Book Review: “Growing Things and Other Stories”

Growing Things and Other Stories

Paul Tremblay

Hardcover, 352 pages

Publication Date: July 2, 2019

Publisher: William Morrow

Genre: Horror, Short Stories

Paul Tremblay has had a spot on my new release radar ever since I read his award-winning 2015 novel “A Head Full of Ghosts.” While Tremblay has released two novels since then, I did not read more of his work until “Growing Things.” Perhaps I should have.

Before I explain my thoughts on “Growing Things” and Tremblay as a whole, I need to explain something else first. Stephen King, the premier name in modern horror fiction, has a long-running established universe which connects many of his books and stories to one another. Characters, locations and events cross over from their source material into other works. This establishes a continuity between seemingly unrelated stories, and it works as a reward for King’s “constant readers” who have kept up with his books over the decades. This is all illustrated well in the Hulu show “Castle Rock,” which blends much of the “King multiverse” into a single horror anthology.

King’s established canon works well because readers do not have to be familiar with the entire shared universe in order to enjoy a single work. I read “Elevation” earlier this year, and while it was set in Castle Rock, my understanding of the book was not negatively affected, even though I had never read another Castle Rock-located King book or watched the show.

I say all this about King to provide an example of what Tremblay is attempting to do in “Growing Things.” Many of the stories in this collection harken back to his previous novels and the characters within them. However, unlike King, the stories made little sense without prior knowledge of what Tremblay is referencing. He released three novels and various stories before “Growing Things” was published, and as someone who has only read his debut novel, I missed out on a lot of the references.

At first, I felt dumb. I was constantly confused by several of the stories, and I kept wondering if I was missing out on something which would help me understand what I was reading. It turns out I was missing something: knowledge of all of Tremblay’s previous works. In the author’s notes section at the end of the collection, Tremblay explains how many of the stories fit in with the rest of his canon. I feel like these explanations, while an interesting look into Tremblay’s works, should not be necessary to understand the stories. It turns out they are. Most of my confusion was cleared up after reading the author’s notes, but I had to read the entire book to get to that point.

Thankfully, not all of the stories in “Growing Things” are direct tie-ins to the established universe Tremblay is creating. A few were incredibly creative and fun to read. “Nineteen Snapshots of Dennisport” tells the story of a murder through descriptions of individual photos on a roll of film. “Notes for ‘The Barn in the Wild’” is a series of journal entries with more than one author. “Something about Birds” was solidly scary. “A Haunted House Is a Wheel Upon Which Some Are Broken” reads like a demented Choose Your Own Adventure book. These illustrate Tremblay’s creativity and ability to write horror fiction.

Unfortunately, those four were the only standouts among the 19 stories in “Growing Things.” I did not understand some of the stories because of the references I was unfamiliar with, and some were simply not very good. I can appreciate Tremblay’s excitement at creating his own interconnected literary universe, but I feel like it is forced, and the stories do not make sense outside of this universe. If you are already a fan of Tremblay and have read all of his previous books, give this a shot. You will probably enjoy it. If you are not acquainted with his writing, do not feel bad if you end up hopelessly confused.

Paige Holmes is a senior journalism major from Topeka, KS. Reading is her favorite thing to do because it teaches one how to think, imagine and live. Paige believes there is no better way to learn something or be entertained than by reading a book. Her favorite genre of books is fantasy/thriller and her favorite book is ‘Opening Moves’ by Steven James.

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