Book Reviews

A cerebral page-turner with an unsettling emotional undercurrent…

In Thomas’s psychologically astute mystery, a psychologist investigates the first murder in generations in a society that believes violence vanished with the disappearance of men. Jorie Holmes, a senior therapist with the Ministry of Nurturing and Guidance, is assigned to evaluate Eve, a sculptor who calmly admits to murdering her partner without remorse. As therapy yields few answers, Jorie’s investigation uncovers troubling evidence from Eve’s past before leading her to a secret preserved for decades...Her search for the origins of violence soon calls into question everything her society believes about itself.

Thomas eschews the conventions of the traditional whodunit in favour of a psychological investigation into the nature of violence. The meticulously imagined matriarchal society provides a compelling backdrop without overwhelming the narrative. Jorie is an effective protagonist whose professional insight contrasts with her emotional shortcomings at home, lending her both credibility and vulnerability. Eve is equally compelling; her unnerving composure and emotional vacancy create a far more unsettling antagonist than overt displays of madness would have achieved. The gradual introduction of the last surviving man broadens the novel’s scope, while raising provocative questions about violence, biology, and social conditioning...Thomas allows competing ideas to coexist, trusting readers to wrestle with the implications. The result is an intellectually engaging novel that rewards readers with its careful character work and fully realized world. 

A bold, original achievement.

-The Prairies Book Review

The riveting setup: a murder, a confession, and a psychologist unaware of the truth she is about to uncover.

Thoroughly gripping, Heather Thomas’s Scorpion Grass is a dizzying experience set in a future where men are believed to be extinct following the Shift. Eve Bimelech has just murdered her partner, Lottie, and although she angrily confesses to the crime, this first domestic murder since the disappearance of men raises unsettling questions. Marjorie “Jorie” Holmes, a senior psychologist and nurturer, is tasked with explaining the anomaly that is Eve. As dark truths come to light, readers are drawn into a web of hushed secrets that possess the power to fracture a matriarchal society’s carefully maintained facade of peace. Meanwhile, an unlikely individual may hold answers to the mystery—and reveal more to Jorie about herself than she ever anticipated.

Scorpion Grass delivers a chilling narrative, sharpened by Thomas’s masterful use of perspective, power, and authority. Intimate and illuminating, Thomas introduces deeply human characters who pulse with flaws, biases, intention, and emotion. Dialogue becomes more than a means of communication between these characters, as Thomas wields word choice and tone to magnify each character, their beliefs, and their position. As she delves into trust and vulnerability within relationships, the scorpion grass becomes the key in Jorie’s hand, unlocking a world that has been deliberately kept out of sight.

Disorienting yet captivating, Thomas’s world challenges the reader to grapple with what it means to be an outsider. Her perceptive treatment of sensitive subjects, including intimacy in its various forms, combines with an impeccable command of tension to give the conversations between Jorie and her partner, Zee, a charged and volatile edge...

Through a compelling inversion of stigma, Thomas casts a revealing light on the dangers of labels. Treading the line between reality and speculative fiction, Scorpion Grass uses the disparities within its imagined society to expose the need for change in our own. Both a story of perseverance and an uneasy search for self, the novel is a provocative exploration of identity that strikes startlingly close to home.

Scrutinizing oppression and the power of a misguided narrative, Scorpion Grass closely examines rights, victimhood, and the tendency to place metaphorical cuffs on victims instead of perpetrators. For fans of Yōko Ogawa’s The Memory Police, Heather Thomas’s Scorpion Grass is an engrossing start to the Shift series, resulting in a shockingly close encounter with the dangers of single-mindedness. 

- CANDREADS Book Review

I genuinely could not put Scorpion Grass down.

The depth of the characters, the storyline, and the intricate web that has been woven together is remarkable--complex and layered without ever feeling complicated.

It is such a captivating, intelligent, beautifully woven story...

-Natalie Harris, author of Save-My-Life School and Growth After Trauma