Author: Kalynn Bayron
Reviewed by Chloe Fuksa, Putnam Six Bookstore
This Poison Heart is a young adult fantasy book by Kalynn Bayron, and it was recently named to the Oklahoma Sequoyah list for high school students. The main character is a normal teenager in Brooklyn, except for one thing – plants react to her. She can grow new ones in an instant, she can bring dead ones back to life, and living ones reach for her as she travels past them. What is even more astonishing though is that poisonous plants don’t cause her any harm at all.
Briseis and her adoptive parents are struggling with many things – friendships falling away, grades slipping, rents increasing – when they learn that the sister of Briseis’s birth mother has left a 40-acre estate to Briseis in her will. They decide to go stay there for the summer as a nice break, and as a way for Briseis to learn more about both her family history and her relationship to plants. What they come to realize very quickly though is that the house is keeping many dark secrets. There is a room behind a fake fireplace, a hidden compartment in a desk – not to mention a garden full of poisonous plants behind a locked gate deep in the woods. As Briseis learns more about her ancestors and the power passed down to her, she must defend herself and her parents as wicked individuals seek to use her abilities for their own evil gains.
This Poison Heart doesn’t have too strong of an initial hook, but the story gradually picks up speed and definitely hits its stride by the end. It becomes a beautifully complex book, combining Greek mythology, magic, suspense, and of course, botany and gardening. There are some rather intense scenes, but the book ends on a very compelling cliffhanger. The sequel comes out in June 2022, so this book makes for a wonderful springtime read now.
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