Content levels
Positive tags
Hero archetypes
Heroine archetypes
Protagonist archetypes
Themes
Synopsis
Publisher's Weekly What would happen if, through a genetic experiment gone awry, fungi--mushrooms, toadstools, molds and yeasts--were to go out of control and grow with unprecedented vigor and speed and tenacity, and in places formerly inimicable to them? Knight has pulled out the stops to produce an imaginative and fast-paced sci-fi horror tale set in the British Isles. The protagonist is Barry Wilson, a semi-successful author of spy novels and a former mycologist. Barry's wife Jane, from whom he is separated, is the scientist whose experiment has lead to the disaster, and the British government has called upon Barry to help find Jane and her lab notes. Crossing London in an armored tank, Barry and two other volunteers observe all sorts of grotesqueries: people and animals covered with multicolored fungi, some still alive, some now quite insane; farms and buildings and forests draped in spongy shrouds; mushrooms tall as skyscrapers. Barry survives a series of hair-raising adventures and eventually locates his wife, who has gone mad and has become the high priestness of a cult of fungi-loving female separatists. But he gets the research notes. A first-rate and vivid thriller.
The Fungus: content & age rating
Intended for adult readers (18+).
This graphic horror novel features extreme body horror imagery of fungi-covered people and animals, vivid descriptions of grotesque mutations, and disturbing scenes of madness and death throughout a fungal apocalypse.
What to know going in
This book has strong violence, no sexual content, and moderate language. Content notes include gore, death, and animal death (see the full list above).
Who'll love this
Adult readers who love apocalyptic survival stories with biological horror will be gripped by this vivid nightmare scenario.