(Thank you to NetGalley and Stelliform Press for the ARC! All opinions are my own.)

The Wetworks Miracle is a dense, slow-spreading moss of dread and the uncanny, wrapping around the senses and squeezing tight. Caleb Sierra cultivates a surreal, grotesque landscape teeming with body and religious horror, a sentient, overwhelming natural force, biopunk creations, and a cast of distinct, bizarre characters. Creeping underneath this lush story are dark, heavy themes of colonization, man's hubris, religion, man vs. nature, ecological disaster/collapse, motherhood, and humanity's place in a living world that is ultimately beyond its control.

The worldbuilding is creative, expansive, and unapologetically weird. The creatures, cultures, histories, and religion all come together in this smothering thicket of Eco-horror nightmares, and it worked to shock, repulse, and mesmerize. The prose gave life to this vision: atmospheric without being overly ornamental or complicated. It can be a bit sparse in some areas though, particularly in describing the immediate environment. Even after finishing the story, it's a bit challenging for me to completely imagine the Wetworks itself and be wholly immersed. However, the ambiance and the distinct character voices made up for it.

The lushness of the world and the ambition of its plot strain against the novella's limited page count. I had so many questions throughout my read, and I finished it with even more. The Wetworks Miracle does not stop, does not hold your hand, doesn't explain the giant vine blocking your windows and burrowing under your skin. It was exciting to stick my hands into the mud-slick mysteries, and yet I do wish there was more time and space to really explore lore, concepts, characters, and world. The story struggled to achieve the careful balance between ambiguity and meaningful resolution, I think, and coupled with the shifting perspectives and nonlinear storyline, this might frustrate or disappoint some readers.

Overall, The Wetworks Miracle is a wonderful, bold debut. I enjoyed my time walking through this overgrown, verdant, crazy world, though at times, I struggled to find my footing amidst all of the craziness happening. I recommend it for those who want a short, punchy, atmospheric, and engaging read, especially if you like the challenge of digging through the soft earth of its prose for the sprawling ideas and messages underneath.

(Thank you to NetGalley and Stelliform Press for the ARC! All opinions are my own.)

The Wetworks Miracle is a dense, slow-spreading moss of dread and the uncanny, wrapping around the senses and squeezing tight. Caleb Sierra cultivates a surreal, grotesque landscape teeming with body and religious horror, a sentient, overwhelming natural force, biopunk creations, and a cast of distinct, bizarre characters. Creeping underneath this lush story are dark, heavy themes of colonization, man's hubris, religion, man vs. nature, ecological disaster/collapse, motherhood, and humanity's place in a living world that is ultimately beyond its control.

The worldbuilding is creative, expansive, and unapologetically weird. The creatures, cultures, histories, and religion all come together in this smothering thicket of Eco-horror nightmares, and it worked to shock, repulse, and mesmerize. The prose gave life to this vision: atmospheric without being overly ornamental or complicated. It can be a bit sparse in some areas though, particularly in describing the immediate environment. Even after finishing the story, it's a bit challenging for me to completely imagine the Wetworks itself and be wholly immersed. However, the ambiance and the distinct character voices made up for it.

The lushness of the world and the ambition of its plot strain against the novella's limited page count. I had so many questions throughout my read, and I finished it with even more. The Wetworks Miracle does not stop, does not hold your hand, doesn't explain the giant vine blocking your windows and burrowing under your skin. It was exciting to stick my hands into the mud-slick mysteries, and yet I do wish there was more time and space to really explore lore, concepts, characters, and world. The story struggled to achieve the careful balance between ambiguity and meaningful resolution, I think, and coupled with the shifting perspectives and nonlinear storyline, this might frustrate or disappoint some readers.

Overall, The Wetworks Miracle is a wonderful, bold debut. I enjoyed my time walking through this overgrown, verdant, crazy world, though at times, I struggled to find my footing amidst all of the craziness happening. I recommend it for those who want a short, punchy, atmospheric, and engaging read, especially if you like the challenge of digging through the soft earth of its prose for the sprawling ideas and messages underneath.

Body horror, botanical horror, religious horror and climate fiction walk into a novella and the entire time I kept thinking What the hell is going on? (Complimentary!) Final Score: 4.25

What Worked Well For Me

This is one of those novellas where you really have to trust the process and I’m glad I did because it mostly landed! I think it would be even better on a re-read.

There is a lot packed into this novella, but Sierra does a great job of setting the atmospheric dread from the start. Even though it’s a novella that could be read in one sitting, I chose to break it up over a couple of days because this world is bleak (complimentary) and the themes are complicated! Sierra does not ease you into this world - the upsetting stuff starts right at the start, so you will know very quickly whether this book is going to be a good fit for you.

The multiple POVs were the right call, even though they made my life harder. I ended up making a note of all of the POVs even though each character had a very unique voice. There was just a lot going on and having that character description note made it so I had one less thing to track in my head. This might sound like a complaint, but for me it’s not! Sierra built a world that I was very willing to invest extra energy so I could get the most out of my first read through! The world continues to build all the way up to the end, but every piece of worldbuilding felt woven into the story smoothly.

Even though I ended up making a little character cheat sheet, the characters in this novella were fantastic! Jon Heap is a clear standout, but every character felt fully fleshed out and it was clear why these specific characters were chosen. Sierra’s prose is hard to describe, but they are clearly talented! I really don’t want to risk any potential spoilers, but just know I had a lot of highlights considering the length of this novella!

Thematically there is a lot going on and it’s pretty heavy - weaponized religion, colonization, and a complicated message on motherhood were standouts for me. If at all possible, have a friend read this with you because you are going to want to talk about what is going on and your theories!!

Where It Fell Short For Me

The confusion throughout this novella is real and even though I really enjoyed reading this, I think it’s one that I will have to re-read to fully understand my interpretation of its messaging. Even though most of the themes landed, the one on motherhood did not for me. This might not be as big of a deal for others, but it was one of the themes/storylines I was the most interested in and (at least on a first read through) that ending fell flat for me. Maybe it will land when I re-read this, but that was really my only sour note.

The ambiguity throughout this novella is earned, but even though the prose is relatively simple, the characters are distinct, and the worldbuilding is well done - I would say that this isn’t an easy novella to read. Some of this comes down to the POV changes that felt very rapid for me, I think because I wasn’t grounded in the world yet. Also, some of the messaging is very obvious and others are (likely intentionally) opaque enough, so the reader can take what they want out of the novella. If you are willing to put a little more work into reading this, I think it pays off - but if you go into this hoping for a simple, light horror novella I don’t think you’ll enjoy this as much as I did.

Final Thoughts, Opinions & Recommendations

Check the content warnings! There are a lot! There are a couple of books that this novella really reminded me of, but I wouldn’t call either a one-to-one match. Both from a botanical sense and that feeling of I have no idea what’s happening, but I like it, this novella reminded me of Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer - but the prose is very different. I also was reminded of Tender Is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica mostly thematically around the bureaucracy of atrocity and the way people build polite structures around horror, but also the feeling of dread/queasiness I had in Tender Is the Flesh was very similar here.

Even though I found this novella confusing, I really enjoyed the ride! I trust that if I went back and re-read it, I wouldn’t be as confused, but there was a lot going on. (And yes, I know used a lot of a lots in this review… but this novella packed in a lot!)

You Might Like This If you like your horror layered, can handle gore particularly when it’s thematically relevant, and you enjoy books that challenge you.

You Might NOT Like This If you are squeamish with body horror, prefer stories with clean themes and storylines, or if you don’t like being confused throughout a story - the novella length won’t save you here.

My thanks to NetGalley & Stelliform Press for the complimentary copy. The Wetworks Miracle is set to publish on 07/30/26. All opinions are my own.

TL;DR

Would I Recommend it? If you are good with the content warnings AND feeling confused, yes. Would I Reread it? Yes! Would I Read More From This Author? Definitely!

Star Score Breakdown

Personal Enjoyment: 4.25 Overall Execution: 4 Craft & Writing Quality: 4.5 Characters: 4.5 Plot: 4 Final Score: 4.25

I have been putting off writing this review for so long because I don’t know that I will have to words to do Plastic, Prism, Void justice. There was life before and there is life after.

Whatever expectations of this book you have, throw them immediately out the window of your spaceship, through the void, and into the space where universes collide. This is a Romantasy unlike anything you will ever read. I laughed, I cried, I gasped aloud, I was speechless, I was stunned.

One of the true joys of this book is the incredible narration that our main character, Acrasia, delivers. It’s witty, pretentious, self-deprecating, and full of double entendres. Acrasia invites the reader into the deepest parts of her mind but never lets you get too comfortable. Each reveal had me second guessing and re-shaping my opinions about each of the characters. And that brings me to how much I LOVED the characters, main and secondary. The characters were all written so strongly - their flaws felt real and created meaningful stakes for the conflict. I found myself completely charmed by Acrasia and Opus and their undeniable chemistry. And the sister-like relationships were another high point in this book!

Shout out to @polterreads for the recommendation and bringing this book to my attention and to @superllaine for the incredible buddy read experience.

Plastic, Prism, Void immediately went into my taste selection and I am already working on a re-read. Easily my favorite book I have read in a long time.

Disclaimer - you need a physical copy of this book to get the full experience.

Hypothesis: Celine will learn to manage her expectations with hyped-up books. Experiment: Celine reads hyped-up books and logs findings through reviews. Conclusion: Celine is That Bitch™️ who doesn't learn her lesson.

Look, enough time had passed by and enough reviews had been read for me to have accepted that this wasn't going to be as good as I wanted. But dear God had I had the hope that I would be pleasantly surprised. What did I get for it? Boredom. This book simply failed to be engaging or enraging enough to keep my interest despite being about literal faeries and their research.

Credit where credit's due. The prose was pleasant to read and the style facilitated greater immersion. It convinced me that, yes, we're in the 1900s and the protagonist is a scholar, and everything was finely described. The footnotes were fun (though I don't think you can ever beat Saint Death's Daughter in this) and there weren't overly many words that make you wonder why the author didn't bother with a glossary.

That said, I think using a journal format simply did not work for the story the author wanted to tell. It suits Emily's character well, and that's it. Sadly, I pretty much hated Emily as a character the whole way through.

From the first, it was very clear that Emily is awkward and socially inept to the point that even I will tell you she's autistic, though this isn't confirmed by the author. She is plainly unlikeable but the thought that the portrayal is meant to be that way made me think "Am I the asshole here?" She is condescending to her hosts and the community she is to live with for months. That doesn't make her a bad person, right? If anything, it's accurate to British scholars! And if she's so focused on her research that it's the only reason she attempts to help the townspeople, it's just because she's so autistic!

Beyond Emily's inability to keep herself alive in a foreign land and hostile climes, more troubling to me was Emily's entire beloved field of dryadology and more particularly her own methods of practising her """science.""" The other example we get is from Bambleby, who simply Makes Shit Up. Yes, it's just as discouraging as it gets considering this book is ostensibly partially about scholarship.

Listen, I know (I KNOW) this is a work of fiction and labelled as cosy besides. But with what Emily gets up to, you would think that there's more than a little space here for nuance when it comes to the ethics of meddling in the affairs of your research subject matter. Like??? Anthropologists go through a lot of shit to do their work, and Emily's either making friends or enemies with sentient magical species who could kill her or worse? None of this is science, Ms. Heather Fawcett, and there did not seem like there was even an attempt to pretend that it is. And that's not even the extent of my complaints.

Somehow, this book manages to have so much going on but also just no ability to catch my attention. I could blame this on being a cosy fantasy, but there is action, there are stakes. There is, arguably, romance. Again, I could lay this blame at the feet of the journal format, and it's my main theory on why I was so fucking bored. I'm accepting counterarguments!

Speaking of romance, I think this book is proof that you need to at least like some aspects of the characters to like their romance. I hated both Emily and Bambleby (though his history intrigued me and makes their relationship complicated enough that my ears pricked up [spoiler: it wasn't fucking used enough and no I won't read book two to get it]) despite liking every other character. As far as I'm concerned, that's proof the author can do better but simply did not.

There was no chemistry, and it felt more like the author wanted romance but couldn't be bothered to cultivate it. The love confession made me feel something and was in essence the turning point of the book for me, but you can't convince me Emily feels anything akin to love for Bambleby. Or even hate. Or even apathy.

I'm glad (relieved) to say that I finally got invested in the story 3/4 of the way through. It was even almost enough for me to revise my star rating, but then I got upset again thinking about what happened before. I'm a romantic at heart, okay, and I do love me some star-crossed lovers, but you really can't throw a bunch of tropes into the mix and call that a recipe for a romance. I'd accept this premise with any other characters, for fucking real.

All this to say... Idk man, this could just be a matter of taste. But the whole time I was reading I was wondering what other people see in this and I'm failing to grasp. But you can decide if it's a me problem or a book problem once you read it yourself. It's worth that... I think.