What do you think?
Rate this book
Miracle Growth
Tim Mendees does it again, with this novella that will have you screaming in fear and laughing out loud.
More Humus than Human
Bizarre things are unfolding in a sleepy Cornish town right in the middle of the annual fruit and vegetable show.
What was once a fun and enjoyable affair of roots, assorted pies, and blue ribbon pickles, has rival green-fingered neighbours turning to an untested miracle fertilizer to win the coveted Rosette. But all hell is about to break loose and it’s up to a team of bumbling locals to put an end to the insidious horror that threatens not just the town, but the whole world.
Can they stop the contamination before it spreads or will the vegetation prove to be un-beet-able?
You won't find any bland veggies in this book. Man-eating marrows and vicious vines are just a few of the nightmares that lurk within the idyllic countryside in this novella of cosmic horror. Weird, disturbing, and brilliantly funny.
You haven't read anything like this before.
More Humus than Human
Bizarre things are unfolding in a sleepy Cornish town right in the middle of the annual fruit and vegetable show.
What was once a fun and enjoyable affair of roots, assorted pies, and blue ribbon pickles, has rival green-fingered neighbours turning to an untested miracle fertilizer to win the coveted Rosette. But all hell is about to break loose and it’s up to a team of bumbling locals to put an end to the insidious horror that threatens not just the town, but the whole world.
Can they stop the contamination before it spreads or will the vegetation prove to be un-beet-able?
You won't find any bland veggies in this book. Man-eating marrows and vicious vines are just a few of the nightmares that lurk within the idyllic countryside in this novella of cosmic horror. Weird, disturbing, and brilliantly funny.
You haven't read anything like this before.
- GenresHorror
158 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 9, 2022
3 people are currently reading
53 people want to read
About the author
Tim Mendees
81 books45 followersTim Mendees is a horror writer from Macclesfield in the North-West of England that specialises in cosmic horror and weird fiction. A lifelong fan of classic weird tales, Tim set out to bring the pulp horror of yesteryear into the 21st Century and give it a distinctly British flavour. His work has been described as the love-child of H.P. Lovecraft and P.G. Wodehouse and is often peppered with a wry sense of humour that acts as a counterpoint to the unnerving, and often disturbing, narratives.
Tim has had over eighty published short stories and novelettes in anthologies and magazines with publishers all over the world. He also has five novellas and a short story collection on sale with more coming soon.
When he is not arguing with the spellchecker, Tim is a goth DJ, crustacean and cephalopod enthusiast, and the presenter of a popular web series of live video readings of his material and interviews with fellow authors. Tim is also a co-host of the Innsmouth Book Club podcast. He currently lives in Brighton & Hove with his pet crab, Gerald, and an army of stuffed octopods.
https://timmendeeswriter.wordpress.com/
https://tinyurl.com/timmendeesyoutube
Tim has had over eighty published short stories and novelettes in anthologies and magazines with publishers all over the world. He also has five novellas and a short story collection on sale with more coming soon.
When he is not arguing with the spellchecker, Tim is a goth DJ, crustacean and cephalopod enthusiast, and the presenter of a popular web series of live video readings of his material and interviews with fellow authors. Tim is also a co-host of the Innsmouth Book Club podcast. He currently lives in Brighton & Hove with his pet crab, Gerald, and an army of stuffed octopods.
https://timmendeeswriter.wordpress.com/
https://tinyurl.com/timmendeesyoutube
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
March 18, 2022
Wow! I thoroughly enjoyed this book, which took body horror to a whole new level.
March 11, 2022
Alice in wonderland meets Little Shop of Horrors with some Evil Dead thrown in for good measure.
April 3, 2022
Horror Bookworm Reviews
https://horrorbookwormreviews.com/
The local flower/vegetable show and competition has once again began its preparations for the community soil-tenders to show off their gardening skills. Home-spun tonics passed down from generations along with commercially purchased fertilizer share a desired advantage of victory. Among these intermixtures dwells a strange concoction that resins an unearthly glow of what flora nightmares are made of...an existence where feeding and multiplying are its only purpose.
A corrupt compost turns a horticultural society on its head as Tim Mendees directs his warped writing skills towards the green-thumbed art of vegetation and gardening. From these pages of grotesquely twisted trees, vicious vines and unearthly evil plants emerges a story that can only be confronted with face masks and bottles of weed killer. These ethical crop-raising techniques and toxic mutant monsters loom heavily over the authors many parasitic plot lines.
Mendees has a knack of building suspense by using precise and fast-paced weirdness at every turn of the page. He blends flawless well placed humor with horrific scenes of macabre monstrosities and unusual living organisms. However, the true stars of Miracle Growth are the colorful characters surrounded by the unrelenting forms of creeping death.
Not gonna lie, with a tip of the hat to Day of the Triffids and a Paperbacks From Hell nostalgic vibe, Eerie River Publishing delivers a Tim Mendees novel that brambles its way to an insidious five star ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Horror Bookworm Recommendation.
https://horrorbookwormreviews.com/
The local flower/vegetable show and competition has once again began its preparations for the community soil-tenders to show off their gardening skills. Home-spun tonics passed down from generations along with commercially purchased fertilizer share a desired advantage of victory. Among these intermixtures dwells a strange concoction that resins an unearthly glow of what flora nightmares are made of...an existence where feeding and multiplying are its only purpose.
A corrupt compost turns a horticultural society on its head as Tim Mendees directs his warped writing skills towards the green-thumbed art of vegetation and gardening. From these pages of grotesquely twisted trees, vicious vines and unearthly evil plants emerges a story that can only be confronted with face masks and bottles of weed killer. These ethical crop-raising techniques and toxic mutant monsters loom heavily over the authors many parasitic plot lines.
Mendees has a knack of building suspense by using precise and fast-paced weirdness at every turn of the page. He blends flawless well placed humor with horrific scenes of macabre monstrosities and unusual living organisms. However, the true stars of Miracle Growth are the colorful characters surrounded by the unrelenting forms of creeping death.
Not gonna lie, with a tip of the hat to Day of the Triffids and a Paperbacks From Hell nostalgic vibe, Eerie River Publishing delivers a Tim Mendees novel that brambles its way to an insidious five star ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Horror Bookworm Recommendation.
February 9, 2022
A cave where a meteor crashed grows strange things. Someone takes the soil to sell to local gardeners. Things grow bigger and better. But then things go wrong. Chilling read.
February 3, 2022
I was excited to read this book. I’m a fan or horror stories and I have a degree in horticulture. This reminds me of a mix of Little Shop of Horrors and The Last of Summer Wine, but brought into to 21st century and with more horror and gore. It was a quick read and one I will definitely reread.
February 12, 2022
This was a fun read! Tense, funny and gross, I had to read through it fast. I needed to know what was going to happen and to get through those gory parts. Like squeezing my eyes shut during a horror movie.
The characters were great, the plants were vicious and the pacing was well done. It was very compelling from start to finish, I had a hard time putting it down!
The characters were great, the plants were vicious and the pacing was well done. It was very compelling from start to finish, I had a hard time putting it down!
March 11, 2022
A fun, gross, campy and thrilling horror novella that I absolutely enjoyed!
The characters are spectacular and the plot is so engrossing. I felt pretty invested in the story right from the beginning and Mendees did not let me down.
I highly recommend this book for fans of cosmic, eco or body horror. A must read that will seriously grow on you. ;)
The characters are spectacular and the plot is so engrossing. I felt pretty invested in the story right from the beginning and Mendees did not let me down.
I highly recommend this book for fans of cosmic, eco or body horror. A must read that will seriously grow on you. ;)
February 21, 2022
This was such a brilliant read. Full of action and vibrant characters, it's a fantastic horror story with Mendees' trademark creativity and wit. I highly recommend it for horror fans!
February 11, 2022
Tim has a wonderful way of transporting you through the craziest situations in his stories.
I was entranced by this little town and its characters from the very minute I started reading.
If you are a fan of Lovecraftian fiction mixed with a good dose of humour and weirdness, then this book is for you.
I was entranced by this little town and its characters from the very minute I started reading.
If you are a fan of Lovecraftian fiction mixed with a good dose of humour and weirdness, then this book is for you.
April 8, 2022
In Miracle Growth, Tim Mendees proves there really is nothing more nefarious or terrifying as competitive, little-England gardeners in a way only Mendees could achieve.
Miracle Growth is the latest addition in Mendees' own Lovecraftian shared world, and it's the best one yet. Marrying his skill for creating weird situation from the everyday with off-the-wall "too-normal" characters, Mendees is onto a winner here as he creates his own version of Lovecraft vs Edgar Wright's Hot Fuzz. It's equal measures funny, charming, and horrific.
You'll never look at a marrow in the same way again...
Miracle Growth is the latest addition in Mendees' own Lovecraftian shared world, and it's the best one yet. Marrying his skill for creating weird situation from the everyday with off-the-wall "too-normal" characters, Mendees is onto a winner here as he creates his own version of Lovecraft vs Edgar Wright's Hot Fuzz. It's equal measures funny, charming, and horrific.
You'll never look at a marrow in the same way again...
March 12, 2022
This is an exceptional book in the horror genre. I like the blend of humour and horror. People in a small town are competing with one another for the biggest and best produce. One man is selling fertilizer which increases the growth rate of vegetables, fruits and flowers. People flock to buy from him. Every thing looks hunky dory until the people become vegetables and one spunky lady finds a solution. Can she save the whole town in time or are they headed for a complete cosmic disaster?
January 5, 2023
Cosmic horror, body horror, plant horror (it might not really be an actual type of horror but as a plant person I want it to be so here goes), tea, like lots of tea, and an Elvis impersonator, what more could you want really? A sprinkling of humor? It's there too!
April 11, 2022
Mendees does it again! Another witty tale packed with humour and terror.
July 28, 2024
One of the things I love about horror is that it’s so varied – it can be anything from a Jamesian ghost story to an ‘80a slasher movie, from cosmic horror to psychological horror. Gothic or pulp. I don’t like the term ‘elevated horror,’ with its implication that there's a class of horror writing that's somehow superior to ordinary genre fare, because the joy of the field is that it can do so much. It can appeal to the intellect, or the emotions, or both. Or it can just be fun.
Miracle Growth is unabashed, unashamed fun, and a delight to read. In film terms, it’s like a hugely entertaining B-movie. I don’t know if the presence of a brawny police sergeant called Finch is a sly tribute to Paul of that ilk (an ex-copper and author of punchy, immensely-readable horror and crime tales,) but he’s a great character nonetheless, if somewhat overshadowed by his mother Ivy, an indomitable horticulturist from the Women’s Institute with occasional pyromaniac tendencies.
No, this definitely isn’t ‘elevated’ horror: it’s high-energy pulp fiction. It's horror as entertainment, and a terrific example of it. And sometimes that’s exactly what you need. In genre terms, it’s comfort food, and as someone who enjoys far more pizzas and Chinese takeaways than is really good for him, I bloody loved it.
There are shades of Wyndham's Day of the Triffids and Lovecraft's The Colour out of Space, and the classic Tom Baker-era Dr Who serial The Seeds of Doom, shot through with a good deal of tongue-in-cheek humour, all of which put me in mind of the stories of John Llewellyn Probert, and that, also, is a very good thing. Miracle Growth is above all fun, and I’ll be adding Tim Mendees to my list of writers I go to when the world feels messy, scary and miserable and I want to visit somewhere else.
Miracle Growth is unabashed, unashamed fun, and a delight to read. In film terms, it’s like a hugely entertaining B-movie. I don’t know if the presence of a brawny police sergeant called Finch is a sly tribute to Paul of that ilk (an ex-copper and author of punchy, immensely-readable horror and crime tales,) but he’s a great character nonetheless, if somewhat overshadowed by his mother Ivy, an indomitable horticulturist from the Women’s Institute with occasional pyromaniac tendencies.
No, this definitely isn’t ‘elevated’ horror: it’s high-energy pulp fiction. It's horror as entertainment, and a terrific example of it. And sometimes that’s exactly what you need. In genre terms, it’s comfort food, and as someone who enjoys far more pizzas and Chinese takeaways than is really good for him, I bloody loved it.
There are shades of Wyndham's Day of the Triffids and Lovecraft's The Colour out of Space, and the classic Tom Baker-era Dr Who serial The Seeds of Doom, shot through with a good deal of tongue-in-cheek humour, all of which put me in mind of the stories of John Llewellyn Probert, and that, also, is a very good thing. Miracle Growth is above all fun, and I’ll be adding Tim Mendees to my list of writers I go to when the world feels messy, scary and miserable and I want to visit somewhere else.
March 16, 2022
Do you like H.P. Lovecraft? How about old sci-fi horror movies? What about Stranger Things? Well I got all those vibes from this read. It had an interesting build up as well as lots of explosions but the more I read the more I got into it. My mind was reading it like one of those vintage black and white horror movies. It also very much reminded me of the first season of Stranger Things too which the body horror, the something other worldly happening, and that eclectic group of characters coming together to save the day. While being Canadian a few of the references where a bit lost to me but learned there is a courgette variant of sorts. Which I probably won’t be eating anytime soon just to be safe.
After reading this one I would be very interested to check out Mendees other work and recommend it to people who like this time of dark, horror, and cosmic reads. Easily an engrossing weekend or day read depending how much people have to bother you while reading it.
After reading this one I would be very interested to check out Mendees other work and recommend it to people who like this time of dark, horror, and cosmic reads. Easily an engrossing weekend or day read depending how much people have to bother you while reading it.
March 26, 2022
This is Mr. Mendees at his absolute best. You have the quirkiness of a Midsomer Murder blended with a cosmic horror, all set against the background of a spring fete. Set in Betyls Cove, we have the occasional character who have appeared in other of Tim's stories. He has a keen way bringing scenes to life with his description and language. We know these people and then find ourselves facing sentient plants and strong-willed seniors. The heroes of Betyls Cove combat the horrors with an iron will and a strong cup of tea. This pairing of Tim Mendees with Eerie River Publishing is one of his best. Well done sir.
February 14, 2023
My first thought was that this was heavily inspired by Day of The Triffids, seeing references to it while reading confirmed it. I love that Tim paid tribute to that book so to speak in both theme, good writing and length of the book... and made something uniquely good by adding his own touch of lovecraftian horror to it. Chef's kiss.
March 18, 2022
Really enjoyed this story. Made me wish there was more. Definitely had some creepy descriptive vibes I wasn't expecting, but enjoyed every bit of it. I really appreciated how some aspects did cut straight to the point in a way that other stories will drag it out. A wonderful horror theme read.
March 29, 2022
A terrifying story full of delightful characters and evil foliage. A quick read that drew me and had me laughing and wincing from one moment to the next. Definitely, something I haven’t read before but will gladly read again.
March 18, 2022
I will admit I went into this book thinking it was going to be pretty silly. I was pretty skeptical that killer plants could be scary but I was pleasantly surprised. It was a great engaging read!
February 12, 2023
Such a great read! Has a sweet B-horror movie vibe mixed with some great body horror with a dash of cosmic horror.
October 1, 2023
That was quite fun
September 9, 2024
Be careful what you buy off a guys down the pub....
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews