A Botanical Daughter
Noah Medlock
Mar 2024 · Titan Books (US, CA)
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3 reviews
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About this ebook
Mexican Gothic meets The Lie Tree by way of Oscar Wilde and Mary Shelley in this delightfully witty horror debut.
A captivating tale of two Victorian gentlemen hiding their relationship away in a botanical garden who embark on a Frankenstein-style experiment with unexpected consequences.
It is an unusual thing, to live in a botanical garden. But Simon and Gregor are an unusual pair of gentlemen. Hidden away in their glass sanctuary from the disapproving tattle of Victorian London, they are free to follow their own interests without interference. For Simon, this means long hours in the dark basement workshop, working his taxidermical art. Gregor’s business is exotic plants – lucrative, but harmless enough. Until his latest acquisition, a strange fungus which shows signs of intellect beyond any plant he’s seen, inspires him to attempt a masterwork: true intelligent life from plant matter.
Driven by the glory he’ll earn from the Royal Horticultural Society for such an achievement, Gregor ignores the flaws in his plan: that intelligence cannot be controlled; that plants cannot be reasoned with; and that the only way his plant-beast will flourish is if he uses a recently deceased corpse for the substrate.
The experiment – or Chloe, as she is named – outstrips even Gregor’s expectations, entangling their strange household. But as Gregor’s experiment flourishes, he wilts under the cost of keeping it hidden from jealous eyes. The mycelium grows apace in this sultry greenhouse. But who is cultivating whom?
Told with wit and warmth, this is an extraordinary tale of family, fungus and more than a dash of bloody revenge from an exciting new voice in queer horror.
A captivating tale of two Victorian gentlemen hiding their relationship away in a botanical garden who embark on a Frankenstein-style experiment with unexpected consequences.
It is an unusual thing, to live in a botanical garden. But Simon and Gregor are an unusual pair of gentlemen. Hidden away in their glass sanctuary from the disapproving tattle of Victorian London, they are free to follow their own interests without interference. For Simon, this means long hours in the dark basement workshop, working his taxidermical art. Gregor’s business is exotic plants – lucrative, but harmless enough. Until his latest acquisition, a strange fungus which shows signs of intellect beyond any plant he’s seen, inspires him to attempt a masterwork: true intelligent life from plant matter.
Driven by the glory he’ll earn from the Royal Horticultural Society for such an achievement, Gregor ignores the flaws in his plan: that intelligence cannot be controlled; that plants cannot be reasoned with; and that the only way his plant-beast will flourish is if he uses a recently deceased corpse for the substrate.
The experiment – or Chloe, as she is named – outstrips even Gregor’s expectations, entangling their strange household. But as Gregor’s experiment flourishes, he wilts under the cost of keeping it hidden from jealous eyes. The mycelium grows apace in this sultry greenhouse. But who is cultivating whom?
Told with wit and warmth, this is an extraordinary tale of family, fungus and more than a dash of bloody revenge from an exciting new voice in queer horror.
Mexican Gothic meets The Lie Tree by way of Oscar Wilde and Mary Shelley in this delightfully witty horror debut.
A captivating tale of two Victorian gentlemen hiding their relationship away in a botanical garden who embark on a Frankenstein-style experiment with unexpected consequences.
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Ratings and reviews
3 reviews
Torrey Brooks-Mauga
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November 6, 2025
A beautifully written prose that may not appeal to the faux "Christians" who forget the admonition to "above all, love". Recommended as "similar genre" after reading T. Kingfisher's Sworn Soldier series, Medlock's "A Botanical Daughter" demonstrates how choices made out of fear harm all, and choices made out of love are the most beautiful choices of all. Parents may love their children, but if they haven't addressed their own traumas, they will (unintentionally) traumatize their children... frequently out of trying to protect them from their own fears. "A Botanical Daughter" is an ode to the mystery of mycorrhizae, the cruelty of the small-minded guided by fear, and the limitless beauty of love...set against the backdrop of a Victorian garden's glass greenhouse growing a Sumatran fungus in the likeness of Frankenstein...but more beautiful, like the fierce beauty of the natural world.
Grant Anderson
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June 27, 2024
Not good
About the author
Noah Medlock is a novelist and theatre musician living in York, UK. He writes vivid and off-beat stories which sit somewhere between Horror, Fantasy, and Historical. Noah plays piano and trombone for shows and teaches singing and performing arts in York. A passionate devotee of all musical theatre, but especially Stephen Sondheim, Noah is the kind of person who will happily start crying at the overture. He once worked as a horticultural advisor at a garden centre, which inspired the completion of his debut mycelial horror novel A BOTANICAL DAUGHTER. Noah can still be found shouting into the void on Twitter, as well as on TikTok and Instagram.
Noah Medlock is a novelist and theatre musician living in York, UK. He writes vivid and off-beat stories which sit somewhere between Horror, Fantasy, and Historical. Noah plays piano and trombone for shows and teaches singing and performing arts in York. A passionate devotee of all musical theatr...
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