By Damla
As autumn rapidly approaches and the days get darker, the weather colder, and the trees starker, it is best to embrace the season in all its cozy, mysterious glory. And just because the trees are shedding their leaves in preparation for the colder seasons does not mean that all life is going into slumber mode. In fact, the forest at this time of the year is teeming with another life form: fungi.
Fungi are so cool and weird and terrifying. Their little mushroom hats. The way they are neither plant nor animal. The crazy way they can communicate and affect the life around them. Just extraordinary. It is no wonder that their impressive and honestly slightly terrifying nature has captured the imagination of many authors, TV-scenarists, and game writers in popular culture, in the shape of mushroom horror.
And although autumn is the best time to forage for the tastiest specimens, here is a little reminder that it is prohibited by law to forage your own mushrooms in the Netherlands for your own health (the government is here to warn you against poisoning, and I against much worse – a zombie apocalypse!). So, put on your hazmat suit and enjoy the wonderfully atmospheric and hair-raising horror these organisms have wreaked in fiction with our top 5 mushroom horror picks:
1. What Moves the Dead – T. Kingfisher
“The dead may walk, but I will not walk among them.”
The fascinating world of mushrooms meets one of Edgar Allan Poe’s most memorable stories. It is the perfect Gothic read, brimming with a gloomy atmosphere, strange characters, and ominous signs, all with an original and humorous modern twist to it.
2. Mexican Gothic – Silvia Moreno-Garcia
“The world might indeed be a cursed circle; the snake swallowed its tail and there could be no end, only an eternal ruination and endless devouring.”
What do you get when you combine Stoker’s Dracula, Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper, and H.P. Lovecraft’s myriad of weird horror fiction? This incredibly atmospheric book about monsters and centuries-old mysteries that carries you into the cold, musty rooms of a dilapidated Gothic mansion wrapped in curling tendrils of mist, built on jagged, unmarked graves, of course. Trying to unravel the mystery hidden among the deadly and bountiful mushrooms sprouting from its dark earth will have you on the edge of your seat.
3. The Girl With All The Gifts – M.R. Carey
“This gauntlet, flung down by a bullying, contemptuous universe that allowed human beings to grope their way to sentience just so it could put them in their place that bit more painfully.”
Imagine your average zombie apocalypse: some type of flesh-eating undead creatures hunting down humans. The world as we know it crumbling like ancient relics. Society in a different type of shambles. Scarce supplies. Fear of the undead and the survivors alike. Power-drunk military throwing up red flags left and right. And then, imagine actually rooting for the zombie.
This is a zombie book that feels different to the other million zombie stories out there. (It is also a great what-not-to-do guide in case of a walking dead apocalypse scenario.)
And if you want more of the horrific world M.R. Carey has created, there is a second book in the series: The Boy on the Bridge.
4. Creatures of Want and Ruin – Molly Tanzer
“It was disorienting that it was her memory alone that diverged from their narrative.”
A morally complex historical fiction mixed in with fantasy, Creatures of Want and Ruin is a dark and gripping story of cults, oppression, and family ties. Where do the fungi come in, you ask? Through mushroom-infused moonshine with special hallucinatory powers sold secretly in the Prohibition era, obviously.
5. Annihilation – Jeff Vandermeer
“Where lies the strangling fruit that came from the hand of the sinner I shall bring forth the seeds of the dead to share with the worms that gather in the darkness and surround the world with the power of their lives while from the dim lit halls of other places forms that never were and never could be writhe for the impatience of the few who never saw what could have been.”
If you didn’t already think of fungi as eerily alien, then you will after reading this.
I mean… suspiciously sentient behaving mushrooms with a sense of timing and a knack for literature? Terrifying. (Doubly so for its resemblance to AI-generated text, as seen above.)
Told through the lens of a curious biologist in a peculiarly cold and calculated tone, Annihilation takes place in a cordoned-off section of land protected by a secretive government agency that feels like an alien world uncannily similar to ours, yet with a dreadful sensation that something is off. Very creepy from start to finish in true Vandermeer style.
Can’t get enough of mushrooms? Dive deeper into mycology with these titles:
Entangled Life – Merlin Sheldrake
The more we learn about fungi, the less makes sense without them. They can change our minds, heal our bodies and even help us avoid environmental disaster; they are metabolic masters, earth-makers and key players in most of nature’s processes. In Entangled Life, Merlin Sheldrake takes us on a mind-altering journey into their spectacular world, and reveals how these extraordinary organisms transform our understanding of our planet and life itself.
New York Botanical Garden Mushroom Identification Flashcards
A compact, colorful, and informative deck of 103 flashcards for newly minted mushroom lovers, featuring illustrations from the renowned archives of the New York Botanical Garden and text from the Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mushrooms
