31 Days of Halloween - Day 16 - Book

Evil Roots - Killer Tales of the Botanic Gothic edited by Daisy Butcher. The British Library. 2019.


Cryptobotany tales are more prevalent a subgenre than most people think, but are generally less represented, especially in anthologies. Stories of strange mobile, and man-eating plants are only part of the category as this anthology of fourteen stories written between 1844 and 1935 demonstrates. Except for Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Rappaccini's Daughter" and William Hope Hodgson's classic "The Voice in the Night" (really a tale of fungus rather than plants), most of the stories will be unfamiliar to most readers. All of the stories in this anthology are enjoyable, some creepy, and show off the wide range of possibilities within this subbranch of horror.