I sat down in front of the altar and hung my head and cried until I felt like I couldn’t breathe.
A commotion drew me out of my despair—Dr. Grant was shouting, and suddenly, everything went quiet. I raced down the hall and into the front room.
Mo and Nyx were standing next to each other. A tall woman with a head full of waist-length braids held Marie by her arm. Marie wasn’t struggling but she seemed upset. Dr. Grant cowered in the corner of the room. There was one other person there, and she stood over Dr. Grant, her back to me.
The woman in the braids took notice of me and her hands flew to her mouth as she inhaled sharply.
“I’m sorry!” Dr. Grant shouted.
“Have you been here this whole time?” the stranger asked angrily. “You didn’t guess what might be going on? After what happened to my baby sister, you didn’t think maybe you should be extra vigilant? You’re smarter than that but Jesus Christ, Khadijah, what is wrong with you?”
“I have been vigilant! Fourteen years I been here trying to fix this!” Dr. Grant insisted. “I’ve been trying to help!”
“Circe,” the tall woman standing with Marie said. “Circe, look.”
The woman turned and met my gaze. She wore a dark green head wrap twisted into an elaborate knot. Strands of her jet-black curls stuck out from underneath it. We shared the same dark brown eyes and she even wore a pair of oversized glasses that she pushed up the bridge of her nose.
“Briseis,” she said, her voice choked with emotion. “I—I never thought I’d see you again.”
A thudding noise drew my attention to the foyer.
Not thudding. Beating. Like the rhythm of a heart.
Sitting in the entryway were two identical glass enclosures, padlocked shut, their panes painted black. The sound was emanating from them. I turned back to the woman—to Circe, who smiled warmly.
“I have so much to tell you,” she said.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
When I was three, the Little Shop of Horrors movie came out and soon after went into my regular rotation of Annie, The Wiz, and The Wizard of Oz. For years I was obsessed with the carnivorous plant to the point I actually entered several flower-arranging contests (did y’all know those exist?) and won a few first-place ribbons all in the hopes that one day I would get my shot at tending to a weird and wondrous plant. When I was ten, the Secret Garden film came out, and I took it as a sign that I was meant to live on some windswept estate where I could have my own “bit of earth.” But being the kind of kid I was, I wondered what it might be like if I had an Audrey II behind that locked gate.
I toyed with this idea for years when I started thinking about writing professionally but put it on the back burner while I was working on Cinderella Is Dead. It wasn’t until 2017, when I found an article on the Poison Garden at England’s Alnwick Garden—a gated plot that houses some of the world’s deadliest plants, that I decided to revisit the idea of a hidden garden sheltering a rare and deadly plant. After reading the article, I sat down and wrote a very rough outline of what would become This Poison Heart.
So many of the weird and wonderful things I love went into this story—poison plants, Greek mythology, hidden legacies, and old creepy houses—I had the time of my life writing it.
To my partner, Mike, my babies, Amya, Nylah, Elijah, Lyla, and my brother, Spencer, I love y’all so much. Thank you for being my biggest supporters, my loudest cheerleaders. To my dad in heaven, Errol Brown, I miss you so much. I know you would be proud of me. Keep showing me the way and I’ll keep putting in the work.
Thank you to my agent extraordinaire, Jamie, who did not immediately drop me for bringing her an idea that was essentially poison plants, Greek myth, and Gothic-inspired atmosphere. No plot, just vibes. Thank you for being an unfailing champion of my work.
To my amazing editors on this project, Mary Kate Castellani and Annette Pollert-Morgan. Thank you for your invaluable input and brilliant, insightful feedback. Thank you as well to everyone at Bloomsbury, Bloomsbury UK, and Bloomsbury AU/NZ, including Ksenia Winnicki, Erica Barmash, Beth Eller, Lily Yengle, Lucy Mackay-Sim, Namra Amir, Claire Stetzer, Phoebe Dyer, and Tobias Madden, for all your support, hard work, and enthusiasm. I could not have asked for a better team, and I’m so thrilled that we get to bring this story into the world together.
I am forever grateful to the wonderful authors, publishing professionals, and bookish folks I’ve met along the way. Thank you for your support and encouragement, and I hope to be able to do the same for you all whenever I can. This community has been a lifesaver. Big shoutout to the Squad. You know who you are. I’m so happy to be in community with you all.
To all the book bloggers, booktube rockstars, bookstagramers, and the book TikTok crew—I love y’all so much! Thank you for all your hard work, for every post, every boost, every photo, every cosplay. A special shoutout to Melody Simpson with Melanin in YA.
Every writer has certain things that make their writing life a little easier, so I’d like to take a moment to say a big thank you to coffee, Biscoff cookies, and my trusty AlphaSmart. I couldn’t have done it without y’all!
As always, to the readers—I am so grateful for your continued support, your boundless creativity, and your endless enthusiasm. Seeing my work make its way into your hands is the honor of my life. I hope we’ll be together on this journey for a good long while. Happy reading.
BLOOMSBURY YA
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First published in the United States of America in June 2021 by Bloomsbury YA
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Bayron, Kalynn, author.
Title: This poison heart / by Kalynn Bayron.
Description: New York: Bloomsbury, 2021 Summary: Teenaged Briseis, who possesses a supernatural power over plants, even poisonous ones, inherits a dilapidated estate in rural New York and must protect herself and her family from centuries-old secrets that threaten their lives.
ISBN 978-1-5266-4271-4 (exclusive edition A) • ISBN 978-1-5476-0964-2 (exclusive edition B)
Book design by Jeanette Levy
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