My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Title: This Poison Heart
Author: Kalynn Bayron
Format: ebook (own)
Pages: 384
Publication Date: 6/29/21
Publisher: Bloomsbury YA
Categories: Contemporary, Fantasy, Mythology, LGBTQIA+
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.
Content Warning: violence, death, poison reactions
There is a lot to like about This Poison Heart. I love that it’s a story about a girl, Briseis with plant powers and that makes her immune to very poisonous plants. Now the story of how she has these powers is fascinating and tied into Greek mythology. The mythology story that explains Briseis’ family tree is the one about Medea and Jason and The Golden Fleece which honestly…I don’t even remember. I don’t know much about Medea but I have heard of Jason and The Golden Fleece, but ask me what it is about and I have no recollection. But the story gives us the background about it.
A lot of this book is a mystery because Briseis is adopted and then she’s willed an estate which was owned by her bio aunt, Circe. We learn that all is not as it seems at this new home Briseis and her moms have moved into. I loved that Briseis has two very loving moms. Her moms were my favorite characters in the book. The story is wonderfully diverse with Briseis moms and she herself being bisexual. There is a blossoming love interest in this story as well.
Briseis is very trusting and that bites her in the end. At times I just wish she wasn’t so trusting but she has to make her mistakes and learn but it’s a hard lesson in this story. The second half of the book was so much better than the first half. The first half was a little too slow for me but it’s due to setting up all the backstory of Briseis connection to Medea. The second half pulls the story together and there are some crazy things that happen. It definitely sets everything up nicely for the sequel.
Why you should read it:
- you like Greek mythology
- Briseis’ moms are amazing and other lgbtqia+ reps
- Briseis’ plant powers and poison immunity is really cool
Why you might not want to read it:
- slow beginning but it’s setting up the story so push through
My Thoughts:
I took my time with this one and I’m glad because the ending was really great and makes me look forward to the sequel.
📚 ~ Yolanda
Quotes from the book:
“Can’t be done no other way. You fixin’ somethin’ for somebody you love, for this healin’. Gotta do it with your bare hands and your whole heart. Understand?”
This Poison Heart by. Kalynn Baron
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