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asreadbykat's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
True Rating: 3.5 Stars
Content/Trigger Warnings: Discussions of adoption, Violence, Poisoning, Death, Discussion of mythology-based filicide, Mildly grotesque imagery
"Whenever you hear a story about villainous women, you should ask who's telling the story."
This is my first Kalynn Bayron read, and I picked it up because while I wanted something good for spring/summer, I wanted it to have a nice edge to it. I'm not a full-on S/S girl, so I was looking for something summery but also spooky or creepy. This seemed to fit the bill. Did it work? Well...kind of.
Criticism
The Main Character
My biggest problem with this book is our main character, Briseis. While her power is undoubtedly cool and I wanted to learn more about it, and we get tidbits about her life, Bri felt very...bland. She felt very much a part of the scenery, and not the story. By the end of the book, all I could really tell about her personality is that she loves her adopted moms, and she is terrible at trusting people. There was almost nothing else about her that endeared me to her. No true quirks, no personality pluses or minuses, just...a literal blank canvas. This was a problem because the plot really does require us to feel SOMETHING about Bri, but I just didn't. I got more of her moms' personalities than I did hers. I wanted her to do something; either pull a Poison Ivy and be all secretly super into poisonous plants and/or using the plants to help her, or a complete plant nerd who treats them all like her babies and loves them more than people, or...just, something.
There was so much potential for Bri's character in this novel, and it fell flat because it felt like the author cared more about hitting certain plot beats and vibes than even creating a compelling MC. She isn't the worst MC I've ever read about, but she's also not anywhere near good, either. She's definitely just...there. Barely.
Plot Pacing
This is one of the cases where I wish the book were actually longer, or certain plot points had been saved for a different book. There was so much going on, by the last third I knew there was no way the novel could end satisfactorily. We've got family secrets, a spooky old house and a secret garden, a family history with the local town, mysterious deaths, strange neighbors....Yeah, it's a lot, and there was no way this one book was going to do all of it justice. It means that certain plot beats get a lot of focus, and some of them don't. Unfortunately, the plot beats that got more were all backstory-related, and not the ones with the biggest impact on the climax. This meant some plot points meandered, some went super fast, some got stalled...it was a little bit jarring.
Hinted Romance
There is a hinted queer romance here, and all I can say is....it may be the most rushed thing I've ever read, and makes no sense at all. Just...no.
Praise
The Worldbuilding
One of the best things about this story is definitely the worldbuilding. I was so intrigued by the family/world history the author was creating. I wanted to know more about the women in this family and where they came from, how they started their business, why they settled in this house, how the community came to kind of accept and protect them, etc. I wanted the entire book to just be about that and almost nothing else because it was so interesting. It helps that the history was inspired by Greek myth, which I've been interested in for years, but turned on its head. You can tell the author really had love for this world she was creating just from reading this.
The Family Dynamics
Bri's relationship with her moms is absolutely beautiful. I love Angie and Thandie; they're loud, funny, and unapologetically themselves, and they love their daughter with everything they are, and are willing to do anything to make her happy. It's a really nice change of pace to see a family being supportive of a child's powers instead of being terrified of it. Bri herself is a typical teenager embarrassed by her moms, but she also reciprocates their love and wants to keep them safe no matter what. This is the kind of "romance" I love in books, and it was great to see.
The Inspiration
In the acknowledgements at the end, the author states that the inspirations for this novel were not just Greek myth, but also the idea of What if the "little bit of land" from The Secret Garden contained a plant like Audrey II from "Little Shop of Horrors." Just the mix of those ideas is super interesting and intriguing, and while it could have been better executed, knowing those inspirations made the novel even more interesting.
Overall Thoughts
This is far from the best book I've read this year, and I'm giving it a fairly neutral rating. I wouldn't really recommend buying it, but I would say see if you can borrow it from a library or get it cheap secondhand if you're interested. The backstory is intriguing enough that I want to read the second book just to see what happens.
Content/Trigger Warnings: Discussions of adoption, Violence, Poisoning, Death, Discussion of mythology-based filicide, Mildly grotesque imagery
"Whenever you hear a story about villainous women, you should ask who's telling the story."
This is my first Kalynn Bayron read, and I picked it up because while I wanted something good for spring/summer, I wanted it to have a nice edge to it. I'm not a full-on S/S girl, so I was looking for something summery but also spooky or creepy. This seemed to fit the bill. Did it work? Well...kind of.
Criticism
The Main Character
My biggest problem with this book is our main character, Briseis. While her power is undoubtedly cool and I wanted to learn more about it, and we get tidbits about her life, Bri felt very...bland. She felt very much a part of the scenery, and not the story. By the end of the book, all I could really tell about her personality is that she loves her adopted moms, and she is terrible at trusting people. There was almost nothing else about her that endeared me to her. No true quirks, no personality pluses or minuses, just...a literal blank canvas. This was a problem because the plot really does require us to feel SOMETHING about Bri, but I just didn't. I got more of her moms' personalities than I did hers. I wanted her to do something; either pull a Poison Ivy and be all secretly super into poisonous plants and/or using the plants to help her, or a complete plant nerd who treats them all like her babies and loves them more than people, or...just, something.
There was so much potential for Bri's character in this novel, and it fell flat because it felt like the author cared more about hitting certain plot beats and vibes than even creating a compelling MC. She isn't the worst MC I've ever read about, but she's also not anywhere near good, either. She's definitely just...there. Barely.
Plot Pacing
This is one of the cases where I wish the book were actually longer, or certain plot points had been saved for a different book. There was so much going on, by the last third I knew there was no way the novel could end satisfactorily. We've got family secrets, a spooky old house and a secret garden, a family history with the local town, mysterious deaths, strange neighbors....Yeah, it's a lot, and there was no way this one book was going to do all of it justice. It means that certain plot beats get a lot of focus, and some of them don't. Unfortunately, the plot beats that got more were all backstory-related, and not the ones with the biggest impact on the climax. This meant some plot points meandered, some went super fast, some got stalled...it was a little bit jarring.
Hinted Romance
There is a hinted queer romance here, and all I can say is....it may be the most rushed thing I've ever read, and makes no sense at all. Just...no.
Praise
The Worldbuilding
One of the best things about this story is definitely the worldbuilding. I was so intrigued by the family/world history the author was creating. I wanted to know more about the women in this family and where they came from, how they started their business, why they settled in this house, how the community came to kind of accept and protect them, etc. I wanted the entire book to just be about that and almost nothing else because it was so interesting. It helps that the history was inspired by Greek myth, which I've been interested in for years, but turned on its head. You can tell the author really had love for this world she was creating just from reading this.
The Family Dynamics
Bri's relationship with her moms is absolutely beautiful. I love Angie and Thandie; they're loud, funny, and unapologetically themselves, and they love their daughter with everything they are, and are willing to do anything to make her happy. It's a really nice change of pace to see a family being supportive of a child's powers instead of being terrified of it. Bri herself is a typical teenager embarrassed by her moms, but she also reciprocates their love and wants to keep them safe no matter what. This is the kind of "romance" I love in books, and it was great to see.
The Inspiration
In the acknowledgements at the end, the author states that the inspirations for this novel were not just Greek myth, but also the idea of What if the "little bit of land" from The Secret Garden contained a plant like Audrey II from "Little Shop of Horrors." Just the mix of those ideas is super interesting and intriguing, and while it could have been better executed, knowing those inspirations made the novel even more interesting.
Overall Thoughts
This is far from the best book I've read this year, and I'm giving it a fairly neutral rating. I wouldn't really recommend buying it, but I would say see if you can borrow it from a library or get it cheap secondhand if you're interested. The backstory is intriguing enough that I want to read the second book just to see what happens.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, and Torture
Moderate: Violence
Minor: Cursing
zombiezami's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
mysterious
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Cursing, Death of parent, Grief, Violence, Death, Torture, Blood, Stalking, Injury/Injury detail, and Body horror
Minor: Pregnancy, Racism, Toxic friendship, and Police brutality
bookforestsprite's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent and Death
Moderate: Violence and Gore
noodlesny's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Kidnapping, Blood, Murder, Violence, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship and Cursing
There's an unorthodox minor/adult relationship. It's not the standard type of disturbing of, say, a 30 yr old 'dating' a 16 yr old. It's a similar theme that comes up in certain anime at times, if you're familiar with those. It wasn't enough to make me stop reading but I was definitely uncomfortable with it and kept thinking about it throughout the reading.blkunicorn's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent
Moderate: Violence and Death
Minor: Murder
spicycronereads's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
I really liked this book. It centers on Briseis, a 16-year-old Black woman, living in Brooklyn with her mom and Mo (her two adoptive moms). She has a special affinity for growing and caring for plants. And it borders on the unnatural. The narrative centers on what happens when she finds out that her birth mother’s sister has died, and left her an estate in upstate New York.
The narrative focuses on what it is like for these three Black women to locate relocate to the small town where weird things start happening. There are all sorts of mysteries and a family legacy involving ancient characters like Medea and the goddess Hecate.
Briseis is lonely and misunderstood in Brooklyn and it seems like plants are her best friends. She begins to thrive once they relocate, making friends and meeting new love interests. I recall reading a review of this book that thought she wasn’t very smart. I do admit that it took her a really long time to catch onto some things that really seemed quite obvious, or to begin to question things that just didn’t seem to add up. She did seem a little naïve. Though, admittedly, they tell us in the narrative that she didn’t get the best grades in school. 😂
The world building is pretty effortless here. The magic system and Briseis’ powers are really cool. I look forward in subsequent books to seeing how this continues to be fleshed out. And yes, this is book one in a series. It ends on a pretty big cliffhanger.
The secondary characters are richly detailed, and seem to have interesting motivations of their own. They make a great supporting cast. And the book does a lovely job of demonstrating that found family ties can be just as rich and meaningful as biological.
There were a few elements of romance here and there though I would not call this book a romance or romantasy. I give it 💖.
In terms of diverse representation, we have Briseis and her two moms. Briseis is either bi or pan (I listened to the audiobook, and I don’t recall them ever saying, explicitly how she identifies). Their entire family is Black. There are additional people of color in the narrative. So there is quite a bit of racial and sexual diversity. Briseis’ family is struggling financially when they are living in Brooklyn and trying to run a small business. And when they move to this town in upstate New York, they definitely seem to move into a more financially stable status.
The audiobook performance was great. Jordan Cobb does a fantastic job with her performance and giving unique voice to a wide cast of characters.
Overall, I really liked this. The sense of humor of the characters and the magic system were a lot of fun. The vocal performance was great and made my commute fly by on some days. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫/💖
The narrative focuses on what it is like for these three Black women to locate relocate to the small town where weird things start happening. There are all sorts of mysteries and a family legacy involving ancient characters like Medea and the goddess Hecate.
Briseis is lonely and misunderstood in Brooklyn and it seems like plants are her best friends. She begins to thrive once they relocate, making friends and meeting new love interests. I recall reading a review of this book that thought she wasn’t very smart. I do admit that it took her a really long time to catch onto some things that really seemed quite obvious, or to begin to question things that just didn’t seem to add up. She did seem a little naïve. Though, admittedly, they tell us in the narrative that she didn’t get the best grades in school. 😂
The world building is pretty effortless here. The magic system and Briseis’ powers are really cool. I look forward in subsequent books to seeing how this continues to be fleshed out. And yes, this is book one in a series. It ends on a pretty big cliffhanger.
The secondary characters are richly detailed, and seem to have interesting motivations of their own. They make a great supporting cast. And the book does a lovely job of demonstrating that found family ties can be just as rich and meaningful as biological.
There were a few elements of romance here and there though I would not call this book a romance or romantasy. I give it 💖.
In terms of diverse representation, we have Briseis and her two moms. Briseis is either bi or pan (I listened to the audiobook, and I don’t recall them ever saying, explicitly how she identifies). Their entire family is Black. There are additional people of color in the narrative. So there is quite a bit of racial and sexual diversity. Briseis’ family is struggling financially when they are living in Brooklyn and trying to run a small business. And when they move to this town in upstate New York, they definitely seem to move into a more financially stable status.
The audiobook performance was great. Jordan Cobb does a fantastic job with her performance and giving unique voice to a wide cast of characters.
Overall, I really liked this. The sense of humor of the characters and the magic system were a lot of fun. The vocal performance was great and made my commute fly by on some days. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫/💖
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent and Violence
Moderate: Racism
bookrecsplease's review against another edition
dark
informative
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
The plot is really slow moving, and a lot of it had that common YA trope of people being pointlessly mysterious to the protagonist instead of explaining all the things that they know. The last 20% was really great, but I wish the rest of the book had been paced similarly.
I loved the setup of Briseis’ relationship with her moms, but it never changed throughout the book. Neither did Briseis, unfortunately. She made one character trait decision at after the inciting incident that was a positive change for her, and then never evolved at all again.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent
Moderate: Violence, Blood, and Murder
abitbetterbooks's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Violence, and Death
dorywithana's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
lighthearted
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Amazing book with GREAT Representation! If you are a mythology fan this book is a must read! A great book, I consumed it fast to see if my suspicion about the mystery was right! I NEED to get my hands on the rest of the series ASAP to see what happens next!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and Blood
gen_nh's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
First couple of chapters were a bit slow for my preference but it picked up quickly after that and the relaxed and matter of fact way sexuality/race/gender is approached is great to read. Non of those factors were defining parts of the characters and were just naturally part of them.
I loved the mix of tense action and emotional moments, and the mythology mixed with real life was really well executed.
I loved the mix of tense action and emotional moments, and the mythology mixed with real life was really well executed.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder
Moderate: Violence, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Death, and Gun violence