The Midnight Muse by Jo Kaplan is a chilling, surreal horror novel about the remaining members of metal band Queen Carrion, who reunite at the Oregon cabin where their singer Brynn vanished. As Brynn’s voice echoes through the woods, they descend into a nightmarish world of sentient mushrooms, body horror, and hallucinatory terror.

Original, grotesque, and unforgettable, this book blends nature horror with themes of obsession and creativity.

Rating: 5/5 – Wild, eerie, and brilliantly unhinged.

paranormal mushroom body horror following a metal band in the woods? yeah this was right up my alley.

the story/concept was so good i can’t stop thinking about it. the events of chapters 7 and 11 had my shocked, haunted, and spooked.

i do think the first three or so chapters were a bit confusing getting used to the different POVs, subtitles for the chapters POV would have helped

“Such is the delusion of the young-not that they will live forever, but that they will live long enough for it to feel forever”

I received this book through NetGalley for a review. Wow! What a wild story, but I loved it. It’s crazy and unhinged in the best way. I’ve never read a book about evil, sentient mushrooms before. So original and fun.

The remaining members of the band Queen Carrion rent a cabin in the woods where their lead singer and songwriter, Brynn, disappeared the year before. Things get weird almost immediately. Brynn’s haunting voice is coming out of the woods. While tripping on mushrooms around a bonfire, one member even thinks she sees Brynn in the forest. But she blames it on the drugs. She should’ve paid closer attention to the spectre she saw, because shortly after, things get supernatural and violent.

The Midnight Muse gave me serious The Ruins vibes, trapped with nature attacking. But Jo Kaplan takes it a step further with a shocking twist I never saw coming. Brilliantly, everything is related and made this such a fun and compelling read. If you love horror and you want to be freaked out, make sure you read this awesome book. It comes out March 10, 2026.

Have you ever finished reading a book and then just sat there wondering wtf you just read? Well….for me, that’s book, and I mean this as a compliment. However, I must say if you have experience with mold/mycotoxin illness, you may want to steer clear of this book.

This book is an absolutely brilliant read that explores several themes in the context of a horror story: consciousness, creativity, human sanity/psychology, the limitations and ethics of scientific exploration, humans at their most primal, and what happens when someone becomes obsessively driven by their craft, so be it art or science. It employs some of the typical horror tropes like a dilapidated and isolated cabin in the woods, a dash of occult, but what really makes it terrifying is its incorporation of nature and reality.

It is at times very gory, graphic, and grotesque, but it was so well-written that it didn’t deter me from continuing the read; it’s all-consuming read that will leave you wondering what the hell you just read…and what the world we live in is really capable of.

The atmosphere in this book was great especially in the forest where I could clearly picture the images.it was spooky, bloody and elements of the body horror were very creepy (in all the good ways). I struggled to emotionally connect with the characters fr most of the book, sadly. They were mostly unlikeable or not fully sketched out. Thorn was my favorite through and through. The parts where you are not sure what is real and what is not was well done. I just wanted to have a more of a connection through the characters,

Thank you, NetGalley, for the ARC!
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“The dead collect in low places. That’s what Brynn Werner, lead singer of metal band Queen Carrion, wrote in her notebook before she vanished while staying at a cabin in Oregon’s Umpqua National Forest.”
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Reminiscent of the writings of Nick Cutter and Ania Ahlborn, this enthralling botanical horror story gave me chills! The book follows the remaining band members of Queen Carrion as they visit a cabin deep in the woods for closure over their lead singer’s disappearance. While there, they discover something sisnister lurking in the forest. Something that wants them ALL.
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Midnight Muse was a wonderfully Gothic blend of body horror, the paranormal, and botanical horror. I will absolutely be watching for more of Kaplans work!

Same review posted to TikTok and Goodreads

This is a super early review, so I will keep it short. I LOVED THIS!

If you love creepy body horror, nature horror, and isolated cabin in the woods vibes- this is the book for you.

On the anniversary of the vanishing of their lead singer Brynn, the rest of her metal band Queen Carrion gather at the place she went missing. A cabin in the Oregon woods, isolated, where something lurks. Something that drew Brynn in… and they can hear her faintly singing through the woods.

If I went off vibes alone, this would be a five star, but with the story, the characters, the music, the body horror… it is just off the charts!