The House Plant

This was another story that was very nicely given to me as an ARC reader. 

At the beginning of Jeremy Ray's stories there's a nod to Pixar's little shorts before their movies and how much he loves them and wants to honor them with little micro-stories before his own pieces. I love that and I particularly loved that for this piece because this entire story could read like a Pixar release. 

It follows a legitimate house plant in a story of love, death, grief, forgiveness, and growth. It should be silly and yet it pulls at all your heart strings instead.  I was once again attached to my phone from start to finish, just like with Petrified Women. You'll feel a genuine pit in your stomach and maybe some tears in your eyes as well. I think it's a point in the authors favor as well that he can write such gripping drama and also horror. I feel like it's not often enough that we see authors doing more than one genre well.

I absolutely encourage you to pick this up. You can find all of Jeremy's work via the link in his bio on Instagram, and everything (paperback and digital) is available through Amazon! 

My favorite book in the 4th grade was The Plant that Ate Dirty Socks by Nancy McArthur, so when I was approached by the author of this short story to read and review honestly, I was more than happy to. The language used by authors while writing sentient objects is generally a hit or miss for me. While I liked the way George the fern talked about his humans after he grew to care for them, I think having more than one description name for characters made me less endeared to George than I wanted to be. For example using “boy-human” and “boy-offspring” when referring to one character became more confusing than quirky. I loved how the plant became a connection to Brenda for the family in the end and that George finally got a palm friend, but for some reason I felt stronger about George's affection for Tyler than Brenda. It's a cute read for when you have 15 minutes to spare and the micro story in the beginning is absolutely adorable. It makes me wonder if the reason I can't keep plants alive is more to do with their stubbornness or mine...