DNF @ 24%

Syd is an aspiring mycologist looking for her second chance with the Madrona Foundation, which does promising Alzheimer's research with mushrooms that grow on a fog-shrouded inlet on Vancouver Island that the foundation leases from nearby indigenous tribes.

Unfortunately, I really could not connect with this story even though I really appreciated the ADHD representation and I love forced proximity romance and closed circle mysteries.

It's gothic horror, so it does move slow as molasses at the start, but I really couldn't push myself through to get to the apparently better final 1/3 of the book.

The first steamy scene is a dream sequence that happens way earlier in the book than I expected and went from 0 to 100 very fast. That pulled me out of the story first. I also didn't really buy the chemistry between those two characters, it felt very forced to me. (Telling--especially from one of Syd's friends at the lodge--instead of showing.)

I received an eARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I found this book a bit slow for my taste. I was honestly expecting something very different from what I got most likely based on the other book of this author's that I have read (namely "Smut" its a great book if you haven't read it yet you should). I was intrigued with the vibes that this books reviews and blurbs were giving; horror romance. I have not read anything in this kind of genre so I think I was expecting it to follow more along the route of horror erotica and that is not the way it went. It is spicy and there is something about the way that Karina Halle writes her spicy scenes that just works for me. The biggest detriment to my rating with this book was that it had some slow pacing at times. This could be all subjective though because I didn't expect so much world building/horror lore needing to be laid out before the plot could get moving. I think the spicy scenes kind of carried the reader through these slower spots. I really enjoyed the horror story part of this book and I loved the spice but I feel like I would have liked them more if they had been separate books. I only partially solved the mystery of the island and I love when I can be surprised but by the time I got into the horror side of the story I felt like the spice kind of interrupted. If I re-read this book I will probably just read either the spicy parts or skip the spicy parts and read it like a straight up horror novel.

I absolutely loved this one, it had amazing representation and a very unique viewpoint. Had me hooked from the first page all up until the last!

Welcome to the Madrona Foundation: where the forests are creepy, the ghosts are restless, and the romance is as dark as the fog-shrouded inlet.

Karina Halle does it again with Grave Matter, a spine-tingling mix of horror, romance, and science fiction that will have you questioning everything, including whether you really want to hang out in the woods anymore.

Sydney Denik is an aspiring mycologist (yes, mushrooms are important!) looking for a fresh start after a messy past. What better way to reboot your life than joining a top-notch research foundation on Vancouver Island?

Well, just about anything else, as it turns out. The isolated lodge might be brimming with brilliant minds, but it’s also crawling with terrifying secrets: missing students, mid-summer snowstorms, and oh yeah….zombie animals.

And then there’s the resident psychologist. Dark, brooding, and totally off-limits, he’s impossible to resist, even as it becomes clear he’s hiding more than his feelings. (We love a morally ambiguous love interest with a tortured soul.)

What I loved:

* Gothic vibes for days. Foggy forests, haunted hallways, and an overwhelming sense of what is even going on?!
* A heroine who’s smart, determined, and just the right amount of reckless, Sydney’s unraveling is as compelling as it is terrifying.
* A romance that’s deliciously forbidden, with chemistry that burns through all the creepy tension.
* Halle’s signature blend of lush prose, relentless suspense, and twists that’ll make you gasp.

By the time you hit the final pages, you’ll be clutching your blanket, cursing the darkness, and secretly hoping for a sequel.

If you’re into dark academia with a sci-fi twist, toxic secrets, and forbidden love, Grave Matter will grip you from start to finish.

Caution: Read it with the lights on. And maybe stay away from mushrooms for a while.

4.5 ⭐️ rounded up
Once I picked up this book I really struggled with putting it back down. I loved the dark romance meets psychological sci-fi triller concept. Some of the twists really take you for a ride and there's a lot of gaslighting from the staff that gives the book a foreboding feeling. Again, it’s easy to get pulled into this story and I enjoyed this storyline a lot, who would have though that mushrooms would be so fascinating?
This was my first Karina Halle book (though I have several on my TBR) and will not be my last.
Thank you NetGalley for the electronic Advance Reader Copy, all opinions are my own.

Submitted to Amazon as well.

Came for the gorgeous cover and temperate rainforest setting (I love the PNW), stayed for the crazy mystery. I spent most of the book trying to decide whether I was looking at a supernatural phenomenon or a natural one, and just how much stock I could put in this protagonist’s narration — you’ll have to read to find out for yourself (shhh!). If “Mexican Gothic” or “The Last of Us” were your vibe, or if you want them to be but want just a little spice in those, this will be a hit for you. It’s got medium heat and one of the most interesting mysteries of the year for me, and was unputdownable because I NEEDED those answers!

Thank you so much to netgalley and Metal Blonde Books for sending this one my way!

Thank you for the opportunity

Icould not put this book down. I'm a fantasy/romantasy girlie, so I wasn't sure how this sci-fi thriller was going to go... but it was so cool and exciting. I truly enjoyed it and need more from this author

4 stars

I did not finish this one, but will give 3 stars as I think if I was a little less boring I would have stuck with it. This book was certainly different, I'm sure it will do really well!

I’m not even sure where to begin this review. I didn’t really know what to expect when I started reading Grave Matter but holy wow did it pull me in!

Grave Matter is such a perfect combination of sci-fi, horror/thriller and romance that I don’t even have the words to express how enthralled I was. I’m not big thriller/horror reader but when one grabs my attention and pulls me in, you know it’s gotta be good.

One of the things I loved about this book, besides the constant questions (I actually LOVE a book that keeps me on my toes!), was how the science worked. Even though I knew it wasn’t really real, the stuff you’ll read in this book is mind boggling in the best way! So cool and yet so messed up.

There is so much to unpack and I’m still reeling from what I read in this book but I know it’s going to stick with me and I’ll be thinking about for a very long time.


If you’re debating this book, just jump right in! It’s absolutely worth it!

Grave matter by Karina Halle is described by the author as being a dark Gothic romance psych thriller.

2.75 ⭐ Main character Sydney attends Madrona Lodge, a facility researching mycology to be able to cure disease. Things at Madrona Lodge are not what they seem, and Sydney starts to doubt the people around her, and at times, herself. The author creates a very & creepy atmosphere and describes the fungi in the book in such a gory way that it makes your skin crawl - if I didn't have a fear of fungus before, I definitely do now 😬

Woven into the plot is Sydney's relationship with her professor and psychologist, Kincaid, who on the surface comes across as a brooding, obsessed stalker - their romance goes from 0-100 in a very short space of time and I would have liked a little more of a slow burn personally. I felt it hard to connect to their relationship and it made the FMC feel younger than she was and quite naive.

The ending of the book I did not see coming but unfortunately because of the lack of connection between the main characters, I wasn't as invested as I should have been.

Overall I do think the plot is unique but I think potentially the author may have tried to incorporate too many sub genres and popular tropes and some of it maybe got a little lost along the way. I encourage readers of dark romance & horror to give this one a go!

Thank you to NetGalley & Karina Halle for the opportunity to read & review this book 📚

I really enjoyed this, but I really feel like it fell flat on the romance aspect. It gave Pet Sematary meets The Troop vibes. There were good spicy scenes, but not enough for me. I really thought there would be more. It was pretty twisty, and a trust no one kind of thing, so it was good in that aspect, but other than that, it just fell flat.

Karina Halle is always an excellent time and Grave Matter is no exception! I didn’t realise how much I needed more fungi Horror in my life, but this is truly outstanding. It is such a creepy subgenre and I can’t get enough.

The author has created something incredibly eerie and disturbing, and yet, it is also seriously sexy. The way she writes about kink is delicious; I adored Syd and Wes. Having this dynamic within a horror/psychological thriller that is delightfully dark and leaves you questioning what is real was so well done.

The foreshadowing was absolute perfection: “Don’t trust any of them. They’re all lying to you.” I can’t talk about this without spoilers, but please do yourself a favour and read this phenomenal book.

I saw this cover and recognized the author name so I decided to blindly apply for this ARC. And wow, I am so glad I did. Although to be fair, I don’t think I could have anticipated anything that happened even if I had read the synopsis.

The premise is a young grad student with a trouble past heading to a remote island after being selected to participate in a highly coveted but highly secretive research project. And of course, once she gets to the island, things are not as they seem.

This book was a bit of a slower start for me but after getting about 30% in, I was hooked. I was so on edge and didn’t know what to think or who to trust.

Overall, this book was such a good mix of horror/thriller/sci-fi/dark romance/dark academia.

5/5 ⭐️
3/5 🌶️ (spice quality was like a 4 but quantity 1-2)

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for access to this ARC!

This was a creepy, atmospheric read. Perfect for fall. It started off really slow and it took me a long time to get into it, The story doesn’t really take off until about 75% of the way through, but once it does- it speeds towards the end with lots of reveals and twists and turns. Overall I ended up liking it, but definitely wish it was evenly paced throughout.

What a way to end spooky season! 👏🏻 I love horror and dark romance and this was chefs kiss! I love it when you don’t know where a book is going and it just surprises you constantly. It was perfectly fast paced and kept you hooked this was exactly what I needed. The MMC dear lord can she write a good MMC. My only critique is the last 12% of the book but honestly that’s how most horror sci fi books go. Overall loved this and everyone should read it.

Thank you NetGalley for this book’

The twists and turns in this book gave me whiplash (in a good way) and I found myself speeding through the last few chapters to find out what was really going on!!!! I loved the fungi aspects and the dark academia, the tension between the student/teacher and I’m not usually a huge fan of student/teacher but this was done really really well and I was impressed. This book is dark, eerie, twisty and spicy and I think you’re gonna love it too!!!

Thank you, NetGalley for this arc!

Okay, wtf was that???? This book is unique and original. I was not expecting to like this as much as I did. I was fully immersed in the foggy gloomy setting of a secluded part of Vancouver Island.
The ending was so fast-paced and answered question after question that I had while reading the first 3/4 of the book.
This is a book you read to scratch a specific vibe you're going for. It's a fun creepy time.

I've been reading Karina Halle since she first started self publishing in 2012-ish. I enjoyed this book and the strange things that happened in the story intrigued me. I wasn't expecting the plot twist toward the end and honestly, I felt like I didn't understand it very well. I understood the premise of what happened but couldn't follow the timeline and the HOW of it. Perhaps that's just my misunderstanding.

It was definitely darker than some of her previous books, but I enjoyed it. I wish it had been longer to fully flesh out what happened after the plot twist.

Grave Matter
By Karina Halle
4 ⭐️

Grave Matter is the epitome of atmospheric. I cannot gush enough about the feel of this book – uber remote wilderness (obtained in a very sketchy way from the nearby indigenous tribe – that is addressed in the storyline *high five to that*) with the whole point of being there to search through the damp underbrush for fungi. I could hear the muck squish under the interns’ boots. I loved it. The story is interesting with bits of paranormal action, sci-fi – when science goes awol without regulations and very questionable morals, romance, “what!?” secrets to be revealed in the precious last 20%, and beyond.

I found it to be a really fun, creepy read. I eyeballed this one and felt it held my attention well. There were parts of the story I wasn’t loving then the ending righted my ship – I can’t say more. I’m only mentioning it to say that if your raising an eyebrow while reading this, keeeeep reading.

Thank you to NetGalley, Karina Halle, and Metal Blonde Books for this eARC.

4.5 ⭐️

I never thought I would fall in love with fungi horror but Grave Matter has me craving more! There is a little spicy with some BDSM elements. It is definitely a slow-burn with the pace starting off slow and a bit confusing, but by the end, everything falls into place with spore-filled clarity! I also appreciate the neurodiversity represented especially the relatability of a female with ADD.