{Put This One on Your TBR List}: Review of A Botanical Daughter by Noah Medlock Accompanied by Karen Wiesner's Original Artwork by Karen S. Wiesner

 

{Put This One on Your TBR List}:

Review of A Botanical Daughter by Noah Medlock

Accompanied by Karen Wiesner's Original Artwork

by Karen S. Wiesner 

  Beware spoilers! 

I was looking for something to read on my Libby library app, and A Botanical Daughter by Noah Medlock came up, no doubt because of my newfound love of gardening and horror literature. This 2024 Victorian gothic chiller was the author's first book. The basic story is two Victorian-age, quirky gentlemen live a cloistered existence in an equally eccentric botanical garden. Simon is a taxidermist who views his usually whimsical (i.e., not disturbing) craft as art. Gregor is a celebrated, though somewhat spurned, horticulturist whose greatest love is cultivating wildly exotic plants. His latest acquisition is a strange fungus he's convinced is capable of unprecedented intelligence. He's determined to make it his masterpiece. Throw in a spirited housemaid named Jennifer who's a bit of an oddity herself in the community they live, and readers are treated to a whole menagerie of curiosities to explore. Jennifer has recently lost the friend she loves, one she believes was murdered by her own father, though she has no way to prove it. 

This story began in a wonderfully witty, charming way that captured me instantly, especially when the story turned into a gardener's version of Frankenstein. Seriously, what more could you want? I was mesmerized with the wonderful characters and their irresistible setting. Jennifer was unexpectedly vibrant, not willing to be defined by those around her, and fiercely true to herself and her values. Simon and Gregor were at first alike only in that both displayed erratic artist temperaments, yet the author made them very unique…at least initially. 

The first half of this book was amazing. I enjoyed every word, all the unorthodox developments, the author's clever turns of phrase that had me laughing out loud from one page to the next. I wanted to include at least one or two of the best of those gems here but my library app took the ebook back too quickly. 

Despite such a winning start, the last half of the story, regrettably, became a confounding garble of twisted, choking inconsistencies that eventually threatened to wreck the foundation altogether. It got to the point where I couldn't tell which character was Gregor and which was Simon. They became as the same person and unrecognizable from their formerly established characters. I lost track of the story because the main characters abruptly were so muddied and odiously unlikable. It was as if the author himself forgot who was who in his literary madness. Not only did the story turn to something painfully unreadable but the situations the couple's bad choices entangled them in resembled an abyss that got deeper, darker, and far less amusing than I could tolerate. The characters committed horrible atrocities that were presented in a way that ultimately condoned their behavior. Similar to another "holobiont"* set of books I recently read and was faintly appalled by**, the degeneration of values and lack of respect for life (human and plant alike) depicted at the end of this story all but crumbled to incomprehensibility, leaving me cold and filled with regrets for what could have been a brilliant first novel. The initial half was so enjoyable and fun. While I wouldn't have called this outright horror, it had moments of dread that I relished in context with all the plant concepts. I'm not entirely certain if it was an inexperienced author that was to blame for the crimes committed in the writing of the second portion of this tome, or an editor who let far too many mistakes creep in that went unrevised--probably both of these in combination. A third alternative is that this is simply the unimaginable (to me), new way books are written, and I'm just too old to appreciate it. Sigh. 

*Various symbiotic organisms joined as an ecological unit--read more about this on Wikipedia if you're interested. 

**The Southern Reach Series by Jeff VanderMeer. 

Despite my regrets for what might have been, I must say, what a lovely cover. I adore it!  Bravo, Julia Lloyd! 

To go along with the theme of this review, here's a botanical art project I recently finished for my daughter's birthday.

"Autumn…Where Nature and Imagination Merge"

(rendered in coloring pencil)

© Karen Wiesner (all rights reserved)

 Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of 156 titles and 16 series. 

Visit Karen here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/

Wolf Worm

Nobody will be surprised that I agree with Karen in loving T. Kingfisher's WOLF WORM.

As she describes, it's Gothic historical fiction with body horror. A “wolf worm” is the larva of a parasitic insect. Botflies, screwflies –- squeamish readers beware. The protagonist, Sonia Wilson, resembles many of Kingfisher’s heroines in being cast adrift from familiar surroundings, but rather than going home like the others (for a certain value of “home”) she’s beginning a new job in a strange place. Since the death of her father, a distinguished botanist whose work she illustrated, she has taught at a girls’ school. Now she has been accepted as an illustrator for a reclusive entomologist, a chance to use her artistic gifts for more than teaching. In North Carolina in 1899, a young woman involved in science can’t expect any more prominent role.

This novel embodies the classic Gothic tropes of an orphan heroine confronted with a large, half-deserted house, its forbidding master, mysterious deaths, and grim secrets. No JANE EYRE romance plot here, though. The housekeeper, one of only three servants who remain, immediately cautions Sonia that her employer won’t marry her. Not only does she have no interest in snagging a husband, she quickly finds out no sensible woman would choose Dr. Halder for that role. He’s a misanthrope with scorn for his professional peers and little or no tolerance for anything less than perfection in the work of an assistant.

Arriving with more knowledge of plants than insects, Sonia nevertheless manages to produce satisfactory illustrations most of the time. The studio of the previous illustrator, whom Halder refuses to discuss, provides her with textbooks plus helpfully labeled illustrations that fill gaps in her professional background. Meanwhile, she has been warned about “the Devil” in the woods and has heard stories of “blood thieves” allegedly identified as a man and woman who’d been executed vigilante style followed by a stake through the heart. Surely, Sonia thinks, the mangled bodies had actually been victims of wild animals or, possibly, the resurgent Ku Klux Klan. Or had they? What really happened to Halder’s missing wife and her lover? What about the padlocked outbuilding she happens to see him visiting by night?

Naturally, I was thrilled at the revelation of actual vampirism, although of an unusual type and scientifically explained. It's my favorite type of vampire, a member of a naturally evolved, humanoid but not quite human species. And I figured out, long before Sonia did, who the previous artist was. Like Kingfisher’s other female horror protagonists, she forms bonds of friendship amid the ominous surroundings, in this case with a local Native American woman and the mixed-race couple who maintain the house and grounds. Sonia eventually discovers who and what constitute the true evil and defeats it with the support of her new friends. The insect lore in WOLF WORM highlights Kingfisher’s perennial interest in the curiosities of the natural world, as displayed by characters’ in-depth knowledge of fungi, poisons, plants, vultures, roadrunners, etc. in previous books. Also, Sonia’s analysis of her environment in terms of the technical challenges of watercolor painting adds dimension to her character. As in the conclusion of THE TWISTED ONES, at the end of WOLF WORM Sonia hasn’t moved on from the horrors she’s seen but realistically struggles with memories and nightmares that will linger past the end of the story.

As for the novel's feminist dimension, the ending delivers a delightful "take that" to the legacy of the arrogant Dr. Halder.

Margaret L. Carter

Please explore love among the monsters at Carter's Crypt.