Title: This Poison Heart
Author: Kalynn Bayron
Publish Date: June 29th, 2021
Publisher: Bloomsbury YA
Source: Huge thank you to Raincoast Books and the publisher for providing me with an ARC for review!
Darkness blooms in bestselling author Kalynn Bayron's new contemporary fantasy about a girl with a unique and deadly power.
Briseis has a gift: she can grow plants from tiny seeds to rich blooms with a single touch.
When Briseis's aunt dies and wills her a dilapidated estate in rural New York, Bri and her parents decide to leave Brooklyn behind for the summer. Hopefully there, surrounded by plants and flowers, Bri will finally learn to control her gift. But their new home is sinister in ways they could never have imagined--it comes with a specific set of instructions, an old-school apothecary, and a walled garden filled with the deadliest botanicals in the world that can only be entered by those who share Bri's unique family lineage.
When strangers begin to arrive on their doorstep, asking for tinctures and elixirs, Bri learns she has a surprising talent for creating them. One of the visitors is Marie, a mysterious young woman who Bri befriends, only to find that Marie is keeping dark secrets about the history of the estate and its surrounding community. There is more to Bri's sudden inheritance than she could have imagined, and she is determined to uncover it . . . until a nefarious group comes after her in search of a rare and dangerous immortality elixir. Up against a centuries-old curse and the deadliest plant on earth, Bri must harness her gift to protect herself and her family.
From the bestselling author of Cinderella Is Dead comes another inspiring and deeply compelling story about a young woman with the power to conquer the dark forces descending around her.
Penelope's Review
This Poison Heart follows Briseis, a teenaged girl with a gift for growing plants! She isn't sure where this gift came from, or how to control it, but together with her moms she moves to an estate in the country to figure it out. The estate is left to her by aunt, and comes with what seems to be more questions than answers.
First of all, I want to say that the LGBT representation in this book, as well as the POC representation, was great! It's always refreshing to see a book explore new angles and push boundaries, getting away from the same old narrative. The premise was unique, and had really great potential, and I did love the Greek mythology aspects, but I had a few issues with it as well.
Unfortunately, this book didn't quite hit the mark for me. I felt like the book dragged too much. It went pretty slowly throughout, and then all of a sudden the end threw a ton of information at me. Also, the time of day was written so oddly. There were times when a lot was happening, and then I was told that basically only a couple of hours had gone by. It's hard to explain, but it just didn't seem realistic and was kind of confusing.
In terms of characters, I liked the moms. They were funny and cute, and had so much love for Bri and for each other. Briseis herself was ok... I liked her well enough but there were times when she kind of annoyed me. The supporting characters were also alright - not great not terrible.
Ahhh I really did want to like this book, and I can definitely see the appeal, but I just didn't love it. I would give the second book a try, however. I am curious to see what happens and I hope that I like it more!
Rating: 3/5 Devils!
