In the Garden of Poisonous Flowers

An exclusive, profusely illustrated hardcover novella related to CaitlÌn's harrowing new novel, Threshold!Late one night, on a lonely south Georgia highway, a very strange car picks up an even stranger hitchhiker and the fates of all concerned become inextricably intertwined. Meet Dancy Flammarion, an orphaned albino girl who talks to angels and is intent on ridding the world of monsters. But what happens when one of the monsters decides to use her for his own dark ends? In the Garden of Poisonous Flowers is award-winning fantasist Caitlin R. Kiernan's first-ever novella, giving us a glimpse into the life of Dancy Flammarion shortly before her appearance in Kiernan's critically-acclaimed second novel, Threshold. This gritty yet decadent story of ghouls, corruption, and talking bears, draws us deeply into a world of madness and betrayal, forbidden appetites and deadly intrigue, and the light that shines from the most unlikely of heroes. In the Garden of Poisonous Flowers will include a full-color dustjacket and ten black and white interior illustrations by Dame Darcy!

From Publishers Weekly

This short atmospheric sidebar to Kiernan's well-received second novel, Threshold, succeeds only intermittently. Whereas its predecessor featured an original incarnation of forces that defy comprehension, this novella tries to conjure a sense of ineffable mystery from the unusual juxtaposition of familiar genre set pieces: a nighttime roadside pick-up, a crumbling Gothic mansion populated by a sisterhood of weird southern belles, an imperiled innocent and a magic talisman with immeasurable powers. The thin thread that ties these elements together concerns Dancy Flammarion, an albino orphan with a sixth sense for evil, who's abducted one sultry Georgia night by a carload of vampires and pawned off to spooky Aramat Drawdes, matriarch of Savannah's Stephens Ward Tea League and Society of Resurrectionists. Dancy's weird encounters unfold with the creepy logic of a fever dream. Sketchy allusions to past events suggest an involved backstory whose elaboration might have given the tale's fragmentary moments greater coherence. At best, the novella is a showpiece for Kiernan's unique style, a textured fabric of poetic phrasing, eerie description, graveyard humor and haunting imagery that gives a suggestive contour to every plot strut it covers. Though it shows one of the most powerful imaginations in contemporary horror actively at work, this flight of dark fancy is clearly targeted at Kiernan completists. Illustrations not seen by PW.

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