This Poison Heart (This Poison Heart, #1) by Kalynn Bayron
Published by: Bloomsbury YA UK on June 29, 2021
Source: Library
Genres: Diversity, Fantasy, LGBT, Own Voices, Young Adult
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.
I was soooo excited about this book. After reading Cinderella is Dead, I first thought that this novel was going to be Snow White Story with a twist... Boy was I wrong... In the best of ways.
This Poison Heart, is about a young girl in Brooklyn with powers that allow her to control and grow plants. Think Poison Ivy. But since Bri was adopted she doesn't know how or why she has the gifts that she has. Being the only one she knows with these gifts alienates her from people around her except her two adoptive mamas, Mom and Mo (short for mom).
Aside from the magical powers, Briseis and her moms live a fairly normal life, until she inherits an estate from her birth mother's sister. THIS, is where the story really starts. All types of strangeness breaks out and Bri is introduced to her past and heritage through a series of breadcrumbs. It seems the more Briseis learns about herself the weirder life gets, from strangers showing up to their new home, inheriting a business along with discovering a garden filled with poisonous plants... Needless to say Bri's world changes the moment she agrees to take her estranged family's manor.
Things I loved about this novel
The roots in Greek mythology. The story that this novel "stems" from is one of my absolute favorite Greek tales... I acted in a Caribbean adapted version of the Greek tale and was so pleasantly surprised when I realized This Poison Heart was a sequel of sorts to the story of Medea.
The representation of the loving black mama... Bri's moms were so unapologetically black in the way they love their baby, react to everything coming their way, roll with the punches... It's really nice to see a mama written from the soft parental perspective instead of always hard and overbearing. Bayron allowed them to be more than one dimensional... Mo is my favorite mom lol
The introduction to the supernatural... At first it feels like we just get Briseis with some inexplicable magic, like a Peter Parker as a teenage black girl, in a regular world. Then, Bayron takes us to this hidden away town, filled with magic, mystery, and mythology of old. Like driving into Storybrooke...
The plot twists and turns... I spent a great deal of time thinking "oooh no, don't trust her."... "Oh wait... No, its him, don't trust him" I loved that it wasn't a dead giveaway until nearer to the end when you got more solidified clues and hints.
Things I could have done without in this novel
Briseis hyper-fixation on her attractions. The crush is cute and how easily she is embarrassed when caught looking less than stellar is funny. But she's so busy being attracted that she misses obvious signs of weirdness happening around her. The constant fawning made it feel forced and unrelatable. That was annoying. Probably very teenage, but annoying nonetheless.
The ease with which Bri went from guarded and secretive to flippantly sharing her secret with her new found friends and nursing plants in public. Someone who had felt as alienated as she had wouldn't have just opened up completely the first chance they got... They'd probably ease into it, little bits and pieces...
The lack of explanation of what Marie did... The revelation of her condition didn't explain for me, why the cemetery scene went the way it did. Did I miss it? Maybe I read over that bit.
The Wrap Up
This Poison Heart was such a fun story to read... So much of my favorite stuff was in it; plants, magic, mythology... I read this book so quickly because I just loved the story that much and had the hardest time putting it down. I'm not sure that I've ever read anything like it and I live for that! The representation was there from POC to LGBTQ+... *chef's kiss* Can't wait for the sequel... With that ending... There has to be a sequel coming... Right???
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