THIS POISON HEART
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Instant Indie Bestseller
2022 IGNYTE Award Finalist
2022 LOCUS Award Finalist
2022 Reading the West Book Award Finalist
2022-2023 North Star YA Award Nominee
2022 Rainbow Book List Selection
2021 Cybils Award Nominee: Young Adult Speculative Fiction
ProjectLIT Book Club Selection, Winter 2021
YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults Nominee 2022
Booklist Editor's Choice 2021: Book for Youth
Autostraddle Best Queer Books of 2021
2021 Book Shimmy Award Nominee
2021 Best Books for Teens, New York Public Library
Amazon Editor's Pick
Boston Public Library's Best YA Books of 2021
Waterstones Best Books of 2021: Teens & YA
Wordery Children's Book of the Year Nominee
Darkness blooms in bestselling author Kalynn Bayron’s new contemporary fantasy about a girl with a unique and deadly power.
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 that Bri befriends, only to find that Marie is keeping dark secrets about the history of the estate and the 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 and protect herself and her family.
PRAISE FOR THIS POISON HEART
“A verdant read as rich as the greenery within it, This Poison Heart will wrap its vines around you and never let go.” - Kayla Ancrum, author of THE WICKER KING
“Bayron takes an old story, turns it on its head, and makes it her own with a stunning display of pacing, character, and legacy.” - #1 New York Times bestselling author E.K. Johnston
“Thrilling and magnetic, This Poison Heart pulses with true Black girl magic and endless mystery.” - Julian Winters, award-winning author of RUNNING WITH LIONS
“Bayron weaves science and Greek mythology into a captivating lore that lends weight to this fantastical contemporary story. She conjures entertaining and realistic dialogue and attentive characterization, while incisive descriptions and sumptuous prose evoke a wonderfully gothic atmosphere.” - Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
