2024 the best marigold review
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(as of Dec 19, 2024 12:32:07 UTC - Details)
“This impressively bleak vision of the near future is as grotesquely amusing as it is grim.” — Publishers Weekly STARRED REVIEW
“A gripping tour-de-force torn from tomorrow’s headlines.” — David Demchuk, author of Red X and The Bone Mother
“A bold dystopian novel that captivates with its dread and depth. The Marigold is unhinged literary horror that goes right to the source of decay.” — Iain Reid, award-winning author of I’m Thinking of Ending Things, Foe, and We Spread
In a near-future Toronto buffeted by environmental chaos and unfettered development, an unsettling new lifeform begins to grow beneath the surface, feeding off the past.
The Marigold, a gleaming Toronto condo tower, sits a half-empty promise: a stack of scuffed rental suites and undelivered amenities that crumbles around its residents as a mysterious sludge spreads slowly through it. Public health inspector Cathy Jin investigates this toxic mold as it infests the city’s infrastructure, rotting it from within, while Sam “Soda” Dalipagic stumbles on a dangerous cache of data while cruising the streets in his Camry, waiting for his next rideshare alert. On the outskirts of downtown, 13-year-old Henrietta Brakes chases a friend deep underground after he’s snatched into a sinkhole by a creature from below.
All the while, construction of the city’s newest luxury tower, Marigold II, has stalled. Stanley Marigold, the struggling son of the legendary developer behind this project, decides he must tap into a hidden reserve of old power to make his dream a reality — one with a human cost.
Weaving together disparate storylines and tapping into the realms of body horror, urban dystopia, and ecofiction, The Marigold explores the precarity of community and the fragile designs that bind us together.
ASIN : B0BLJ3STLT
Publisher : ECW Press (April 18, 2023)
Publication date : April 18, 2023
Language : English
File size : 2854 KB
Text-to-Speech : Enabled
Screen Reader : Supported
Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
X-Ray : Not Enabled
Word Wise : Enabled
Print length : 349 pages
Reviewer: J. Milburn
Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars
Title: innovative, unique and flawed
Review: This was a very original story about the price of progress. It was very well told with many unique perspectives. This was in five star territory for me until the last 25% where it went where I didnât want it to go. Even the ending was very well executed , it just didnât resonate for me the way I wanted it to
Reviewer: wytwave
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Evocative and Haunting with Gorgeous Writing and Great Story-Telling
Review: The promise of progress has been tantalizing dreamers for centuries, often to their ruin, and itâs the tug-and-pull of progress, greed, and ruin which Sullivan manages to explore and subvert in this gorgeous work of eco-horror.From the very opening of The Marigold, thereâs an awareness of nature being encroached upon by humanityâs search for what comes next, to the extent that that ânextâ enslaves their every waking hour. But here, with a breathless feeling of both dread and triumphâwell, triumph for those of us who often root for Nature finding a wayâthe reader sees Nature fighting back with a vengeance for its own progress. And thereâs something utterly wonderful about this, both in the horror which Sullivan delivers alongside this movement and also when it comes to the attention he gives to the naturalness of it all. Alongside the more artificial progress made by humanityâs greed, where everything is quickly shown to be a tower of cards, the give-and-take of Natureâs very different understanding of life and death is impossible to deny...and beautifully delivered with every word of rot, horror, and ruin.As with some of Sullivanâs short stories, entrapment is an aching theme throughout the work, but by showing it in such different terms, he manages to give a nod to the âreal worldâ we know and fear while elevating the horror at the heart of this novel. On one hand, itâs entrapment through progress, through greed, and through foresight. And, on the other hand, itâs the very physical entrapment of a strained, unnatural cityscape imploding with the force of all itâs held off.But while all this sounds really bleak, no small part of the beauty in this novel comes from the pure joy with which Sullivan delivers the horror and the ruin. Terrifying as the book may be, it is also fun, oddly pure, and masterful in its every scene. The small grotesqueries and the constant tributes to the natural worldâand the weird, sweet, elegance of even the gooiest parts of natureâare given such careful attention that fungi all but bleed off the page for the reader, just as is the case for characters. Admittedly, I fell in love with even the most dangerous organisms in this book, and theyâre no small part of what makes this bookâs contribution to eco-horror so undeniable.Iâll be rereading and recommending this book for a long time to come. Whether you come to it through the lens of eco-fiction or horror, youâll find something here to fall into, and be horrified and mesmerized by.
Reviewer: A.P.
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Loved it
Review: The Marigold by Andrew F Sullivan, 360 pgs, Pub date: Apr 18thOverall ââââAtmosphere âââââLibrary or Buy-worthy: I'm buying a finished copy.The Marigold by Andrew F Sullivan is a weird dark blend of political philosophy, eco-horror and rotting dystopia with a dash of cosmic occultism for good taste. I'll say right up front, if you're reading this hoping for 'The Last of Us' then this isn't that book. You have to go into The Marigold reading it on it's own merit.Through a variety of intertwined short stories the picture of a diseased future Toronto emerges. The snap shots of different lives, and how they are affected by the Wet (a strange disease) and the Marigold family was an interesting way of creating perspective. Going into this I expected to prefer a more typical style of novel, following one character throughout but I was wrong. This style fits the world building and the slow unfolding of the cohesive plotline perfectly. The city itself becomes a character. I loved the atmosphere this author was able to create. I could almost smell the damp stink and rot. An amazing amount of character development was achieved as well within these short chapters. Every character was intriguing and fully fleshed. I liked the LGBTQ character representation. Parts of this book had a uncanny Eyes Wide Shut/ Lost Highways /Fight Club vibe that I quite enjoyed. The Diva Tarot deck Irving reads was perhaps my favorite part. The level of humor was the perfect counterbalance for all the darkness.In general I love weird books, eco-horror and spore horror so I'm biased but I liked this book so much. It won't be everyone's cup of tea but I'm simply impressed by the originality. Good writing, dark gritty world building, raccoon symbology and a touch of black gelatinous mold growing on every surface has me following this author for future books. This book is definitely getting filed with my favorite well thought-out, top shelf weird collection. Outstanding work @afsulli.
Reviewer: Mark Smutek Jr.
Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Not horror?
Review: I read it, didn't like it. Expected more scares, but it was a book about the dissolve of a fake city in the future. Scary parts weren't scary but cheesy. No answers given.
Reviewer: Diane H
Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Innovative horror plot!
Review: Is it a horror novel? A social commentary? A new, or revamped older, mythology? An eco-novel (if there is such a thing)? Who knows but The Marigold is definitely a different type of genre mashup! The real question is whether you will enjoy reading it.The novel is set in a near future Toronto which sounds very close to present day New York City. The rich run the town without regard for the poor struggling to live within it. Lately, high rise buildings are collapsing. Is it incompetent builders, cheap owners using subpar products, or something else much more complex?I liked the combination of horror with climate change. The mythology was intriguing. But I just couldnât get past the constant social commentary. I get it. The rich are out for themselves. All Americans understand that after four years of the last president (or the robber barons of a century or so ago). Perhaps innately friendly Canadians havenât realized it yet. Still, it was pervasive and felt overdone. It definitely adversely impacted my enjoyment of the novel. For that reason alone, The Marigold gets 3 stars from me. However, if that type of preaching to the choir doesnât bother you and you enjoy innovative horror plots, you should pick up this book.Thanks to ECW Press and NetGalley for a digital review copy of the book.
Reviewer: Gregory Visser
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Bleak, harrowing, frightening and tragic but in all I found it to be a cathartic read. A refreshingly terrifying story that you must read!
Reviewer: Philip Leonard
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: This is probably my favourite book I've read all year.I could feel the grime and decay seeping through the prose as Andrew F. Sullivan weaves a story of dystopian fungal horror. This was exactly the kind of New Weird that I've been looking for.None of the central characters could be considered hero's, but each persons story was interesting. I also enjoyed the chapters dedicated to a random occupant of The Marigold. Each one helped to show just how quickly the building, and Toronto itself, is falling apart.I'm really glad that I've discovered Andrew F. Sullivan, I'll definitely be reading more of his work.
Reviewer: Sarah
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Weird and smart. I loved it.