{"id":16344,"date":"2021-11-08T07:00:08","date_gmt":"2021-11-08T12:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/?p=16344"},"modified":"2021-11-07T17:32:31","modified_gmt":"2021-11-07T22:32:31","slug":"review-potted-plant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/review-potted-plant\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: The Potted Plant by Thomas Gloom"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"16345\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/review-potted-plant\/the-potted-plant-2\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/the-potted-plant-2.jpg?fit=297%2C475&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"297,475\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"the potted plant 2\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/the-potted-plant-2.jpg?fit=297%2C475&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-16345\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/the-potted-plant-2.jpg?resize=219%2C350&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"cover of The Potted Plant by Thomas Gloom\" width=\"219\" height=\"350\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/the-potted-plant-2.jpg?resize=219%2C350&amp;ssl=1 219w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/the-potted-plant-2.jpg?w=297&amp;ssl=1 297w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 219px) 85vw, 219px\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Potted-Plant-Eco-Horror-Revenge-Tale\/dp\/B09K2G3TQR\/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&amp;qid=1636323898&amp;sr=8-1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>The Potted Plant<\/em>\u00a0by Thomas Gloom<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>Gloom Publishing (October 2021)<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>134 pages; $7.99 paperback, $2.99 Kindle, $6.08 audiobook (or 1 Audible credit)\u00a0<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>Reviewed by\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/HaleyNewlin22\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Haley Newlin<\/a> <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Thomas Gloom&#8217;s eco-horror novella,\u00a0<em>The Potted Plant,\u00a0<\/em>immediately pulled me in with a cover that:<\/p>\n<p>1) sneaks in an animation of Gloom&#8217;s author persona, who is never without his shades &#8212; and which I&#8217;m sure also depicts the narrator of the tale; and<\/p>\n<p>2) parallels what I imagine was a lot of fans&#8217; gateway into the horror genre &#8212; <em>Little Shop of Horrors.\u00a0<\/em><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>And the nods to the classic comedic horror 1986 film starring Rick Moranis don&#8217;t end at the cover.<\/p>\n<p><em>The Potted Plant\u00a0<\/em>follows a young man who faces an existential crisis &#8212; his girlfriend, the woman he planned to marry, cheats on him. And, to make matters worse, she cheats with the narrator&#8217;s lifelong best friend.<\/p>\n<p>Grief-stricken, the protagonist becomes entangled in a web of feelings and thoughts of hatred, sorrow, confusion, and &#8212; perhaps the most dangerous of them all &#8212; vengeance.<\/p>\n<p>Remember the poor nerdy man in\u00a0<em>Little Shop of Horrors<\/em>?<\/p>\n<p>Enter a woman who the narrator suspects to be a witch. She gives the broken-hearted man clear instructions and sends him on his way with a new house plant. Day by day, the plant grows, consuming flies and then mice, and then&#8230;.<\/p>\n<p>I won&#8217;t spoil anything, but let&#8217;s say this thing has a taste for carnage.<\/p>\n<p>In a classic &#8220;eye for an eye&#8221; tale, Gloom weaves a wickedly enticing story that packs a sucker punch &#8212; an impressive feat in 134 pages.<\/p>\n<p><em>The Potted Plant\u00a0<\/em>reads like an old Poe story. Of course, the novella has modern touches throughout, but it reminds me of Poe in a way that feels thought-provoking thematically, atmospheric, and horrific.<\/p>\n<p>Gloom is one to watch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Potted Plant\u00a0by Thomas Gloom\u00a0 Gloom Publishing (October 2021) 134 pages; $7.99 paperback, $2.99 Kindle, $6.08 audiobook (or 1 Audible credit)\u00a0 Reviewed by\u00a0Haley Newlin Thomas Gloom&#8217;s eco-horror novella,\u00a0The Potted Plant,\u00a0immediately pulled me in with a cover that: 1) sneaks in an animation of Gloom&#8217;s author persona, who is never without his shades &#8212; and which &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/review-potted-plant\/\" class=\"more-link button bg-gold white\">Continue Reading!<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Review: The Potted Plant by Thomas Gloom&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[80],"tags":[2299,79,2496,2497],"class_list":["post-16344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-haley-newlin","tag-reviews","tag-the-potted-plant","tag-thomas-gloom"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - 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