Kit Mayquist’s debut novel Tripping Arcadia centers around a notorious family with incredible wealth. Famous for their debauched lifestyle and condemned for the way their company absorbs others and puts employees out of work, the Verdeaus are hardly wallflowers. But when our sheltered heroine Lena steps into their world, she has somehow never heard of them.

Lena, a med school dropout with an ailing unemployed father, leaves her personal utopia (studying plants with her aunt in Italy) when her family needs her to get a paying job to help stay afloat. At first, gaining a position as a physician’s assistant for the Verdeaus seems like a dream come true. Lena isn’t qualified, and it pays incredibly well. All she has to do is spend a few hours a day helping care for the moody and perpetually ill Jonathan Verdeau. The heir to his father Martin’s empire, Jonathan feels confined by his family and the unwanted media spotlight they attract. Though he’s the younger sibling, the fact that he is male has caused him to be elevated over sister Audrey.

But on paper, Audrey seems the perfect choice to be heir. She is a practicing lawyer, healthy, and older than her brother, and actually interested in the company. Audrey outpaces Jonathan in a lot of ways. Lena is taken with her at once, but it is clear to the reader, if not to Lena, that beneath Audrey’s gorgeous face lie a lot of secrets. In this modern gothic, Audrey is the classic handsome heir leading the governess into temptation—and Lena is panting at her heels.

Lena is knocked out of her reverie the moment she is invited to work one of the family’s famous parties. The opulent drug and alcohol fueled affairs are designed to stroke Martin’s ego by making others feel low. When she hears that her father was one of the employees displaced by the Verdeaus’ company, and that he too was shamed at these parties like so many before him, she gets angry. She plans immediately to poison Martin using her skills in botany—though not to kill him, merely bring him low too. It’s hardly a surprise when things get out of hand.

Poison is a theme throughout the novel. It’s literal in the form of Lena’s mixtures and in the substances the wealthy consume to prove they’re alive. It’s metaphorical in the toxic way the Verdeaus treat one another in the dark world of wealth that starts to taint Lena herself. Pulled away from friends and family, and drawn further and further into the shadows she hates, it isn’t long before the Verdeaus are her whole world.

Masterfully written in classic gothic style, this book is a slow burn that relies on a claustrophobic atmosphere and a tight, well-developed cast. As such, the supporting characters fall by the wayside. Lena’s former friends are barely characters, her family are plot devices, and even the favored Aunt Claire plays little part of the plot. The Verdeau siblings are the stars from the start—outshining mousey Lena—and their venomous allure deserves center stage. As Lena throughout makes it clear that she is looking back on events, the reader never worries that she won’t survive them. The question that keeps the pages turning is, instead, what state we will find Lena in at the tale’s conclusion.

Beautifully written. Gothic, sparkly, magical. Worth sticking through a slightly slow beginning for the lovely prose, creepy atmosphere, and fun plotting. This is definitely an author to watch! 4.5 🌟

The Great Gatsby turned gothic, mysterious and downright dark. TRIPPING ARCADIA has all the hallmarks I love in thrillers: family secrets, rich people acting (VERY) badly and revenge. Great potential, but also falls a little flat in the execution.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for giving me free access to the advanced copy of this book to read.

Love the gothic feel of this novel, and I am always here for a compelling morally gray main character. I think this book succeeds with its vibes in spades (the manor- YES!), but the characters could have been drawn a little more compellingly- a pretty minor quibble. Thanks to the publisher for the review copy!

WHAT an incredible modern gothic horror book!! I freakin' loved this one. The opening pulled me in immediately, and the sheer audacity that was Tripping Arcadia's plot had me HOWLING. Brilliant!

Glorious!

I liked this! Murder, mystery, a gothic estate, a wealthy family steeped in intrigue and so much poison. Tripping arcadia is a stunning novel and I will definitely look forward to the author’s next works.

I love the idea of gothic-gatsby with a touch of poison and that's what was promised in "Tripping Arcadia" overall it was an enjoyable page turner with great ~vibes~ but I will say that the writing was a bit jerky i.e. it didn't flow quite right, in my opinion ,and jumped to and from plot points a bit unnaturally.

Lena, a med-school drop out (who also has a history of playing with poisonous plants in Italy) gets a job at a rich family's home as a care-giver to support her family. This family is infamous in a way that compares to the Kardashians - everyone knows their name and they all play into their presence. The patriarch of the family is known to give lavish parties where the rich get to play dirty. I loved our characters even though they were a bit cliche - there our bi protagonist, a boy who is obsessed with death and the prissy sister along with all the "adults".

Overall, enjoyable but the writing and plot were a bit muddled... I think this concept is very cool but could have been executed better. It was a fast read though and what a gorgeous cover.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the gifted copy

This book was not for me. I thought it would move more quickly and be more suspenseful. I just felt like I was slogging through the whole thing and had to make myself finish which I don't normally do, but I kept feeling like something was going to happen and nothing of substance did. I will still recommend this one, because as usual, I feel like this was probably just me and not the book or the writing.

There was a lot to like, gay gothic gatsby? Sign me up! But ultimately this just didn't really work for me. Great concept, flawed execution. I really wanted to like this.

I’m not sure what I expected, but it turned out to be nothing like that and more. Quite enjoyable, interesting turns of events —- POISON. A fun (kind of?) read!

Thanks to Penguin Group Dutton and NetGalley for the advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review. I love a good gothic thriller with great characters and this fit the bill. It was highly atmospheric and kept me interested throughout the story. I’d read more by this author in the future!

This book was amazing. I coudn't put it down. It was magical. Higly recommended! The characters, the plots, the writting: wonderful and perfect.

I ended up DNF'ing this book. I was bored and didn't really care about the character or the story. I really wanted to love this one but I just didn't care for it at all.

Lena is a med-school dropout returning from Umbria, Italy where she was working with her horticulturist aunt to Boston to help out her family. Her father recently lost his job and is disabled so they need an income from her to keep them afloat. She applies for a doctor's assisstant position with the Verdeau family, an uber rich Boston family and despite feeling that she bombed the interview, gets the job. Things get screwy quickly as the doctor is working for the family exclusively, mainly for the eldest son Jonathan who as a mystery, never explained illness. As the story unfolds, Lena gets more involved with the family, does some questionable things and the entire thing comes collapsing down. I have to say I wasn't expecting the book to turn out the way it did, but it was an amazing finish. Mayquist spends just enough time unspooling the story so you feel a lot like Lena uncovering the secrets of the bizarre Verdeau family and their doctor. The ending doesn't disappoint and ties everything up nicely while not flinching from the fact that sometimes people are just awful and do awful things.

Tripping Arcadia is an engaging and atmospheric book, with well developed characters to accompany the lush gothic vibes. The pacing could be improved in the later part of the book, but this was a great debut work. One that I'll certainly recommend to those looking for a new gothic read.

I honestly really enjoyed this book even more than I thought I would! Great Gatsby meets something a little more dark and sinister in this novel and I loved the nods to anti-capitalism and queerness.

Lush, sweeping, and verdant: a beautifully-written, emotionally compelling modern gothic full of opulence, poison, revenge, and wonderful, terrifying plants.

This was, overall, a really enjoyable read, and very engaging. The characters were intriguing, the story compelling, and the atmosphere was absolutely impeccable. I liked the author's writing style, and thought that it was very well-matched to the subject and premise, which was wonderful and felt really innovative. I really enjoyed the development and unspooling of character relationships - especially Lena and Jonathan, and Lena and Audrey.

My one qualm with the story is a relatively major one: I felt like the main character's motivations were insufficiently matched to her actions. That is, it felt to me like her motivation was not as powerful as it needed to be to drive her actual actions. This made the plot a little difficult to really "get behind" for a bit, but it felt less important as the story unfurled.

For me, this was a solid 3.5 stars, rounded up. Recommended, especially: if you thought the Great Gatsby would be more fun if Nick Carraway was actively hostile to all the rich people but more explicitly gay; if you like botany or plants; if you enjoy gothic atmosphere, mystery, and mild suspense; if you like reading about dysfunctional family dynamics; if you like dark academia and related genres.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an e-ARC in exchange for my honest review!

A book marketed as a gothic thriller that actually felt like one! Tripping Arcadia is dark and atmospheric. I’m very interested in what Kit Mayquist will come out with next.

This was a really interesting read. It is exactly the Great Gatsby-esk story that I was promised (and then it morphed into Great Gatsby meets Carrie for a second and that was especially mind blowing and memorable.) I didn't love Lena as a character and couldn't relate to her and that took me away from the story a bit, I might have enjoyed it more had I found her to be more likeable. But what I did like (love) about this story was Jonathan. He was a mess, he was easy to not root for and I found myself rooting for him anyways. He was dealt bad circumstances despite having literally everything handed to him on a silver platter. He wanted to escape the life that was handed to him and live more simply. I absolutely ached for him and was overjoyed by his happy ending. I also really loved the setting and hope that Kit Mayquist writes more stories set in the Boston 'Burbs because this story made me yearn to visit all over again.