Quirky comedy of obsession, relationships and the power of plants.

Nell Barber, expelled from her PhD, is writing a series of notebooks dedicated to her mentor and not so secret passion, Dr Joan Kallas. Joan is having an affair with Nell’s ex-boyfriend. Nell's friend, Mishti, is having an affair with Joan’s husband, and Mishti’s boyfriend is just drop dead gorgeous.

An offbeat assemblage of characters, answering the demands of their hormones, pivot around the in-your-face (the 2nd person POV a contributing factor) narrator. The characters are upstaged by the luscious descriptions of poisonous plants. These passages sing off the page.. How refreshing to have plants up front and centre. [Note to publishers: more fiction with plants, please.]

Dinerstein Knight writes with poetic beauty. However, her characters fail, at least initially, to engage the reader.

I can see this as a successful TV series or, possibly, a film.

My thanks to NetGalley and Bloomsbury Publishing for the ARC.

Hex by Rebecca Dinerstein Knight is about a student's obsession with all things botanical and her unrequited love for her mentor. The main character is written very well and I think fans of Ottessa Moshfegh would enjoy it.