With the recent release of the Oscar-winning Poor Things, the theme of reanimation is back within the wider public consciousness.
We could debate the ethics of such a hypothetical practice for days, but instead let’s talk about Noah Medlock’s latest novel A Botanical Daughter.
This Victorian set story, gives us an unconventional couple, Gregor and Simon, who have long co-habited at their tucked away home at Grimfern. Their experiments with botany go to a new level, when a recently deceased girl is taken from her grave and reanimated using plant life to fill in the blanks.
The immediate callback to this story is obviously Frankenstein, but A Botanical Daughter is more overtly queer than that story. Here we look at what it is to be a woman, and in turn a daughter to this queer couple.
Do Gregor and Simon need a buffer, such as the newly coined Chloe to keep them together or is this just a vanity project that got out of hand?
A Botanical Daughter also has edge to it, as Chloe is dangerous too, especially when she or her fathers are threatened by an outside force.
Just to complicate things we also have maid Jenny, a former friend of the woman Chloe, partially, used to be, who has her own designs on what her future should be.
While there are moments of pedestrian narrative, A Botanical Daughter feels fresh, because of its setting, and its complex theme. I don’t think I’ve quite read something like this before.
A Botanical Daughter will definitely vibe with fans of Mary Shelley, queer horror tales and those who like a Victorian set tale.
A Botanical Daughter by Noah Medlock is available now from Titan Books.
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