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

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.