Jenna LaBollita
Tatiana Schlote-Bonne’s What Feeds Below is thrilling, imaginative, and absolutely disgusting. I mean that last part as a compliment. Its horror is gory, detailed, and deeply uncomfortable, yet despite the strangeness of its premise and the extremity of some of its imagery, the novel never feels inaccessible. Schlote-Bonne gives readers a narrator whose voice feels familiar enough to ground an extraordinary world, making its horrors feel uncomfortably close.
Petra is an orphan approaching the age when she will have to leave the orphanage that has been her home. Her plan for what comes next is ambitious: she wants to open a clinic using medicinal plants, and doing so requires money. Petra earns that money by diving into the Void, a dangerous environment composed of different levels, each inhabited by its own species of plants and creatures. Some plants are medicinal, while others are carnivorous, venomous, or poisonous. The deeper Petra goes, the greater the danger – and the greater the potential reward.
