I got this softcover at a local Barnes and Noble, for another release copy. I was initially attracted by the cover art - and the premise: in what seems to be the early 1800s, two men inhabit a massive greenhouse, with Gregor creating "rooms" with his immense variety of plants, in between conducting experiments on cultivating exotic specimens, while Simon spends most of his time in the cool underground chambers, specializing in taxidermy - posing his preserved woodland creatures in intricate scenes, some of which sell for very good prices. They hide the fact that they are lovers from the outside world by letting nobody pass the entrance (save for a few carefully-monitored guests who've come to buy plants). When Jennifer, the young village woman who's their regular laundress (collecting bags of laundry at the door), is bereft by the apparent suicide of her beloved friend Constance, our two protagonists are coerced into hiring her as a full-time housekeeper to give her some way of filling the empty hours. Ah, but Gregor has acquired a Very Special Fungus, one that he thinks might achieve independent motion and even intelligence - if only he can find the right substrate for it. Wait, didn't he hear of a recently-dead woman in the neighborhood? Hmmm...

So, a kind of botanical "Frankenstein" - or will it be more like "Pinocchio"? "Rappaccini's Daughter?" Something else entirely?

To my delight, the story takes influences from all of those - plus a touch of "Little Shop of Horrors" {wry grin} - but turns it into something unique. I fell in love with the characters, from mad-scientist Gregor to tightly-wound Simon to the practical, hard-working Jennifer - and on to Chloe, the "botanical daughter", whose construction is both macabre and fascinating. The relationship between Simon and Gregor holds fast, though they do have some challenging spells where one or the other can't cope with the way the grand experiment is progressing. (At one point Jennifer gives Simon some advice, after Gregor's been particularly hard to deal with: "I know that it's uncomfortable for you, but you can't insist he be happy all the time just for your benefit." She's an excellent addition to the menage, and quickly becomes attached to her quirky employers.)

There are several plot-points that generate stress - sometimes in the characters, sometimes in the reader. I was quite concerned as to what Jennifer would do if she learned that the enchanting botanical being Chloe was constructed using the corpse of her beloved Constance as its framework. The question of whether Constance did in fact commit suicide or was murdered is another concern, as is the pressure from an old flame-turned-rival of Gregor's, now the head of the Royal Horticultural Society, to come and see what Gregor's working on.

The story wanders from some delightful domestic scenes - Simon baking a pie to make up for a recent snit of his own, decorating the crust with rows of tiny pastry skulls; Gregor constructing new garden-rooms to give Jennifer and Chloe their own space; Jennifer teaching Chloe how to move, sit, dance like a real girl - to some seriously violent ones: let's just say that vengeance is taken in a form quite satisfactory to me, if a bit traumatic to the characters involved.

I adored the book from start to finish, with its digressions into spontaneous lovemaking-in-the-rain, one character's habit of enjoying tea and a book as a solitary refresher, the details of constructing a biological being from many diverse plants, all brought into symbiosis by that genius fungus, even the grisly/gory bits. Imaginative, funny, touching, intricate - excellent book!

I left this book in the Little Free Library on this warm, sunny day; hope someone enjoys it!

[See other recent releases in NH here.]

Released for:

** 2024 April Showers/May Flowers challenge **

I had this in my hand the other night at B&N but was distracted by a friend and put it down and left without buying it (ahhh). I was so thrilled to find this in the LFL today. I guess it was meant to be.