Alien invasion tales are sometimes the only real purvey… or slightly primarily categorized within the science fiction part of your bookstores and libraries. When you concentrate on them for a second, they actually may be thought-about horror tales as effectively. You’ve obtained the sense of a big drive threatening your life (and your complete planet for that matter). It shouldn’t be a shock that Mira Grant (the identify Seanan McGuire makes use of when her tales lean extra science fictional) has printed a novel at that intersection of horror and science fiction. Her Newsflesh sequence is a landmark set of Zombie novels, the Parasitology novels terrifyingly posit a world with genetically engineered tapeworms, and Into the Drowning Deep is probably the most horrific mermaid novel I’ve ever learn. On this novel, the Earth is invaded by alien, sentient flowers. With Overgrowth, she visits the alien invasion state of affairs, however one not explored too typically outdoors of a pair very notable examples (Day of the Triffids and Invasion of the Physique Snatchers). Whereas comparisons are made between Overgrowth and people tales, they’re solely superficial.
Since she was three years previous, Anastasia Miller has been telling anybody who would pay attention that she’s an alien disguised as a human being, and that the armada that left her on Earth is coming for her. Since she was three years previous, nobody has been keen to pay attention.
Now, with an alien sign from the celebs being broadcast all over the world, humanity is lastly beginning to notice that it’s already been warned, and it might be too late. The invasion is coming, Stasia’s organic household is on the way in which to deliver her house, and only a few household reunions are keen to cross the gulf of area for only one misplaced little one.
What occurs when what’s coming, and simply refuse to pay attention?
The novel is instructed via the first-person perspective of Anastasia “Stasia” Miller who at all times informs individuals upon first assembly them that she’s an alien and her persons are coming. The factor is, she’s telling the reality, besides the character whose story we observe via the novel isn’t the actual Stasia. When Stasia was three-years previous, she was changed by an alien plant. This isn’t a spoiler because it happens inside the 25 pages of the novel. Quick foreword about twenty years to the 12 months 2031, Stasia has a job and he or she has associates. One might say she lives the lifetime of a decently-well adjusted neurodivergent grownup or a younger girl with some quirks. Whereas she has her associates, her co-workers aren’t very keen on her, however her associates love and settle for her. Her entire “alien invasion” factor is kind of hand-waived as a character quirk.
It seems, her “individuals” ship a sign warning the world of their looming invasion in 2031. As a result of Stasia has been so vocal all through her life about being an alien, she isn’t precisely an unknown entity. When she and her boyfriend Graham make a journey to search out the scientist who acquired then distributed the sign to America, the journey doesn’t precisely go simply for them. Stasia and Graham choose up some companions alongside the way in which because the invasion looms over the entire world. Every chapter is successfully a countdown to the invasion, which does assist to ratchet up the strain of an already tense story.
I discussed neurodivergent as a attainable descriptor for Stasia and I didn’t consider that originally. The extra I take into account the story, the extra resonance I discover between Stasia and Rose Darling from Chuck Tingle’s Camp Damascus. Not precisely a 1 for 1 comparability, however the idiosyncratic thought course of and look at we see via the protagonists of every novel of the world is analogous sufficient.
Overgrowth is a novel that pressured me to wrestle with some large ideas. As a result of Stasia is the protagonist of the novel, I because the reader naturally constructed up quite a lot of empathy for her. She is essentially a likeable character and cares about her associates. Good begin for an individual. However she’s additionally, very a lot admittedly, a part of an alien invasion in order that makes her troublesome to “like” in some ways and as a member of the human race, I each empathized with the troublesome state of affairs she was in, but in addition didn’t need her and her “individuals” to succeed. Grant performs a tough sport right here with the character, however she does such a fantastic job of placing the reader within the head of Stasia, which makes for a compulsive learn. As a result of Stasia is protagonist who generates empathy, I wished her to succeed. However because the “early warning celebration” of an alien invasion on Earth, I didn’t need her to succeed, I wished to see her be diverted from her targets. I discovered it troublesome to discover a true method I wished to lean: did I would like her to “go native” and reject her alien heritage and facet with humanity, or did I wish to see her be true to her organic origins? That inner query helped to maintain me studying (along with the tight character work).
If I can stability this assessment with any “slights,” there have been occasions the place I felt scenes didn’t join with one another with 100% fluidity. In different phrases, “a factor occurred” then “one other factor occurred” and not using a sturdy connection between them, however these disconnected scenes weren’t very prevalent.
The pure comparisons are The Day of the Triffids and Invasion of the Physique Snatchers. I believe a extra apt comparability, or a comparability my thoughts stored making was to Octavia Butler’s masterwork Xenogenesis/Lilith’s Brood which begins with the novel Daybreak. Whereas humanity is in a barely totally different state of affairs (Butler’s saga imagines a humanity largely destroyed by nuclear conflict), there’s a resonant assimilation of humanity in each Butler’s work (which does have some horrific passages and scenes) and Grant’s novel right here.
Ultimately, Overgrowth is a novel that elicits extra questions than solutions, which is what good speculative fiction ought to do. I loved it a fantastic deal and appreciated the extent to which Grant pressured me to confront among the difficult themes offered within the novel. There are some horrific scenes depicting how the alien crops can overpower humanity, whereas some equally lovely scenes depicting the alien flowers. Ultimately, whereas Overgrowth has many science-fictional components and trappings, the tone could be very a lot horror, particularly how the novel is bookended.
Advisable
© 2025 Rob H. Bedford
Writer: Tor Nightfire | Might 2025
Hardcover 381 pages
Excerpt: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250401748/overgrowth/
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