This Poison Heart: A modern fairytale where magic takes root and darkness blooms

· Bloomsbury Publishing
9 reviews
Ebook
400
Pages

About this ebook

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'Kalynn Bayron does more than re-write a fairy-tale ... She breaks it apart and rebuilds it into a wholly original and captivating story where girls finally decide for themselves who lives happily ever after' - Brigid Kemmerer

'A delicious mix of intoxicating fantasy and coming of age, steeped in Greek mythology and peppered with references to the Jordan Peele films Get Out and Us' - Observer New Review
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Poison runs through her veins ...

Briseis has a gift: with a single touch she can grow plants from tiny seeds to rich blooms.

When Briseis's aunt dies and wills her a dilapidated estate in rural New York, Bri and her parents hope that surrounded by plants and flowers, she will finally learn to control her gift. But their new home is sinister in ways they never expected – it comes with a mysterious set of instructions, a walled garden filled with the deadliest botanicals in the world, and generations of secrets. There is more to Bri's sudden inheritance than she could have imagined, and she is determined to uncover it.

From the bestselling author of Cinderella Is Dead comes an enchanting story about a young woman with the power to conquer the dark forces descending around her.

Don't miss the sequel, This Wicked Fate, where to save the people she loves, Briseis must change the most dangerous of fates ahead of her ...
_______________ 'Kalynn Bayron does more than re-write a fairy-tale ... She breaks it apart and rebuilds it into a wholly original and captivating story where girls finally decide for themselves who lives happily ever after' - Brigid Kemmerer 'A delicious mix of intoxicating fantasy and coming ...

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Ratings and reviews

9 reviews
Sarah
January 24, 2026
Reads like a school writing assignment. Slow, rambling, predictable & unnecessarily drawn out - you could probably skip the first half of the book and still know what was happening. The author needs a ruthless editor to save this
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S'novuyo
January 5, 2023
This book was a WOW! Just when you think things couldn't get any better, they do. That plot twist was amazing... I can't go into it without giving out spoilers but that cliffhanger, I'm not even mad about it. It sort of has you wanting more, and gets you craving for the second book.
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About the author

Kalynn Bayron is the bestselling author of the young-adult novels Cinderella Is Dead, This Poison Heart, This Wicked Fate, You're Not Supposed to Die Tonight, Sleep Like Death and Make Me a Monster as well as the middle-grade series The Vanquishers. She is the winner of the Books Are My Bag Readers Award for YA Fiction 2020 and Wordery's Children's Book of the Year 2020, and has been shortlisted for the Goodreads Choice Award for YA Fantasy 2020 and nominated for the CILIP Carnegie Medal 2021. When she's not writing, you can find her listening to Ella Fitzgerald on loop, attending the theatre, watching scary movies and spending time with her kids. She lives in Ithaca, New York, with her family.
kalynnbayron.com
@KalynnBayron
Kalynn Bayron is the bestselling author of the young-adult novels Cinderella Is Dead, This Poison Heart, This Wicked Fate, You're Not Supposed to Die Tonight, Sleep Like Death and Make Me a Monster as well as the middle-grade series The Vanquishers. She is the winner of the Books Are My Bag Reade...

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