Monstera

My first solo apartment was a tiny one-bedroom walk-up on the top floor of a Victorian house in Richmond, VA, so I immediately felt connected to Lucy as she handed over her cash to her creepy landlord for her first apartment on the top floor of a Victorian house, though hers is in Savannah, GA. (Another key difference, my desperation was from making barely more than minimum wage as a bookstore manager - and hers was [spoilers!] - but she was desperate - to start her new life and forget her past, details of which are slowly revealed throughout Delilah S. Dawson's upcoming release, Monstera.

She quickly becomes infatuated with her downstairs neighbor, Saskia, a weightlifter whose apartment is full of plants and art - and who has secrets of her own, from Lucy at least. We learn very early (though we don't understand why, what, or how) that she constantly plucks seeds with tendrils from under her skin and that she has violent sleepwalking tendencies.

As Lucy learns to live on her own and deal with the real world outside of her reclusive past and against Saskia's will, they begin to grow closer until secrets are inevitably revealed.

From title alone, Monstera is going to draw comparisons to Bloom, which I can see. Both are sapphic romances with horror elements, but I think Monstera hits harder on both fronts. The horror thread runs through from the beginning, and the "romance" (i.e. sex) was a key theme as Lucy experienced her sexual awakening along with her freedom from her past - which made for some pretty steamy scenes. I do a lot of my audiobook listening on my commute to and from work, and there are some scenes in this one I wish I'd saved for the privacy of my home, so be warned (in a good way)!

I listened to this on audio, and it was narrated beautifully by Laura English. It can be tricky to make multiple female characters distinct, but she did a great job! 

Thank you to NetGalley, Titan Books, and Tantor Media for the ARC/ALC of Monstera, which releases on 10/13/2026.

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