Little Mushroom

Right off the bat, what surprised me the most about Little Mushroom was how calm it felt, despite the post-apocalyptic setting full of death and giant mutant monsters. An Zhe took things as they came, and I ended up doing the same. There was a certain beauty to it. A sense of melancholy. I remembered when I talked to a friend about the idea of a quiet apocalypse, and about that Sylvia Plath poem called “Mushrooms”: we shall by morning/inherit the earth.

A lot of it felt a bit hazy, like I was inside of a dream. An odd companionship between two odd people (or. person and mushroom?) Fabric, hyphae, skin, all soft to the touch. Romantic in a way only those two could manage.

I think some part of my brain went haywire while I was reading it, though. One time, after reading about the bugs invading the base, I nearly panicked after killing a wasp in the kitchen because “I could've been infected”, and then felt like the stupidest person alive after thinking about it for two seconds. Another time, I realized one of the walls had a hole leading outside (for the security camera’s wires I think) and panicked again thinking, “the base’s security has been compromised, we're gonna have to—” ←stupidest person on the world at it once again. What is wrong with me, seriously…

Anyways, towards the middle of the second book, never mind An Zhe, my calm had flown out the window. I was almost afraid of turning the pages. I had been waiting for a tragedy since day 1, but that didn't make it any easier to bring myself to witness it. I ended up leaving the book by the wayside for a while with like, 4 chapters of the main story left at most…

When I finally mustered the courage to come back, and An Zhe did exactly what I thought he would do, I cried a whole bunch, so much that when they revealed what the deal with his spore was, I felt stupid again. I was expecting a tragic ending for months! Don't make me want to complain! Now I'm gonna cry for a different reason! The mushrooms will inherit the earth, indeed!

Of course, I won't actually complain. How could I? They're so cute together. So happy. And their new world—it seems so beautiful.