This Poison Heart

Briseis can make plants grow with a touch, an ability as difficult to explain as it is to control. When she inherits an estate in rural New York, she and her mothers hope its gardens will give her room to understand that gift. Instead, the property introduces new questions: unusual instructions, dangerous plants and people whose needs seem connected to a history she has never been told. As Bri explores the house and its grounds, the promise of a fresh start becomes entangled with a far older legacy. This contemporary fantasy follows a Black bisexual teenager discovering the reach of her abilities while navigating family, attraction and a mythology that makes the natural world both refuge and threat.