An interesting but slow paced end of the world botanical horror novel, told from the POV of an invading alien. It would have served the book well if it had received a harsher edit - there was a lot of repetition and the words would have been better allocated to world-building or character complexity. I had to really force myself to stay engaged to get to the invasion day (which happened in the second half of the book). By the end, I liked it but didn't love it, and the conclusion really solidified that for me.

Tropes: ➵ Alien invasion ➵ Countdown to end of the world ➵ Botanical horror ➵ LGBTIQ+ representation

I wanted to love this more but the ending made the entire book feel entirely pointless.

From the blurb, I expected Pam to step up and help Charlotte (a child) survive the apocalypse. But in reality, she wanted them to stay at home and starve to death. Whenever Charlotte tried to suggest looking for survivors, food or a way out - Pam would dig her heels in and want to return home, for seemingly no reason at all. It was very repetitive and frustrating, and made reading feel like a chore.

By the end, we had no answers as to why the water suddenly appeared (it wasn't even speculated, which I find ridiculous), Charlotte disappeared to go look for other survivors so her story was incomplete, and Pam remained in her house with no supplies. So we pretty much made no progress from the start...

I listened to the ALC before seeing the AI allegations. Unfortunately, I can see where they were coming from because the writing was BAD. I’m so shocked it was picked up by trad publishers.

There were so many plot holes and inconsistencies. The pacing was crazy fast with weird time jumps that made no sense.

The narrator was okay. She fit the FMC given she barely varied her tone, volume or pace. She sounded depressed which matched the themes of the book. I probably wouldn’t go out of my way to listen to other books she’s narrated though because she didn’t show much range and I wasn’t very engaged as a result.

This is a reminder to myself that I need to research books better before applying for ARCs 🥲