MY REVIEW
“Yes, Mrs Dodd? Are you feeling better?”
“Why, yes, I am, thanks to you! I can’t believe how constipated I was.” She waves her hand. “It just hung there…I thought I would just die! I figured, if only I could reach right up there, I could get things moving.”
OMG. Right out of the gate, M Kevin Hayden had me laughing out loud. I didn’t see anything about humor, when I checked out Willow Rose. I did become curious about the Comet Goodwin, the bull elk that he sees standing in the middle of the road, not looking quite right, and the young girl that comes knocking on his door and a nurse that could lead to a love interest.
We have a mashup of horror, science fiction and the paranormal. We have an ER doctor needing to get away from his hectic life to a remote cabin in Minnesota. The atmosphere is eerie, mysterious, bloody and gory. Do you believe in monsters? Of aliens or alternate dimensions?
Willow Rose had its moments, and it did keep me flipping pages, wanting to know what was going on and how M Kevin Hayden would wrap things up.
GOODREADS BLURB
For lovers of Stephen Graham Jones, Jeff VanderMeer, and Nick Cutter, Willow Rose is a compulsively readable, literary ode to the terror of the unknown that comes for all of us in the depths of night.
A knock on the cabin door on indigenous land in the wintry woods of Minnesota.
Tap tap tap.
Driving down the boreal roads of rural Minnesota to his one-room cabin after a long ER shift, Dr. Alder’s eyes snap open, his old Civic screaming to a stop in front of a massive bull elk, its head tilting back unnaturally, its maw open. Comet Goodwin, the closest comet to Earth in history, lights up the sky in an otherworldly greenish tint with its long, jagged tail of fire.
Tap tap tap.
Alder’s world ignites in a blinding white flash. The car windows shatter inward. The elk is gone.
If he can get the car started again and get back to his cabin, maybe he can make sense of all this…but first he must survive the frozen silence of the night and the evil that stalks within it.
We must stay together always.
- Genre: Fantasy, Fiction, Horror, Paranormal, Science Fiction, Supernatural
- 206 pages, Hardcover
- Published October 28, 2025 by Muse of the Moon Books
ABOUT M KEVIN HAYDEN
M. Kevin Hayden is a novelist from the South Side of Chicago, where he grew up among storefront churches, corner stores, and the quiet echo of stories waiting to be told. His work blends emotional realism with speculative mystery, grounded in memory, place, and the uncanny moments that flicker through ordinary lives.
His debut, An Old Soul, is a slow-burn tale of love, memory, and unraveling reality set in 1996 Chicago. His second story, Willow Rose, leaves the city for the snowbound wilderness of northern Minnesota, where a weary doctor and a mysterious child confront a cosmic, ancient terror.
He writes for anyone who has ever felt out of step with the world, hoping his stories offer a sense of connection and wonder. He now lives somewhere quiet, surrounded by trees and the occasional flash of something just beyond the veil.
- You can see my Giveaways HERE.
- You can see my Reviews HERE.
- If you like what you see, why don’t you follow me?
- Look on the right sidebar and let’ talk.
- Leave your link in the comments and I will drop by to see what’s shakin’.
- I am an Amazon affiliate/product images are linked.
- Thanks for visiting fundinmental!
