A Botanical Daughter by Noah Medlock

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

A cozy queer horror that will either inspire you to grow a flower garden or delete your neighbour.

Simon and Gregor live together in a greenhouse in the 1800s England and are forced to hide their relationship from the world. Simon is a taxidermist and Gregor is a botanist of rare plants. After discovering a possibly-sentient fungus, the two men work together to create their botanical daughter. There is also a sapphic love story, but I don't want to give too much away - trust me, you'll love it!

I love the concept of creating a Frankenstein's-monster out of flowers and fungus. If you do too, this book will not let you down. The story is rich with description, making me think I was standing right beside our main characters throughout the story.

This is an insular story, which rides on the strength and authenticity of the character building, which Noah Medlock does really well. While the pace of the story is pretty solid, the stakes always seem pretty low, which is what makes this a cozy horror. I love that the backdrop of this story is a lush and blooming greenhouse, while in the foreground, the story does not shy away from the most gruesome parts of horror.

There is a subplot that reminds me a lot of Edward Albee's The American Dream, which demonstrates how the 'perfect family' creates 'the perfect child'. I like the questions that rise from making your own family, in this version it's a botanical daughter. What do we do for the family we choose? What happens when the someone isn't living up to our expectations/dreams? And how do we find balance again?

No spoilers - I loved the ending. I won't say more, but I didn't guess it, so that's a bonus.

Thank you to NetGalley and Titan for this advanced reader copy.

This book is best read under a twisted hazel tree with your partner, after hastily filling a shallow grave. If anyone asks, you were in London.