The cast is large but not unmanageably so. I’m a big fan of tropes and love seeing how marginalized authors take them in new and interesting directions, something Bayron does very well here, and a big part of that is due to how well-developed her characters are. Bayron also relies heavily on tropes, but that is not a negative as far as I’m concerned. The first book in Kalynn Bayron’s new series folds in Greek mythology, a murder mystery, and a cute but fraught queer romance. This Poison Heart juggles a lot of ideas, but it mostly manages to make it all work. Dangerous people want what only she has the power to protect, and they’re willing to kill everyone she loves to get it. As romance blooms, so does the mystery of what happened to Bri’s ancestors and what lies at the center of the poison garden. Apparently, the Colchis sisters, Circe and Bri’s biological mother, Selene, ran an apothecary that had been passed down for generations, supplying locals with natural remedies and, as Bri quickly learns, ingredients for spells. And deep in the woods behind her new home lies a secret garden within a secret garden, one full of medicinal plants and the other filled with the most poisonous plants in the world. Her dead aunt leads Bri on a scavenger hunt guided by obscure clues and mysterious keys. Bri befriends a boy named Karter with too many secrets and a girl named Marie with even more.
Once in Rhinebeck, the plot kicks into high gear. The sister of Bri’s biological mother left the niece she never met a grand mansion and 40 sprawling acres in the rural town of Rhinebeck, a few hours north of New York City. A reprieve arrives in the form of an unexpected inheritance. Bri’s fairweather friends have found other people to occupy their time while her moms are struggling to pay rent on their cramped apartment and their flower shop in their rapidly gentrifying neighborhood. Life in Brooklyn isn’t easy for the Greenes. They encourage her to be cautious about letting others know what she can do without shaming her for something she has no control over. Her adoptive mothers, Thandie and Angie, don’t quite know what to do with her.
Plants react to her emotions and often bend toward her as if she were a walking, talking ray of sunshine. Ever since she was little, Bri has had the inexplicable ability to make plants grow. This Poison Heart, Kalynn Bayron ( Bloomsbury 978-1547603909, 384pp, $18.99, hc) June 2021.īriseis Greene has a thing for plants.
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