Willow Rose Book Review

by Catalina Bonati

3.25/ 5 stars ★★★☆☆

Willow Rose by M. Kevin Hayden (to be published October 28 2025) is a short novel of cabin-in-the-woods horror, winter horror and cosmic horror. A previously undetected comet is passing by over Earth, momentarily halting air traffic and cutting off communications and sometimes electricity. ER doctor Alden Peony is struggling to keep his grip on reality as his memories keep surfacing to haunt him and strange occurrences are happening in the woods surrounding his cabin. When a strange girl appears at his doorstep one night, a series of events unleashes in which he, his flame Faith, and the little girl named Willow must survive the cosmic monster which is stalking the woods.

This story is atmospheric in its depiction of the comet overhead tinging everything a strange green color and in its portrayal of loneliness in the woods. The monster itself is a giant and a mish-mash of animals with gruesome killing power, resulting in a foul abominable creature that is pretty cool. Alden is a black man who confronts the monster in a way that is “learned […] on the Southside of Chicago,” adding texture and an innovative dimension to cosmic horror literature. Alden also interacts with some of the Ojibwe people in the area, who contribute their own folk legends in the interpretation of the beast. However, they call it by the name of a known folk monster, and by naming the monster it turns from a cosmic creature into a regular monster, which takes away from the unknown horror element and cheapens the thrill of the book. It would have been better if it had not been categorized at all.

The writing is sometimes janky when it comes to dialogue. Mr. Benoit speaks in riddles that don’t make much sense and for a good portion of the book Alder only speaks in sounds. After a time this becomes a bit annoying to read continuously and it would have sufficed with Alder just attempting to speak in his mind. At one point Alder is spoken to by an unknown entity in his head which brings him peace, but it also largely speaks in riddles that don’t make sense. From this silly dialogue Alder jumps to a conclusion that is plainly nonsensical, as at no point was the reader informed of the sequence that lead to this thought. The action scenes are also a bit disjointed and sometimes hard to follow.

To conclude, this book is an interesting take on cosmic horror and a unique addition to the genre. However, it would benefit from straightforward writing of dialogue and more transparency when it comes to characters figuring things out. This book is recommended to readers of Matt Ruff, H.P. Lovecraft, and Stephen Graham Jones.    

This book was received as an ARC.