Quick Synopsis: A city in shambles, a society crumbling and a devastating new biological threat brewing that may finally tip the balance and send us an into despair.

Review: ⭐

There is a story in here somewhere.

The marketing team behind this book is amazing; the cover and the summary of the novel really sell it and I went in with high hopes, unfortunately this one wasn't for me.

It actually does start strong, the high concept is really interesting and you can see the foundation of where things may have gone. It starts out introducing several main characters living in a... pseudo dystopian Toronto. Infrastructure has almost crumbled and after climate induced flooding seems to catalyze an aggressive new fungus, things go from bad to worse.

One of the main concerns I have with The Marigold is that the story seems to take a back seat for about 90% of the novel. There is a lot of... pontificating and rambling that just goes on and on.

I wanted to like it and I think fans of Cronenberg might get more out of it but for me it was just a bit too abstract and dallied a bit too much in its own musings for my taste.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and ECW Press for an advanced copy of this book.

Unfortunately I had a hard time getting into the book... I decided it was best to DNT this book. I was intrigued with the synopsis of the book but once I dived in I had a hard time staying connected. I thought it was best I didn't continue reading and give my forced take on the book.

The Marigold is a well-written nihilistic satire that brings to light issues concerning socioeconomics, eco politics, urban renovation and zoning, and basic human needs.

This book is packed with multiple character viewpoints solidified by rich backstory and deep characterization. The most primal desires, neuroses, and flaws of each character lurk beneath the surface, moldering like the tower and the city’s infrastructure itself. The festering nature of the characters, however, left many of them feeling distinctly unlikable to me, and the sheer number of POVs made for a halting storyline that was at times difficult to follow. And also — raccoons?!

I wanted to love this book based on the intriguing and unique concept itself, but I can appreciate the premise and the commentary it makes, in the end it just didn’t do it for me. Thank you to the author and #NetGalley for allowing me to read an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I was really hopeful for that one, the intrigue sounded very interesting, but sadly I didn't connect.
The multiple POV made it slow at first, and the characters were not particularly gripping. None of them I liked or was interested in and admittedly I have to like characters for my interest not to dwindle in stories. In this case the Marigold estate has more personality and presence than the people, it is the star of the book and the centre of the plot. It you are a settings person, if you love those haunted house stories where the hero/antihero is the house then this book is for you as a modern take on that.

Thank you to net galley and the publisher for this ARC. Unfortunately I DNFed this book about 80 pages in. Though an interesting premise, I couldn't get into the story or the characters.

Interesting and well written I just personally couldn’t get into the story. Just a little slow and unbelievable at some points. Slow start and end. Was really connected in the middle and was super captivating then took a turn I had trouble following. Think apocalypse end of the world vibes mixed in with some stranger things vibes. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I'm not sure how I feel about this book. I didn't manage to finish it as I found it very confusing and unclear what it is about. It has a premise of interesting dystopian world, but the plot being explained through viewpoint of so many characters for a brief moment, was hard for me to follow. Especially in the beginning.

It may relate to my current temporary attention problems. I would say if the premise of the book sounds interesting to you, you should give it a chance. Maybe I just decided to read it at the wrong time.

I will give it another chance later, and I will update my review accordingly.

Thank you to the publisher and to Netgalley for an opportunity with this title. I was intrigued by the premise, if not wowed by the follow through. I feel that the book definitely has a home to be found in the online horror spheres more acclimated to odd formatting and style choices.

Such a cool but bizarre book! I loved the concept and I was gripped from start to finish. Really fast paced and easy to read!

Rating: 3.5/5

Review: I had a hard time getting into this book at first mainly because I was a little confused as to what was going on. I do believe that while reading this book you have to suspend your beliefs on reality in order to really enjoy the story. However, once everything starts to be explained in more detail the story picks up the pace and hooks you in. Even if there were certain aspects of the story that had me a little confused, or certain characters that I didn’t like as much as others, there was never a point in the story that I felt bored.

One thing I will say about this book is that it has a lot of characters. When I say a lot, I mean A. L.O.T. of characters! So much so that by the end of the book I forgot who half of them were. Certain chapters acted as fillers that introduced us to new people affected by the “Wet” and didn’t reference them anymore after that, but I actually enjoyed those chapters and felt that they gave me a better picture of the state that the world was in during the book.

Overall, if you’re in the mood for a dystopian eco-thriller with splashes of social commentary thrown in, then this is the book for you!

The Marigold was unlike anything I had read before. Complex and thoughtful, with a very distinct tone and prose style. This one will stick with me for a long time to come.

The blurb sold so much more than it sold and that makes me really sad. Not sure that I can recommend this book as I am not too sure what it want's to be. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book.

I can see why people would enjoy this, but it wasn't for me. the multiple POVs (and how many characters there were) really made the story slog right off the bat, and the pacing of this work suffered a lot. I also just didn't get much out of some of the chapters and subplots. I always like to see different critiques and commentary on capitalism, but this just wasn't my cup of tea. If you like character-heavy sociopolitical commentaries then you'll probably eat this one right up!

This has so many great ideas and a really interesting premise, but it just... does not execute them well. Fungus-based body horror is so gnarly and cool that it does a lot of the heavy lifting for this novel by itself, everything else is just a bit lacking. The characters aren't as developed as they should be, their basically endless monologues were honestly pretty stilted and made it impossible to naturally move through conversations and the plot.

A sprawling sci-fi horror set in a near-future Toronto that will speak to anyone who understands the impacts of the housing crisis and late stage capitalism on our lives and landscapes.

The Marigold is a luxury high-rise in Toronto, built on top of a sinkhole and infested with mould. Following Cathy, Soda, Henrietta and Stanley in four separate threads, the story goes deep into the rot the city is built on.

I really loved the concept but wished I could’ve spent time with more of the characters – I liked Soda a lot and wished I could’ve gotten to see more of Cathy and Henrietta’s story.

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. Wow!!!!

This book wasn't exactly bad, per se, but I can't honestly say I would recommend this book to anyone. The blurb promised a dystopian story with elements of body horror and more, but it really didn't deliver. What the book did have were winding, somewhat related subplots with a barely discernible main character/storyline. Some of the chapters were pointless, and the book was rather tedious to read. Overall, if you're looking for a long commentary on capitalism with lots of characters, then you might enjoy this, but it was most definitely not the book for me.

Unfortunately I had to dnf this one. The multiple points of view didn’t help to immerse me in the story straight away and the slow pace didn’t make me want to finish it.

The concept and mystery of ‘The Wet’ was very intriguing and I did what to find out more about this.

The atmosphere of this dystopian style world felt appropriately dark and grim. I liked that there was social and political commentary from the get go to help make the world relatable.

Perhaps, knowing that for me it will be a slow read, if I was to try it again at a future date I would enjoy it more but unfortunately at this time this read wasn’t for me.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I had high hopes for this book - loved the description and the cover. Unfortunately, I could not get into this novel. For me there were too many perspectives and too many storylines for me to become engaged in the book.

An ecological horror novel told from the perspectives of many poses an intriguing premise. One that really attracted me to this novel initially. Unfortunately, at times I found myself just plain disliking Andrew F. Sullivan's The Marigold, and at others just feeling sad that the novel didn't deliver on what I was expecting.

It's a brilliant decision to tell this story from many different perspectives, but it played out in a way that had me disliking almost every single character in the limelight. I don't expect to like everyone in a novel like this, especially one that occasionally tells the story from the perspective of the capitalist elite who are knowingly running their city into ruin, but I don't think it's too much to ask that some of the characters be likeable, that I should want to root for someone.

Another issue I had with The Marigold is that even when I finished it, I couldn't tell what point it was trying to make. Perhaps all the characters are unlikeable for a reason, and the argument of this story is that humanity is a scourge on the natural world, doomed to make bio-weapons rather than fix ecological problems. If that's the case, it veers too close to eco-fascism for my tastes. The thought that all humans are evil and that humanity as a whole needs a plague to take us out is not one I subscribe to, but I wonder if Sullivan might.

Overall, I just feel disappointed with this story. For a novel that seemed to be about ecological horror, it focused a lot on unrelated sex and sexuality. This book seemed to have an obsession with fetishes—feet, voyeurism, adultery, to name a few—while also throwing in so many references to a character's hard cock. It just made me cringe, and I consider myself very open to explorations of sex and sexuality in novels. The cross between "look I'm a man and my dick is hard" and "this woman who does internet sex work does not lead a fulfilling life" lead to me being frustrated with the way sex was both an afterthought and a very pointed way to describe characters' idiosyncrasies and psychological issues. A related side note—I can't tell what this book was trying to say about sex work in general, but it certainly felt like it took a negative view rather than understanding it as a job that some people rather enjoy, not just a job people do out of necessity.

I felt like Sullivan almost had some interesting points to make. He described unhoused people living in tents and being harassed by militaristic police. He goes in depth about the ways that greed and capitalism corrupt. But none of the points were made in a grounded or clear way. I'm not asking for heavy handed "this is what I'm saying with this novel" type writing, but a little bit more indication of what this author means with the inclusion of these things would have probably helped me enjoy it a bit more.

I would be remiss to only mention the negatives, so I will comment that I enjoyed the animal symbolism in this novel. From the teens who bond over what animals their mothers like to the stuffed shark in a hockey player's apartment to Odie, an almost coyote who helps a character escape from the aforementioned militaristic police forces—these animals interested me. It felt like possibly Sullivan was making a point to say that even when humanity is done, the animals will prevail, they will succeed, and they will live free again. However, this just brings me back to my original wonder of what this book is trying to say, and why it is trying to say that.

In sum, this book was not for me, but I'm sure it has an audience out there.

I will end with a quote that seemed almost like a throw away, something that could have been the conceit of this book, had the ideas been a little more thought through—and if it had been, it would have been a powerful message. Something that rang true to how we live our lives today: "There was no true apocalypse. People went on living and dying even as horrible things happen to them."

Thank you to ECW Press and Netgalley for access to an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest thoughts as a reviewer.