Mushroom Blues has had a decent amount of hype, so frankly, everyone in the SFF circles has at the very least heard about this book by now. The audience seems to fall firmly into two, from what I have seen and felt myself with this book. One side, where they love it, truly love it. The other half just can’t get past the certain details which in one way or another have interfered with their reading enjoyment. 

I fall into the latter. The first 20% of the book, I am sorry to say, felt quite superficial as everything felt like it was delivered by skimming the surface only, by delivering a series of hard facts to get the introductions out of the way, and personally, due to missing the depth, I found myself rather disengaged. Maybe it’s also down to the story being plot driven rather than character driven, or the balance being tipped more towards plot than characters anyway. The second half of the book, however, picked up exponentially. I started seeing the characters more, I felt their purposes more. In fact, I can pinpoint the exact moment where I went – Finally! I now feel the emotion that the story wants the reader to feel! – and it was the scene in the police station where a bullying incident happened and the chief let loose. And, it’s worth noting that some would enjoy the slower pace of the first half to the fast/paced second half. 

Then again, where most would point out the very unlikable main character, I didn’t mind her grittiness as much. Clichéd as she was with her alcohol problem and personal drama. Personally, I didn’t think that she overcame her racism too quickly. She overcame her dislike towards the fungals because she was finally pushed into a corner by having a fungal partner and shit hit the fan. So, that change of tune in her made sense to me. 

I understand that a lot of folks enjoy the fungal aspect, the police procedural, the politics and crime aspect. Yes, solidly written, Mushroom Blues follows noir fiction down to a T with the bleak world, corruption and blurred lines in between right and wrong, and yet it somehow didn’t feel noir. I can’t put my finger on it when I try to explain why. The story certainly had these dingy locations and scenes galore, so maybe it is because of the fungal layer? It took most of the focus to this rather unique angle? I don’t know.

Anyway, the fungal approach was a clever move to freshen up a story which without the fungal aspect would have simply and comfortably fit alongside others in the genre without rocking the genre boat. Whilst it sadly wasn’t a book that blew me away, it has most certainly blown away many others, and for potential readers that means, you won’t know it until you try it yourself. Mushroom Blues has, with the backing of its fans, managed to sprout the feeling of FOMO in the reader community, so yield to the FOMO and give it a go!