The Roots Have Dug into My Heart by Peter Fugazzotto

The Roots Have Dug into My Heart is a touching horror and paranormal novella written by Peter Fugazzotto.  

After a disastrous evening at a bar that ends in a creepy auditory hallucination seemingly coming from the tall marsh grasses, Jessie wakes up with a terrible hangover made worse by the fact that her daughter, Maya, is missing. Racked by guilt about her inability to watch over Maya, Jessie goes through the marsh in search of her daughter vowing to never neglect her again. Naturally, she is overjoyed when Maya is found, seemingly, shaken but relatively unharmed.

However, Jessie’s elation is short-lived as she senses something different with her daughter.  Aside from the smell of the swamp that Jessie can’t seem to wash off Maya, her daughter becomes uncharacteristically quiet. Maya also seems to lose her appetite even for foods she normally loves.

Amidst her desperate need to be a better person and the best mother she can be, and the suspicion that there is something terribly wrong Maya, Jessie finds an unlikely ally. Armed only with very little information and unconditional love for her daughter, Jessie and her friend set out for the marsh to find out the truth once and for all.

This is a scary, suspenseful, and touching story about a bum of a woman who struggles to be the best version of herself. It depicts how someone overcomes her self-destructive tendencies for the most important person in her life. It portrays clarity in the middle of confusion and courage in the middle of fear. It displays the amount of determination needed to win the prize of redemption.

Though the story appears to be simply about an irresponsible mother who lost her child to paranormal entity, there is so much more than that. It tells of the difficulty of a person to rise above adversity with her only beacon of hope snatched away from her. It also shows the tendency to prejudge someone by the way he or she lives. Most importantly, the book features the multidimensionality of the world we live in and that things are not the way they seem.

This is a relatively enjoyable book. Relatively in that, some readers who are not into horror stories may not choose to read it. I, myself, am not a horror book enthusiast. As a reviewer, however, I find the book well written and easy to read. Jessie is very well depicted as a person who blames everything and everybody else for her unpleasant situation making her very relatable. Moreover, the author is able to maintain an eerie mood right from the beginning down to the last page. Finally, though I prefer a different ending to the story, I find the conclusion quite satisfactory.

Congratulations to Peter Fugazzotto (@PeterFugazzotto) on such a well-written book! For more books by the author, click HERE.