The Marigold

Starred review from February 6, 2023
Throughout this crisply written urban horror novel, Sullivan (Waste) makes a chilling case for humanity’s obsolescence. Ostensibly, the Marigold is a luxury tower in downtown Toronto. Actually, it’s a dilapidated wreck, emblematic of the city’s decay in the face of climate change, increasingly frequent sinkholes, and a moldlike eruption dubbed the Wet. Public health worker Cathy Jin and her partner, Jasmine, do their best to eradicate the Wet even as it evolves beyond their control, engulfing both buildings and people. At the same time, 13-year-old Henrietta Brakes climbs into one of the mammoth sinkholes in a futile attempt to rescue a friend who’s been dragged down. Meanwhile, Toronto’s movers and shakers discuss new civic developments, led by Stanley Marigold. Stanley’s father built the eponymous structure and now Stanley is eager to validate himself by erecting a second Marigold tower—and he’s willing to pay for each new construction with human sacrifice. Through linked vignettes, Sullivan peels back the layers of Toronto residents’ desperation to reveal a disturbing truth: though condo pitchmen promise customers a secure, worry-free existence, only through succumbing to the Wet can the characters find peace. This impressively bleak vision of the near future is as grotesquely amusing as it is grim.

March 1, 2023

The latest from Sullivan (Waste; All We Want Is Everything) gives new meaning to the term "urban blight." The novel's near-future Toronto is still standing while other parts of the world suffer environmental catastrophes. There, condo towers like the Marigold promise a better standard of living, even as their structures steadily fall apart. While the city gains more substandard buildings, there's also something growing beneath it--a strange fungus called the Wet. Citizens like public health inspector Cathy Jin and driver Sam "Soda" Dalipagic soon learn how deep the rot runs beneath Toronto. Delving into different perspectives, from drivers just trying to survive the polluted streets to the one percent that exist far above the filth, Sullivan illustrates an urban hierarchy that seems ready to topple. There are a lot of perspectives to juggle in this novel, but Sullivan never loses sight of the story's villains: the Wet that permeates the city, and those who have made their own Faustian bargains to keep building. VERDICT Sullivan's story blends body horror, urban dystopia, and eco-horror into a unique tale about the high price of progress.--James Gardner

Copyright 2023 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 15, 2023
Climate change has ravaged the landscape, sparing nothing, including the city of Toronto, which appears to be eating itself. Sinkholes open up out of nowhere, and people turn up dead, subsumed by ""the Wet,"" colloquially named toxic mold that is all consuming. The Marigold stands as a luxury condo tower in the heart of the city, but the building has numerous issues: cabinets falling apart and strange smells permeating the air. Cathy Jin and her partner, Jasmine, work for the city investigating new reports of the Wet, while Soda Dalipagic barely gets by as a rideshare driver before he stumbles upon information that could change everything. Henrietta Brakes lives a largely unsupervised life with her friends, and a tragic event leads her to dive deep into the city's bowels. Interspersed throughout are quick glimpses into the Marigold's residents' lives, bringing an eerie sense of doom as the novel marches on. Readers are forced to watch as plans for a new tower, Marigold II, finally bring the human cost of development home to roost. The ecohorror angle provides something different for horror fans and climate activists alike.

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