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Reviewed by Asher Syed for Readers' Favorite
The Elegance of Decay by Stoney Brooks follows Dustin, a postgraduate bryologist who leads five companions into the Northern Arizona wilderness to study moss growing on a cliff face. Their camp rests on metal platforms bolted three hundred feet above the valley, leaving the group dependent on ropes for every route back to safety. After one ladder snaps, Mexican exchange student Felipe is left badly injured on the lower platform while Reid, an off-duty paramedic, searches for a way to reach help. The satellite phone has corroded overnight, yet a mobile phone begins ringing from inside a cave. As the moss spreads across their supplies and weakens the structure beneath them, the survivors realize that their discovery may be controlling the cliff while preventing anyone from leaving.
Stoney Brooks’ The Elegance of Decay is a botanical survival-horror novel that turns a cliffside research expedition into a frightening creature feature. Brooks makes the trapped campers feel realistic by making them imperfect and giving them chances at redemption. The author is brilliant at setting a scene. The remote location produces a methodical dread, then quickens in pacing as each escape attempt comes up against another roadblock. Who knew moss had such abilities? There's some sensational gore that may or may not include the probing of an infected eye socket. When Brooks employs the wet sensation of something squirming beneath a fingernail, the ick factor does all the heavy lifting in one of the best bodily invasion scenes I've read in ages. Every development is amplified by the fact that the characters’ fears are grounded in their individual histories. This is the perfect fit for lovers of survival stories with a twist. Very highly recommended.
