Four close friends arrange a trip to the Amazon, all aware this is likely to be their last group outing before the responsibilities of adulthood take them in separate directions. High on adrenaline, plans for an early night before the hike quickly fade, an overindulgence in liquor and drugs setting the stage for the strangest of tales from the locals…and one hell of a hangover.
Fairy stories for adults? Folklore to keep the drinks flowing?
Grab your backpack and mosquito repellent. There’s only one way to find out.
Dark bleetings everyone! If you’ve been following our reviews for a while, you’ll already know that we, the goats, are pretty big fans of Mark Towse. Such big fans, in fact, that he won an award last year for ‘Best Novella of Novella November’ for his excellent and nasty little novella, Nana. We’ve had this other novella, Nature’s Perfume for quite some time, and FINALLY I was able to get around to it. So…. was I impressed?
We begin with a group of 4 friends (two couples), who are on a trip backpacking through a forest in Ecuador. Some guy in a bar told them about a little village that can be found, so off they go like hobbits on an adventure, searching for a strange (small) new land. But…. things go awry. The first thing I have to mention is that, as usual, Towse’s characters are great. I think one of his greatest strengths as a writer is how authentically he builds and presents people and their relationships. Immediately, I knew these guys, liked them, and believed in them. Which, naturally, immediately raises the stakes for me as a reader.
So… the thing about this forest is that it’s full of these strange, intoxicating flowers that have a peculiar effect, shall we say, on our group. An effect that, quite frankly, horrified me and made me blush in equal measure!
I actually started to feel panicked because things go from merely strange (admittedly VERY strange, but just strange) to nail-bitingly tense at the drop of a hat. There’s a slight build-up of tension as we wonder how the gang will get out of their predicament, and then all of a sudden we’re hit with balls-out chaos. I was all a-fluster in my head as everything unravelled, with nary a second to think about what was happening. That’s not to say that it wasn’t set up, it was very deliberate – Towse knows how to plot a story so that nothing just hits you out of nowhere. It was a great, wild ride – not one that I’d ever want to partake in though!
This is an excellent novella as usual from this author, and one I’d highly recommend to general horror fans (especially if you prefer your horror of the real-world variety). Also, there’s a delightfully nasty little bonus story at the end that reminds me of early King.
If you’d like to get your own copy or check out the author, the links you need are below:
Happy Goat Horror 
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