Reviews - A Botanical Daughter

1.57k reviews for:

A Botanical Daughter

Noah Medlock

3.68 AVERAGE

roasteddove's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

a beautiful frankenstein retelling mixed with found family. horror with a happy ending.

sebastianblack's review

4.5

dark emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

sidequestcollector's review against another edition

3.0

dark reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

I was intrigued by the concept but this book didn’t quite do it for me. I’ve read a lot of queer botanical + body horror in the last year or two and enjoyed other stories more (Eat the Ones You Love, Grim Root). Characters felt flat and each had a couple of unique traits that were referenced repeatedly. I loved the passages describing the greenhouse, though.

I listened to the audiobook. The character voices were distinctive, although Gregor and Chloe’s voices were extremely distracting to me.

pikamonster's review against another edition

4.0

challenging dark slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I really enjoyed this funky little read. I started out transfixed but then toward the end I had to power through a bit. The ending was disappointing and a lot of parts felt unrealistic (and I'm not talking the parts involving the plant girl)

dustandwavestextile's review against another edition

3.0

This one took me forever to finish and honestly it fell so flat for me that I didn't really want to finish. But I did. Hear me out. I loved the queer representation in the characters, they were very endearing and loveable. I enjoy eco/plant horror so much - but this was definitely not that (save for maybe one or two scenes). I found the plot to be incredibly slow. Frankly, I was really bored. I wanted to love this - I was sure I was going to, and I just didn't. It just kind of felt like literally nothing happened until the very end. There was quite a lot of character development, though, so if that's your thing over plot, you'll probably like this more than I did. It was more cozy plant family, less plant horror - I can see the likeness to Frankenstein but it wasn't really that for me. I kept seeing this posted on eco horror suggestion lists, and it didn't fit the vibe for me. It felt like there was very little tension in the plot, it rarely felt uncomfortable - it felt cozy and like hanging out in a greenhouse (which isn't a bad thing! Just not what I expected.). 3 stars more for my mislead expectations and not the actual story, which was lovely.

peculiarjoreads's review

4.25

dark funny tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

the_epi_reader's review against another edition

3.5

dark medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

A Frankenstein retelling but make it queer, green, and full of mushrooms.

A Botanical Daughter is a very atmospheric read, focusing more on the characters and having a literary horror flare. I love books that take place in the Victorian era, but sometimes they are a slow read. A Botanical Daughter wasn’t as fast-paced as I would have liked, due to focusing on the characters over the plot. I did enjoy the queer spin to the story, since not many 1800s era books are LGBTQIA+ centered. If you’re a fan of literary fiction/horror, environmental horror, or Frankenstein inspired books, give A Botanical Daughter a read!