One of the best books I’ve ever read ✨chefs kiss✨

Hello everyone and welcome to this quest! I'm super excited that this is shared with you all now, and to find that so many of you love botanical horror as much as I do. There's something so fascinating to me about the different ways that authors utilize plants and nature as a tool to not only strike fear in our hearts, but also create such beautiful symbolism and plotlines!

The Quest (or what I generally consider "Botanical Horror"): Horror as a genre is a pretty tricky thing sometimes, and while most of these books are clearly labelled as horror, with all the creeping terror, running for your life, etc., there are some that I felt were close enough or had a general consensus that it fit the theme of "Botanical Horror", even if they are not explicitly labelled as horror. I'm trying to keep this list as true to horror as possible, while also considering the evolution, quirks, and depth of the genre.

As for the botanical part, my general guideline for a book to be "botanical" is that it has plants/fungi as the main horror element, or generally the plants/natural landscape majorly adds to the horror vibes, which can be very vague, but I think that's part of the fun. I'm also trying to avoid making this a mainly eco-horror Quest as I think the two sub-genres do not completely intersect with each other, though you will find books like Annihilation on here that do fit into both. Of course, oftentimes eco-horror and botanical horror get intermixed (especially in reviews and lists which I have used to source these novels when I have not personally read them) so there may be a book or two that is mainly eco-horror with more of a general focus on nature/natural life included in this Quest!

In short, this list includes a wide representation of plant/fungi-life, such as fungus (ie What Moves the Dead by T Kingfisher) all the way to entire forests (ie Don't Let the Forest In by CG Drews), and that plant life/nature is itself spooky and monstrous or adds to the eerie vibes. For anyone completely new to the sub-genre and looking for somewhere to start, my personal favorites from this list are both titles mentioned above (and one is conveniently a current readalong book!)

Going Forward: Please feel free to use this forum as much as want, whether it be for exploring tropes you find within these novels, discussing novels in the quest in general, or just shouting your love for botanical horror! That's all for now, can't wait to go questing with y'all!

hello all! i come today with a discussion for you all regarding a very prominent theme across many horror books-fungi! as someone who studied fungi in college (and occasionally works with them at my current job!), this is one of the aspects of botanical horror that drew me in the most. a lot of the books currently in this Quest use fungi as the “scare-factor” (at least 11 do if my count is correct!) and it’s not just horror books that use fungi, but horror media in general as well, such as the video game/tv series The Last of Us.

there just seems to be something about mushrooms and mold that make humans innately scared of them, and i wanted to ask you all about why you think that is? what aspects of fungi are we drawn to be scared of? i’d also love to know if you personally are drawn to this theme in novels like i am, as well as what you most love about fungus-horror? and of course, i’m always on the hunt for more recommendations in this micro-genre for those who have some hidden gems!