Gregor and Simon are two confirmed bachelors living in a massive greenhouse that they’ve made into their home. While Gregor works in the humid environs of a hot house, Simon works on his taxidermy in his cool dark cellar. Years before, Gregor’s manor home burned to the foundations. Rather than rebuild it, Gregor instead focuses on the flora of the outside world inside his chosen Eden. Gregor brings in a special item from across the world, he figures out that to regain his reputation after a failed Royal Horticultural Society appearance is to create a unique blend from a traditionally unused substrate. Their laundress Jennifer becomes their housekeeper after her father begs then to take her on fulltime and free her from her grief. Jennifer’s best friend, and secret lover, is buried outside of the local cemetery under the belief that she took her own life. When Gregor and Simon retrieve the corpse for their secret project, they hide their experiment in Simon’s basement lab and out of sight. Soon their project, CHLOE, becomes much more than they expected.
Author Noah Medlock does an incredible job of creating a Victorian world that is both fantastical and believable at the same time. From internal written fights between members of Horticultural societies, the secret relationships of LGBT+ people in the Victorian era, and the way women were treated as easily disposable all feel realistic to the time period. Jennifer is so much more than a one-off lesbian character. Simon and Gregor are both fantastical blends of horror figures and unique unto themselves. A Botanical Daughter feels a great deal like the start of a Guillermo del Toro film and is just as beautiful.
A Botanical Daughter is now available from Titan Books.
