Follow Me to Ground by Sue Rainsford is a creepy, quick read. It’s one of those stories that’s hard to describe but it did put me in mind of a few other things. For my fellow Sims lovers, I got strong PlantSim vibes from our main characters. Take that and mix it with a dash of Pet Sematary by Stephen King and you have this book😅 This review will have spoilers.
Synopsis:
Ada and her father, touched by the power to heal illness, live on the edge of a village where they help sick locals—or “Cures”—by cracking open their damaged bodies or temporarily burying them in the reviving, dangerous Ground nearby. Ada, a being both more and less than human, is mostly uninterested in the Cures, until she meets a man named Samson. When they strike up an affair, to the displeasure of her father and Samson’s widowed, pregnant sister, Ada is torn between her old way of life and new possibilities with her lover—and eventually comes to a decision that will forever change Samson, the town, and the Ground itself.
Follow Me to Ground is fascinating and frightening, urgent and propulsive. In Ada, award-winning author Sue Rainsford has created an utterly bewitching heroine, one who challenges conventional ideas of womanhood and the secrets of the body. Slim but authoritative, Follow Me to Ground lingers long after its final page, pulling the reader into a dream between fairytale and nightmare, desire and delusion, folktale and warning.
My Thoughts:
- Rating– ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Follow Me to Ground is a delightfully weird story. It follows the lives of Ada and her father. They are supernatural creatures made from plants. While they can mimic human behavior, they are very alien and would never be mistaken for normal people. They can reproduce but the parent creates the baby from plants. As I mentioned above, I couldn’t help but think of the PlantSims from the Sims.
There isn’t a whole lot more information given about Ada and her father. Their main goal in life seems to be to heal people and tend The Ground; a special patch of earth that people can be buried in and healed from sickness. Ada deviates from this path, though, by falling in love with a Cure, Samson.
Samson is a twisted and broken man but I don’t want to give away too much about him. Ada tries to fix him in the only way she knows how and puts him in The Ground. The book ends with Samson rising but it’s left open ended so we don’t find out how The Ground effected him.
I wouldn’t say that this book is scary but it’s definitely unsettling and filled with body horror. It’s not overly gruesome but it is descriptive. The only reason I’m giving this book four stars and not five is because I wanted more. I don’t love open endings, though it is strongly implied that this ending isn’t a happy one. I also just wanted to know more about Ada and her father. Other than that, I enjoyed everything about it.
Final Thoughts:
This is the first of my October reads that I’ve really enjoyed. If you’re looking for a fairly short, spooky supernatural story, try this one. I’d love to know what you’re reading this month! Thanks for reading and have a great day!
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