Twelve years ago, a boat brought an unexpected delivery to a remote island of the Gardenia Isles—a baby. The baby, named Henna, becomes the child of the two-man couple living there, Joaquim and Niall. She grows up learning about plants from her two papas—a necessity in their self-sufficient locale—and is especially good nurturing rescued, rare plants back to health. As Papa Niall’s illness (hinted to be lung cancer) grows worse, however, she formulates a plan to leave the island and attend St. Basil’s Conservatory, a botanical boarding school whose vault might contain seeds for a rare plant reputed to offer a cure. But the boarding school students are largely from wealthier families, and the scholarship that gained her admission comes with unexpected conditions.
Along the way, she becomes friends with another outsider to the school, a genderfluid, financially insecure student named P, and they both become unexpected partners to Lora, the wealthiest student there, who is nevertheless fighting against people’s assumptions about her because of her disability. We see them encounter systemic oppressions and microaggressions about family, gender, disability, and socioeconomic status, but learn to help each other as they work against the clock to find the seeds that could help Niall.
This is a sweet and lovely book, set in an enchanting world. It has a touch of what I might call natural magic, in how some of the plants work, but not “magic” in the sense of people having magical powers. It feels closer to our own world than a full-on fantasy tale, while still providing a sense of whimsical escape in its worldbuilding. The sections at St. Basil’s will delight fans of fantasy academia, but the book also offers an ongoing theme of found family and a thoughtful exploration of humanity’s relationship with the natural world. There’s a strong thread of social justice and of allying across differences, but the lessons are not heavy handed.
I’ll offer just one example: After P tells Henna that he’s not a boy or a girl, but “Sometimes I’m both, sometimes I’m neither. I’m just … P,” she thinks about her plants and muses, “So much about them could change over time—for some, even whether they produced male or female flowers in a given year. So why couldn’t the same be true of people? She’s never thought about it before, but it made sense.”
The ending is bittersweet but nevertheless feels true to the characters and the story. I was unexpectedly charmed by this book and imagine many others will be, too.
Joaquim is described as having a “dark complexion”; Niall has “pale skin” and freckles. Henna has “sun-bronzed skin” and “a thick, dark braid.”
Content warning: Parental terminal illness.
