June 1, 2019

Throughout this anthology, Tremblay (The Cabin at the End of the World) tackles a range of mysterious subjects. From the title story about two young girls "Growing Things" in their basement to "Something About Birds," in which a journalist interviews a novelist whose writing becomes all too real, the author invites feelings of unease. Other stories include "It's Against the Law To Feed the Ducks," told from the perspective of a five-year-old vacationing with his parents when an unnamed catastrophic event causes other vacationers to disappear suddenly and "The Teacher," in which a video shown in class disrupts a student's mental well-being. Tremblay's unsettling prose, filled with poetic metaphors, sets an ominous tone, and readers will be sucked in from page one. His unnerving creations leave just enough room for readers' own imaginations to fill in the gory details. VERDICT Horror and suspense aficionados will welcome this shiver-inducing collection.--Natalie Browning, Longwood Univ. Lib., Farmville, VA

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 15, 2019
Nineteen eerie short stories from an award-winning writer who clearly embraces literary horror fully. No lie: The Cabin at the End of the World (2018) was a tough read because it's terrifying in an unusual way, so it's not a surprise that these frighteningly imaginative slices of horror are often far more chilling than their relatively mundane inspirations. Tremblay, like Joe Hill, Chuck Wendig, Richard Kadrey, and their ilk, is among the best in the literary business but chooses to play in a fairly specific genre, which is pretty much horror taken to another plane. Well-written, yes. But scary as hell, which is an equally admirable trick to accomplish. The title story shows up first, depicting a slow apocalypse via invasive plants not as a panorama but as one family's bitter end. It also contains the book's most frightening line: "There are no more stories." Next is "Swim Wants to Know If It's as Bad as Swim Thinks," portraying a junkie--SWIM is a cipher for "someone who isn't me"--who's trying to describe her addiction online even as some monster might be nearby. We get a couple of hardcore crime stories in "The Getaway," in which a knockoff artist is struggling to escape his brother's shadow, and "Nineteen Snapshots of Dennisport," which might as well have been a deleted scene from Scorsese's The Departed. The best, most challenging stories are completely meta. "Notes for 'The Barn in the Wild' " details the Blair Witch Project-esque journey of someone trying to get to the bottom of a story while "Something About Birds" finds a writer launching a zine delving into the mysterious history of a famous writer, all structured in unexpected ways. The rest are creepfests inspired by everything from Poe to Lovecraft to King. There's a little fan service as well--a character who seems to be Karen Brissette from Tremblay's A Head Full of Ghosts waxes eloquent about the horror genre in the extended "Notes From the Dog Walkers" while the memorable Merry from the same earlier book anchors the equally creepy "The Thirteenth Temple." From high fantasy to monsters to (literally) Hellboy, something for everyone who digs things that go bump in the night.

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Starred review from May 15, 2019
Tremblay's (The Cabin at the End of the World, 2018) short story collection brilliantly takes ordinary situations?an author reading, an AP history class, a family vacation?and seamlessly sprinkles in a sense of unease that quickly builds to a sense of pure horror. Notes from the Dog Walker is a brand-new story and among the most impressive here. Told in a series of messages left by various dog walkers, the story begins innocently literal, slowly becoming odd, moving to awkward, and ultimately spiraling into intense discomfort, all while thoughtfully breaking down the current state of horror fiction and connecting the universes of Tremblay's own recent novels. Readers need not know anything about his previous work to enjoy these stories, however. All are anchored by a variety of strong narrative voices that expertly guide the reader through extremely dark emotions, smoothing out the potentially bumpy ride into an enjoyable experience to terrifying depths. These are stories that live in the increasing popular space between literary fiction and horror, where speculative terrors and very real universal truths collide, much like the works of Stephen Graham Jones, John Langan, and Jac Jemc.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)

"[Growing Things] brilliantly takes ordinary situations—an author reading, an AP history class, a family vacation—and seamlessly sprinkles in a sense of unease that quickly builds to a sense of pure horror. . . . These are stories that live in the increasing popular space between literary fiction and horror, where speculative terrors and very real universal truths collide." — Booklist (starred review)

"In these 19 stories, Tremblay doesn't just hold a mirror up to reality, but live-streams it, projecting the whole spectrum of our modern anxieties so vividly it feels as if we're watching in real time . . . . You can't help feeling that he is a writer whose reach will continue to grow and grow and grow." — New York Times Book Review

“Tremblay's unsettling prose, filled with poetic metaphors, sets an ominous tone, and readers will be sucked in from page one.” — Library Journal

"It is a terrible thing to read a Paul Tremblay story. . . Terrible because you know, going in, that it's probably going to mess you up. That his stories and his words have this way of getting under your skin. Of crawling inside you like bugs and just . . . living there. They become indistinguishable from memory. . . It's terrible to read these stories, but you do it anyway. . . They're fun because they're dangerous. Because, word by word and title by title, I can feel the damage accruing. The scars." — NPR

“These frighteningly imaginative slices of horror are often far more chilling than their relatively mundane inspirations. . . . . From high fantasy to monsters to (literally) Hellboy, [Growing Things has] something for everyone who digs things that go bump in the night.” — Kirkus Reviews

“Paul Tremblay has mastered creepy, interstitial spaces with his own brand of supernatural-adjacent horror. This collection proves again that in any form, at any length, Tremblay is a must-read.” — Chuck Wendig, New York Times bestselling author of Wanderers and Invasive

“Those hoping for the perfect balance of terror and psychological insight that makes for the most frightening reading should flock to Growing Things.” — Los Angeles Times

“On display is Tremblay's gift for inventive storytelling techniques, most notably his bold use of metafictional narrative conceits such as invented emails, blog entries, articles, and other detritus of the digital world. A great introduction to Tremblay's oeuvre.” — Toronto Star

"Taken as a whole, the book confirms Tremblay's atmospheric mastery, his ability to capture a growing sense of Not Right, the moment when dream goes nightmare." — Boston Globe

“A skilled purveyor of the uncanny who always seeks meaning amidst the fear, Paul Tremblay is one of the key writers who have made modern horror exciting again.” — Adam Nevill, author of The Ritual

“Intensely gripping. . . . Tremblay weaves these dark and often macabre narratives quite deftly, cradling the reader between reality and the implausible.” — TheNerdDaily.com

"Paul Tremblay's writing has a way of sneaking under your skin and messing with your head. . . . Growing Things is a collection of bite-sized, disturbing and brilliantly observed stories . . . Some will make you question everything you thought you knew about the craft of writing." — Sarah Lotz, author of The Three and The White Road

“A short...