Ami awakes from years in stasis to find she’s at the edges of deep space, and the only surviving member of her crew. Utterly alone and unable to contact Earth, she sends out a distress beacon, not expecting a response. When she gets one from a being who calls himself Dorian, she’s welcomed onto his ship as he offers his assistance in any way he can. But nothing on Dorian’s ship is as it seems. And as Ami tries to navigate the maze of hallways and first contact with this alien being, a deep hum begins to resonate, haunting her, as if the ship itself is whispering to her.
*potential spoilers*
I read Meg Smitherman’s Swallowed before reading Thrum, and I can’t decide if I’m happy I did so or not.
The novellas are almost parallel models, except one entity is a ship and the other is a planet. Both books surround an FMC who is influenced by the respective entity, have their feelings inflated to incite overwhelming lust, and are devoted to their very sidelined supporting characters [crew] until they’re not.
This one was extremely predictable/stereotypical (I feel) of a sci-fi story. The “twist” was truly not a surprise, and the horror was undercut supremely by the back and forth with Dorian and the way she kept thinking ‘this wasn’t meant for human minds’. My girl, you signed up to go find other lifeforms amongst the stars, what do you mean you weren’t prepared to interact with alien beings?
All that said, I still enjoyed it. It was 128 pages of uncomplicated, deepspace lite horror for an evening of ignoring the arrogant little snowstorm that April used for its grand entrance.
Rating: 4/5
Spice Level: 2/5
Books Not Decaf 
Thoughts to add?