Honeysuckle

Fridman-Tell’s gorgeous debut fantasy luxuriates on the border between romance and horror. At eight, Rory doesn’t know why his older sister, Wynne, is suddenly too busy to play with him. To get him to leave her alone, Wynne offers to build Rory a new playmate, a girl with a body woven of vines, branches, and flowers. Rory doesn’t understand what it means that his new best friend, Daye, is a Blodeuwedd, or “flower girl,” until the summer wanes and her body begins to disintegrate. Terrified, Rory begs Wynne to put Daye back together, and then teach him the magic to keep her alive, rebuilding her with fresh plants every season. As seasons stretch into years, Rory’s love for Daye grows and it becomes ever harder to imagine his life without her. He goes to greater and greater lengths to give her a body free from the constant threat of decay—but along the way, what Daye wants for her own life gets lost in his obsession. Fridman-Tell uses her eerie fairy tale premise to masterfully unpick all of the squirmy ethical implications of the created-lover trope, spinning a story that is as powerful in its human aspects as in its magic. This stuns. Agent: Hillary Jacobson, CAA. (Mar.)