche genre with how fascinating actual fungi are.

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it is! it’s interesting to me how the portrayal of fungi in novels almost always gives off a horror vibe, because even the books on here that aren’t technically horror definitely display the fungi in a scary/frightening way. i feel like it’s because they’re a very “other” category that is not plants or animals and we naturally feel fear towards things we can’t understand! (thanks for the rec btw, didn’t realize Graveyard Shift was a mushroom horror!)

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Why is this the EXACT list I didn't know I was looking for??? Off to the TBR I go!

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