A Literary Apothecary

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group for the Advanced Reader Copy!

I had just finished what might be the newly crowned winner for the worse book I’ve ever read when Morsel came to my doorstep. I desperately need a win, so what better to try than a debut author with an ARC? What a gamble, but seriously that gamble paid off like crazy.

Lou has been terrible at her corporate job recently, and her mother being terribly ill won’t stop her higher-ups from firing her for poor performance. She’s given one final chance by her good-guy boss Elias to spend a couple weeks in the woods on an easy survey job. It’s exactly the opportunity Lou needs to refocus, but when she and her golden retriever, Ripley, arrive at the site something feels terribly wrong. There’s something in the forest that’s starving, and Lou looks like the perfect prey.

Morsel felt like it wasted literally no time. Everything on the page is important from character descriptions to small world-building details. It also waits less than fifty pages to dive into some seriously spooky horror. I really liked the setting of Appalachian Ohio. Everything felt ancient and lived in, including all the forests surrounding the meager human settlements. The isolation is tense and it does feel like Lou is truly trapped with nowhere to run. The cicadas are also such a great detail. As a southerner, it’s something that feels very distinctly southern/midwestern and it made the environment feel that much more real.

I feel like I’ve been seeing this more and more through the horror books I read, but I’m so grateful for intelligent protagonists. It’s so much more interesting to read about a character that is using all of their skills and knowledge to survive and is still getting dragged to hell. Lou has an excellent combination of logical reasoning under pressure and sensitive intuition that makes her reactions to the situations she’s placed in fun to watch. Her background also steers her away from the choices that a “more typical” horror protagonist might make, allowing us to follow a bit of a more unique story.

The other characters round out the cast well. Ripley is a very good dog, of course, and I did appreciate how she wasn’t causing a lot of trouble for Lou. Yes, Lou spends a good amount of the page count trying to rescue Ripley, but that’s not because Ripley is running off an getting herself into dangerous scenarios. It’s just because they are BOTH in a very dangerous scenario. Emma, Lou’s friend, brings a good sense of levity to the story, and I liked how ride-or-die she was for Lou. Our eventual villains feel a bit familiar, but in a way I don’t mind. They don’t really get as much depth as I would’ve preferred, but they’re more of a stand in for a thematic idea than actual individuals.

The climax of the novella is exciting and built up to well. The twist involving Lou’s mother’s illness was extremely well-foreshadowed, and I would love to go back and reread the novella with an eye towards that. The monster in the woods is vividly described, and I enjoyed the glimpses into its mind that the audience witnesses. The backstory is brief, but still gave me enough information to build the history of this being. The parallels between the beast and Lou are also quite poignant. They both hunger for something more from their life, but the forces around them keep them trapped in a lesser version of their lives and as a lesser version of themselves. Because of this, I think the way that Lou reacts in her final fight is very appropriate thematically, and horror-wise it was so unique to see.

I would absolutely recommend Morsel. It’s a short, thrilling novella that’s the perfect little bit of horror. I would recommend if you need something fast-paced to pull you out of a reading slump, but do check the trigger warnings because somethings get pretty gory! Also I absolutely LOVE the cover. It’s totally gorgeous and right up my alley.

Morsel releases on April 14th, 2026!