Review: 'The Brood' by Rebecca Baum

I'm not a big bug person, but when I saw the blurb for The Brood and the idea of buzzing, oozing throngs of cicadas meeting an icy female lawyer, I was absolutely down. This is a really fun ride which delivered exactly what I wanted to read. And don't let the pretty cover fool you, this book gets dirty! Thanks to Thomas & Mercer and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Pub. Date: 28/10/2025
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer

Cutthroat NYC lawyer Mary Whelton just buried her problematic old mentor. But as she leaves the mourners and protesters behind, the press stays hot on her heels. Desperate to escape, she unwittingly barrels deep into a remote forest in upstate New York. Until a collision—with a buzzing, oozing throng of cicadas—stops her dead in her tracks.

She awakens in a crude cabin, held captive by Girl, a simple, hulking woman who mistakes Mary for her derelict mother and obsesses over a mysterious Brood. While tortured echoes from Mary’s past feed her growing sense of fear, it becomes clear that she’s destined to bear an unthinkable role in the cicadas’ cyclical reemergence. But when Girl’s grisly past comes back to haunt them both, Mary is thrust into a violent battle of wills.

Confoundingly creepy and atmospheric, The Brood peels back the hurt and pain of the female experience, laying bare the messy necessity for transformation and growth.

Womanhood is messy and complicated and takes shape in different ways for different people. As various waves of feminism have washed over us and as the world is going through another backlash against said waves, I think it is important to have books that go into the nitty-gritty of womanhood without becoming preachy. There is a place for theory and discussion, but there should also be a place for horror books like The Brood that just allow the messiness of it all to exist on the page. Women are not holy creatures, imbued by nature with a divine grace and nurturing love. We are capable of these things, yes, but we are also creatures primed for survival, who sometimes make horrible decisions out of self-interest. What I liked about the protagonist of The Brood is that she makes these horrible decisions and is not judged for this on the basis of self-interest being unfeminine, but rather for so callously disregarding everything and everyone else. Her self-interest is also limited and heavily influenced by outside perspectives, meaning that she is as cruel to herself as to others. In featuring an older protagonist, in her fifties if I remember correctly, The Brood portrays a more thorough look at how the female experience shifts over the decades, what accountability might look like not necessarily in the moment but in the years after, and how becoming who you are as a woman is never finished. 

Mary is not having a great time. She begins the novel at the funeral of her mentor with whom she had a complicated relationship and whose various "dalliances" are definitely on the problematic side. Desirous to get away and prepare for her upcoming case, she departs for her cabin. When she ends up crashing her car, she is picked up by Girl, who takes her to her remote cabin. What appears like a lucky rescue takes on shades of Misery when it becomes clear that Girl has plans for Mary, which involve the upcoming reemergence of cicadas and atoning for mom trauma. Mary is a delightfully unlikeable protagonist, in that she is a deeply complicated woman of a certain generation. Escaping from her own traumatic childhood, Mary has forged a life of tyrannical control and a willingness to walk over others to get what she wants. Faced with Girl and cicadas that seem to have a mind of their own, the question becomes not only whether Mary can make it out alive but also if she is capable of the change required. As the reader, you'll deeply dislike Mary at times, while also developing a certain appreciation for what she has overcome. Girl is complex in her own way, at once full of strength and devotion, yet also deeply scarred by her early life. I became increasingly fond of her as the book went on. As The Brood walks the fine line between suspense and horror, one should expect the following: body horror, gore, mentions of (off-page) sexual assault/rape, and foul language.

This is, if I'm not incorrect, Rebecca Baum's second novel and it is a very confident one. Baum has excellent control of her material which, considering its themes and topics, is very necessary. As mentioned above, Mary is a difficult character, but Baum finds the perfect balance in showing her in all her colours and approaching her with both kindness and censure. I also loved the whole reemergence of the cicadas and how primal and natural certain aspects of that storyline were. There is some beautifully descriptive writing in The Brood which paints lovely (and sometimes gross) pictures. While of course the cicadas are as much a plot element as a metaphor for growth and change, they work very well. As someone who enjoys horror I did also appreciate the dirtiness of the book. Not dirty in a spicy way, but in the "I haven't showered in days, I'm sunburnt and parched, I'm injured, and something is growing in me" way. The story is visceral in a way I like very much, but could maybe be a bit much for people less on board with reading about the horror of having a body. And despite the horror of it all, Baum also manages to show the beauty of being alive, of being able to grow and change, without it all becoming too neat at the end. I definitely look forward to reading more by Baum in the future!

I give this novel...

5 Universes!

The Brood is an excellent horror read for the spooky and dark season for those who enjoy critters being creepy and women being complicated!