Review: Overgrowth by Mira Grant

Title: Overgrowth

Author: Mira Grant

Genre: Adult, sci-fi, horror

Publication date: May 6th 2025

Published by: Tor Nightfire

Source: eARC for review from publishers via Netgalley

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Synopsis: Day of the Triffids meets Little Shop of Horrors in this smart, charming, harrowing alien invasion story about being human, by a Hugo-award winning author.

Since she was three years old, Anastasia Miller has been telling anyone who would listen that she's an alien disguised as a human being, and that the armada that left her on Earth is coming for her. Since she was three years old, no one has believed her.

Now, with an alien signal from the stars being broadcast around the world, humanity is finally starting to realize that it's already been warned, and it may be too late. The invasion is coming, Stasia's biological family is on the way to bring her home, and very few family reunions are willing to cross the gulf of space for just one misplaced child.

What happens when you know what's coming, and just refuse to listen?

My rating: ★★★⯪☆

I have really enjoyed Mina Grant's books, and while I didn't love this one as much as those previous books I've read, I still did end up enjoying it for the most part.

One thing I love about this author's books is that the premise of the books is always interesting, and this one was no different. So, we have Anastasia Miller, who, since she was a child, has been telling everyone who would listen that she is an alien and that an alien invasion is coming. People, of course, don't believe her. And then a strange signal from outer space is intercepted, and that's when people start taking her seriously. Unfortunately, it's too little too late.

Like I mentioned before, I liked this for the most part. However, there were things here and there that I just didn't vibe with. There was a certain event, for example, that happened in the middle of the book that reminded me of the Parasitology series, and not in a good way. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed that trilogy, but this is a thing that happened in every single book, and it got old fast. And then it happens in this one, too? Ugh.

The government kidnapping the protagonist 🙄

And that's all I'll say on that. But I was annoyed. Luckily, it didn't last, and I was happy about that. Lol.

The other thing I was not a fan of was the end. A lot of this author's books have a bittersweet ending, which I don't mind. I don't even mind the twist endings in horror where the killer comes back to life and slaughters everyone. Lol. But here's what didn't work for me:

Long story short: alien seedlings were sent out from a far-off planet. From one such seedling came Anastasia. There was one point where she was commenting that humans are awful. I completely agree with her on this point actually. But where they lost me on this is when we found out the motive for the invasion. I thought these seedlings were sent off in urgency, for self-preservation, maybe. But no. They didn't HAVE to leave their planet. They left to explore AND consume everything else they came across. And what made it worse for me is that the reason why aliens like Anastasia felt the compulsion to tell others about the invasion is to give them a chance to say, "no, thank you." And just like that, they would stop the invasion...

Are you kidding me? This was so ridiculous! You're telling me all the humans had to do was ask the aliens nicely to please not invade and kill them?? Ugh. And the aliens would actually comply? Which made the very end frustrating because why the fuck were the alien representatives meeting with the human leaders of the world (that were left) when they were planning to harvest the world no matter what? And then they did. Earth was invaded. All humans were converted. The end.

The problem for me was that even though, throughout this entire book, we are following Anastasia, one of the alien transplants, if you will, I was always on the human side, despite me agreeing with Anastasia that they are terrible. I was just not on board with the aliens' motivations. And I was a little surprised that Anastasia, even though she grew up on Earth, so easily gave in to her people's plan to decimate Earth. I thought she was going to put up a little bit more of a fight. But nope.

All that being said, one thing I really liked about this book was the characters— I loved Anastasia's quirky friends who accepted her, alien claims and all. Lol. But I particularly loved her boyfriend Graham and how supportive and understanding they were with one another. I'll give Mira Grant this: she always writes sweet and healthy romantic relationships. I love it!

So, even though I was not a fan of the motivation behind everything that happened, I did enjoy some other aspects of this book. The mythos was interesting, the sci-fi/horror combo was great like always, and I really liked the characters. And I'm really looking forward to seeing what Mira Grant has in store for us next!

Have you read this book? If so, what did you think about it? If not, what do you think? Does it sound like something you might want to read? Leave me a link to your review or comment below! 😊