[1] Jo, a twenty-year-old Norwegian studying abroad in Australia, moves in with an eccentric older girl, Carral, who lives in a renovated old brewery.

[2] Reviews of Paradise Rot describe the novel as "grotesque",[3] "surreal",[4] and "downright nasty".

[5] Pitchfork's Niina Pollari wrote, "The strength of Paradise Rot is its peculiar narrator, whose headspace provides Hval with a showcase for her descriptive style.

"[6] PopMatters praised the writing as well: "Paradise Rot is not necessarily a pleasurable read, blurring the lines of the coming-of-age genre with psychological horror and rendered in such lucid, impressionistically descriptive prose that merely reading it makes you feel fairly woozy.

"[2] In 2024, the novel experienced a surge in popularity as a 'disturbing book' due to attention from the BookTok community on TikTok.