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A review by foxfic
Swallowed by Meg Smitherman
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.25
So I read Swallowed by Meg Smitherman, author of Thrum, which I had loved. I was so, so excited for Swallowed, and nearly all of my expectations have ended in disappointment.
The premise is a standard one: with Earth becoming uninhabitable, a crew of astronauts depart to search for a new home to host humanity. The twist: this crew is the second to journey to The Planet (which doesn’t have a name, one of my greatest sources of annoyance — humans name everything. EVERYTHING). The first expedition was a failure, with one woman returning to earth and later becoming the mother of our main character.
Now, the circumstances of that ill fated first crew are cloaked in mystery, but the clues the world is given as to their fates should lead to some obvious precautions for group number two. Not only do they not take any, but they send up the least cohesive, distractingly bland squad of scientists for the trip. They bicker, they have no plan, they do no science at all save setting up a centrifuge for a reason I still don’t understand, and they toss around mental illness diagnosis at each other with scant in-story explanation, background, or symptoms.
I need you all to know — I was all in for the concept of a horror sci-fi romance on a plant that coaxes people into having sex until they die. And, sure, at its best moments, Swallowed gives us that.
There’s some beautiful lines interwoven throughout the distracting plot which really hint at what could have been a scary, sexy work of art. A Venus-fly trap forest filled with questing and insatiable vines and flowers, something in the air making everyone take leave of all of their senses, suggestive descriptions of texture and a desire to become one with something or someone who wants to consume you.
And then the characters interact with each other and there I am, completely taken out of the story, wondering why mental illness is such a scapegoat in this work and how many times we can refer to the lead as a real military man.
Sadly, I don’t recommend. I never got swept into any of the spicy scenes, and I enjoyed the horror ending in theory but found the reasoning for it absolutely beyond believability.
The premise is a standard one: with Earth becoming uninhabitable, a crew of astronauts depart to search for a new home to host humanity. The twist: this crew is the second to journey to The Planet (which doesn’t have a name, one of my greatest sources of annoyance — humans name everything. EVERYTHING). The first expedition was a failure, with one woman returning to earth and later becoming the mother of our main character.
Now, the circumstances of that ill fated first crew are cloaked in mystery, but the clues the world is given as to their fates should lead to some obvious precautions for group number two. Not only do they not take any, but they send up the least cohesive, distractingly bland squad of scientists for the trip. They bicker, they have no plan, they do no science at all save setting up a centrifuge for a reason I still don’t understand, and they toss around mental illness diagnosis at each other with scant in-story explanation, background, or symptoms.
I need you all to know — I was all in for the concept of a horror sci-fi romance on a plant that coaxes people into having sex until they die. And, sure, at its best moments, Swallowed gives us that.
There’s some beautiful lines interwoven throughout the distracting plot which really hint at what could have been a scary, sexy work of art. A Venus-fly trap forest filled with questing and insatiable vines and flowers, something in the air making everyone take leave of all of their senses, suggestive descriptions of texture and a desire to become one with something or someone who wants to consume you.
And then the characters interact with each other and there I am, completely taken out of the story, wondering why mental illness is such a scapegoat in this work and how many times we can refer to the lead as a real military man.
Sadly, I don’t recommend. I never got swept into any of the spicy scenes, and I enjoyed the horror ending in theory but found the reasoning for it absolutely beyond believability.