This Poison Heart (This Poison Heart, #1)
Kalynn Bayron
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.
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RAAAAGGGHHHHHHHHH
This book is amazing!!
Seriously cannot put into words how epic this book is.
Seriously I cannot write a review, but I would definitely check this book out if you love fantasy, plant magic, and greek mythology.
0My friends were all shocked when I said I was reading this novel, only because I hate fractured fairy tales and this author is well known for Cinderella is Dead- a fractured fairytale they wrote about a very famous princess.
I didn’t search this book up, but failed to see another story where it matched or took inspiration from, either I might not be very fairytale educated or the author has stepped out from a niche (which is a very bold move) and I do believe it is this later option. I think that sometimes it can pay off, but without the world building or story building gifted with a fairytale that you can modify and change, this story falls flat.
I feel like it lacks a background story and is not artistic enough to come off as a mysterious story, with metaphorical powers and a range of symbolism, it is far too literal for that. I feel that it lagged, the journey of the individual took far too long in this book and while it is important- think of films like Coraline that have a crucial individual story and growing self discovery, but there is interaction and character development and plot development- story does not follow the same formula and does have an important plot following the main characters growth and freedom in her power. However, due to slow self-discovery, and a lack of plot this felt slow and lacked powerful discovery aided by situation or clues.
Overall, this was a very slow novel that lacked background, lacked a strong plot, an interesting plot that had you hooked. I did appreciate the representation and actually will take the idea of Mum and Mo, thought that was cool. The power was sick and was a very interesting interpretation of having nature powers. However, as stated, it is slow and lacks continued sustenance, it was hard to push through the end.
I wouldn’t recommend the book. It was okay for a while and was very quick to ready but overall, I think there are many books similar that will be much more rewarding.
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