Reviews tagging 'Homophobia'

A Botanical Daughter by Noah Medlock

15 reviews

minervacerridwen's review

dark funny mysterious relaxing medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

3.75* for enjoyable vibes, but not the tightest storytelling.

Overall I enjoyed spending time in this greenhouse and with the characters. Simon and Gregor are a queer couple living together in Victorian times, with relatable autistic and ADHD traits respectively. Gregor attempts to keep a stiff upper lip through some serious family trauma and tends to forget that the people around him have feelings too. Jennifer, the other main character, possesses a far more practical mind but not half the men's pride, and when she's put to work as the couple's housekeeper, she feels at home in their "strange" living arrangement. I liked the atmosphere of the story and the queer found family vibes. Finding comfort in the strange! I loved how two neurodivergent people living together would have managed to create a welcoming family for younger queer people from the village, if only it hadn't been for the botanist's pride. In that sense it can also be seen as a strong commentary on current society, where ambition and gatekeeping sometimes keep people from establishing fully accepting environments.

However, when I look back upon the book, it feels a little as if the author hadn't always taken clear decisions in what sort of story this should become, which made it hard to make sense of certain things

e.g. the fact that Jennifer didn't recognise Constance until finally she did, and the inconsistence of the strength of Gregor and Simon's relationship - though I suppose there might be a certain realism in the latter point

. There are some philosophical themes that remind of Frankenstein, some satire of the rich "scientists" from Victorian times, and the often amusing writing style contains gems like:

Simon knelt before him so he could look him in the eyes. He'd heard people like it when you make eye contact. It sounded improbable to him, and rather frightful, but he deferred to the popular opinion.

Some of the jokes were used one too many times or didn't work as well after the atmosphere of the story had shifted. The pacing suffered from a similar problem between the middle of the book and the end. Sometimes it felt as if Jennifer was on the brink of finding out something she shouldn't, only for that tension to fall flat without being picked up again.

At certain points I found myself wondering whether the fact that it was impossible to love a character as much as I did earlier in the story actually made them into complex characters, or whether that meant their decisions were just difficult to believe.

What was the point of two such reluctant murders? Three, counting John Finch's too? In my mind, it would have made so much more sense if Gregor had allowed Chloe to change his mind after the first. Now it was difficult to maintain sympathy for Simon and Gregor and the ending became more tangled and distant than really would have been satisfying to me.

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amycat's review

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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chris_reads's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

Content Warnings

beeeenerys's review

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emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

5.0

A gay couple frankenstein themselves a daughter with dead bodies and mushrooms.

This is absolutely going in my favourites tag. Botany, fungus, some tasteful gore and a healthy helping of queerness. I loved how she was put together with all sorts of things and her constant growth and fluctuation made her kind of difficult to imagine, I really enjoy a certain level of nebulousness to my monsters.

It was gross at times but not scary at at all, I think this book will make a great entry point for someone starting out in queer horror, who wants to dip their toes in but isn't sure what they can handle just yet.

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ilaxaria's review

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slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character

2.0

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wyddwig's review

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emotional funny mysterious reflective 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

4.0

I had fun with this! The narrative style was lush (fitting for the subject matter) and it clipped along at a brisk pace so I happily finished it in one sitting of 2.5/3hrs.

The characters were all well-formed, and the way they all came together into their little family of an ecosystem was very believable. I very much enjoyed the very British upper class way of Gregor and Simon’s relationship was both very intimate and very stilted, and the way that cascaded as the plot developed.

The way that you could see that Chloe remembered being Constance was well-handled imo, balanced nicely with the way that Chloe was clearly their own different person from her.

The period-typical homophobia was a clear and present danger throughout the story but not in a way that I found gratuitous, and

the way that Gregor and Simon independently reassured Jennifer that she wasn’t wrong was very nice.

I would personally label this as speculative rather than horror, although there are all the typical body horror elements you might expect from a Frankenstein-style story.

Content Warnings

inkspillolives's review

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dark emotional funny medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Content Warnings

aidareads's review against another edition

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dark funny mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

what the fuck

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renorsomethin's review

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dark emotional funny slow-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

4.25

Content Warnings

_serena_'s review

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-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

Mexican Gothic meets Frankenstein meets What Moves the Dead.

This queer, gothic horror surprised me! I loved how methodical the beginning was, the botanical process and explanations.

Simon and Gregor’s relationship with their creation develops nonstop throughout the story.

I loved how much Jenny grew as their housekeeper and new found family member.

I’m still kind of reeling over the plant sex though. I knew it was coming from the content warnings, but I was still a little taken aback. It was beautifully written though like the rest of the story.

The majority of the story is a slow paced process. I didn’t expect the fast paced ending, but I think it all wrapped up very nicely.

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