Review: The Man of Wind and Moss - Alex Gonzalez

Genre: (folk) horror Published: Erewhon Press, October 2026 My Rating: 1/5 stars

Full disclosure: I couldn’t finish this book, but I’ve read plenty to be able to confidently say that I hated every second of it.

If you’re wondering if you should read this book: ask yourself the following:

• are you in the mood for a supernatural woodsy-folk horror about a group of friends being picked-off one-by-one by an unseen creature/entity?

• are you okay with a cast that exists solely of EXTREMELY unlikable, immature a**holes with no virtually development or redeeming qualities?

• is your definition of horror “being grossed out by loads of gory descriptions?

If you answered “no”: this book is not for you.

If you answered “yes”: I’d recommend you pick up The Ritual by Adam Nevill, because even though that wasn’t my favourite book either, at least it was competent and leaps and bound above this one in quality…

The Story:

Marco is at a dead-end in life: he has no girlfriend, no job-prospects and no prospects or directions in life. In honour of his 30th birthday, a man invites his college friend group for a final weekend getaway to a cabin in upstate New York, before they all continue on their separate ways through life. A final hurrah of college-life, and a last chance to act out old flings and friendship-dynamics.

But once they arrive at the cabin, they soon find they have bigger things to worry about than crumbling relationships. Something stalks the woods around the cabin. And it’s on the hunt for blood…

What I didn’t like:

I hate to say that I couldn’t find a single redeeming quality in this novel. It did everything I personally dislike in the horror-genre ánd somehow managed to do it poorly too.

I’m not in a ranty mood, so I’ll keep each critique-point short:

• the characters are not only insufferable, irresponsibly idiotic and unbelievably immature (they read like teenagers, but are supposed to be 30); they are flat and show absolutely 0 development throughout the story. Every woman is a variation of a token stereotype, and every man is a sex-pest. That’s your cast for you to root for.

• There’s no suspense or meaningful horror. Just gore and attempts at grocing the reader out with descriptions of various bodily fluids. Oh, and grotesque violence, including against animals. Lots of it.

  But rest assured; one of this will deter our protagonist-sex-pests from being horny all the time throughout this…

• The writing is actually atrocious. On an objective and technical level, this needed another round of editing. There are actual grammatical errors (e.g. switching tense mid-way through a passage or chapter) left in the text. I understand that Erewhon Books are an indie-publisher, but when you’re asking money for a product, these mistakes are not acceptable.

• Regardless of the editing, Alex Gonzalez seemed unable to decide what direction and tone he wanted to take the novel in. At times, the cliché slasher-plot and over-the-top-scenes feel almost campy. At other times, Gonzalez seems to want to play things completely straight, but simply fails to convey anything meaningful in his attempt. E.g. the protagonists insecurities that are hinted to relate to his racial identity, but are never given the proper development…

Overall, I wish I could recommend it to anyone, but even if you’re the exact target audience, I feel there are better books out there to suit your tastes…

Thanks to Erewhon Press and Netgalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

You can find this book here on Goodreads.