Briseis is a black teenage girl who can control and grow plants, often unintentionally. She is also invulnerable to poisons. She can roll around in Poison Ivy and not break out in a rash or even itch. She can drink straight poison or inject it into her veins and not be harmed. She is adopted, and her moms run a struggling flower shop in New York City. One day, Briseis receives a letter that her only surviving natural relative, an aunt, has died and left her a house in a tiny town in upstate New York. Briseis had an open adoption but never had contact with anyone in her birth family. She and her moms travel to check out the house she has inherited and decide if they want to move there permanently. The house is less of a house and more of a crumbling, gothic mansion that is full of secret rooms. There is even an abandoned apothecary shop and a secret walled garden of poisonous plants. The longer Briseis and her moms stay there, the more mysteries pop up.
I picked this book because I had heard good things about it, and the cover was very pretty. I heard it described as a retelling of A Secret Garden, and I completely disagree. Other than having a mystery surrounding a garden, those books have completely different vibes. I did enjoy this book, until the very end, which I felt was quite a bit rushed. I will be reviewing the sequel next, but *Spoiler Alert*, I didn’t like it at all.