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The Marigold

ebook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available

"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 ThingsFoe, 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.

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    • Publisher's Weekly

      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.

    • Library Journal

      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.

    • Booklist

      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.

      COPYRIGHT(2023) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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