reviewer of "the believer" noted "it's not clear what obsesses jeff vandermeer more, mushrooms or books. both appear on almost every page of his new novel shriek: an afterword, in which disgraced historian duncan shriek seeks to uncover the mystery of a race of mushroom people with mysterious fungal plans, who lurk below the surface of the moss-covered city of ambergris. vandermeer's previous novels are part of a fantasy subgenre, often categorized as the new weird. while shriek certainly contains fantasy elements, it doesn’t fit into any strictly delineated genre. there are more ideas here than flights of fancy; vandermeer owes more to borges than tolkien."