What a great debut novel. I adored loved this book. This is a Frankenstein-esque tale of magic and consent and personhood.

Rory is a lonely kid whose older sister makes him a playmate out of flowers so he will stop pestering her. As he continues to grow, he becomes obsessed with keeping his friend alive without needing to remake her every season. Daye is the flower girl who slowly develops independence while being bound by the magic of her creator. Full of self fulfilling prophecies, questions of ethics regarding consent and humanity, and the journey of becoming an adult, this book captured my attention and didn’t let go. I felt that many of the decisions made by both characters were true to reality, which made the impending looming doom that much more heartbreaking. Rory's actions reflect those of a growing boy through his teenage and early adult years. Daye's experiences of loneliness and how they ultimately lead to her independence allowed for such a beautiful full circle plot that I found the ending extremely satisfying. There were honest representations of anxiety, and I found myself loving characters I initially hated and hating characters I initially loved. I highly recommend this book, and I think it would be a great book club pick!

4.5/5 stars

i feel like this one hit me on so many vastly different but equally as deep levels. as a true coming of age love story, this accounts the themes of cycles of abuse, codependency, consent, narcissism, and loneliness wrapped up in prose gushing with lush botanical ambiance. it gave notes of both frankenstein and mother! in a whimsical and atmospheric foreground with a gorgeous nature/pagan witchcraft based magic system. while i wouldn’t consider this horror by any means, there certainly were horrific and harrowing scenes that made this so addicting it was hard to put down.

the whole time i was reading, all i was thinking about was how familiar a relationship like rory and daye’s felt to me. while set in a fantastical world, i found a younger version of myself in daye, and caught myself dwelling on both my own past relationships and those of my friends, and considering how much self-growth and reflection has happened for me since adolescence. i realized i know what it felt like to only exist for someone else, to never know or to lose yourself in your relationship, to be dominated and controlled and accept that abuse in fear of loneliness. but, in turn, through the loss of those relationships you gain the freedom to exist for yourself and yourself alone, and rediscovering yourself and who you want to be after being pushed down time and time again is a beautiful revelation. it’s part of why this book hit so close to home for me, was because it felt like healing. it felt like i must have worked through some past trauma as i found my way through this story. and i think others who have found themselves lost or stuck in a cycle they can’t break out of may feel the same way too.

this was almost a perfect read to me, but i do feel like it is being a bit wrongly advertised. i strongly do not believe this should be considered any semblance of a horror read, and while it has some dread inducing elements, they are not scary in the traditional sense. i was expecting a bit more of a conventional pagan horror based on marketing and the kinds of book lists it is being found in on instagram/goodreads, and while i still really enjoyed it, i fear some may be mislead into thinking this is something it is not, which may impact ratings. i also do think this book is quite repetitive, though i could see how this was a stylistic choice in a similar vein to the invisible life of addie larue.

i hope and pray this one takes off upon release, it really deserves it. i would looooove a special edition of it.