Publishers Weekly
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After failing her exams, London-raised Lara Williams spends her unexpected gap year working on the Banebury, an Estonia-bound luxury train. Thrilled to leave behind her alcohol-dependent father and her manipulative ex-boyfriend in Wales, Lara hopes to reinvent herself and “be born anew.” But when estranged bestie (and unrequited crush) Rhys joins the Banebury staff, Lara’s past proves impossible to outrun—and the train, laden with mysterious cargo and equally eerie passengers, totes its own sinister secrets. Sibling passengers Gwen and Gwydion claim to be researching accelerated plant growth, but Lara’s suspicions about the strange flowers they’ve brought aboard are soon confirmed in a turn of events that, unsettlingly, hints at the plants’ connection to Lara. Can a teen determined to flee her own past uproot the truth about the sentient flora in time to save her future and confess her feelings to Rhys? As Lara discovers parallels between the Banebury’s monstrous freight and her real-life adversaries, Goldsmith (Our Wicked Histories) deftly braids folklore, supernatural horror, and romantic suspense into a layered novel that confronts emotional abuse. Lara is white-cued; supporting characters are intersectionally diverse. Ages 14–up. Agent: Claire Friedman, InkWell Management. (July)

School Library Journal
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Gr 8 Up—Eighteen-year-old Lara's summer job on the Banebury, a luxury train traveling across Europe in the off-season, is supposed to be an escape from her recent past. So, despite learning her ex-friend Rhys has also accepted a job aboard the train, Lara is determined to cheerfully cater to the needs of the trip's few wealthy guests. But her plans begin to unravel after a midnight stop resulting in the additional attachment of two new, plant-filled train carriages and the arrival of the enigmatic twins overseeing them. The plants are being transported for research and staff aren't allowed in their carriages, but Lara's curiosity gets the best of her, and she isn't sure she likes what she finds. The ancient Welsh tale "Flower Face" is melded with the story of "Bluebeard" to craft this increasingly claustrophobic storyline with decidedly modern plot points. A lavish setting, awkward interactions, creeping vines, and a mysterious illness steadily heighten the mood of the work, sweeping readers along with the characters as their journey turns from luxury leisure to fear. Lara's own story is told in flashbacks interspersed throughout the main narrative set in the present. Despite potential frustration at the placement of the flashbacks, which often stalls the creepy atmosphere, Lara's slowly unfurling connection with Rhys adds an additionally engaging subplot. At times predictable, Lara's story is never boring. VERDICT A solid work of atmospheric botanical horror.—Maggie Mason Smith

Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Trapped on a luxurious transcontinental train, a girl fights for her life against an ancient entity. After a spell of difficulties, Londoner Lara Williams, who’s half Welsh and half English, is relieved to be starting a two-week off-season position on the luxury train theBanebury. Since her exams went poorly, she’s taking a gap year before university, so she can retake them. Welcome though the job is, she’s unsettled to find that her former friend Rhys, who’s Welsh, is also working on the train. Though they used to be close, they haven’t spoken in months. Among the small number of passengers on the trip from Cardiff, Wales, to Tallinn, Estonia, are wealthy Welsh siblings Gwendolyn and Gwydion Llewellyn, whose carriages are off limits to staff; scientist Gwen is transporting “organic samples” to Eastern Europe. The journey goes from odd (overnight, ivy vines grow rapidly, creeping across the floors of carriages, and Lara hears “soft and hypnotic, almost somnolent” whispering) to frightening (people are taken ill with terrifying plant-related maladies). Everything is seemingly connected to the mysterious Llewellyns. When Lara investigates, she finds a powerful presence from Welsh folklore, one with whom she has an unexpected connection. Weaving flashbacks to Lara’s relationship with a boyfriend who exercised coercive control over her into the developing situation on the train, this engaging, well-paced novel explores horrors both supernatural and very much of this world. Dark, page-turning, folkloric horror.(Horror. 14-18) Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

After a series of personal tragedies leaves her friendless and aimless, Lara Williams finds herself uprooted, wanting nothing more than to escape the mess that’s become her life. So when she gets the chance to work aboard the Banebury, a luxury train traveling through the lush European countryside, she jumps at the opportunity, determined to at least run away in style. Not even the unexpected presence of an old, maybe-sort-of flame among her fellow crew members can dampen her spirits. But shortly into the voyage, a mysterious set of siblings boards the Banebury, bringing two carriages overflowing with strange, beautiful flora—and an ancient, ominous force waiting to take root. Inspired by Welsh mythology and combining elements of folk horror and dark academia, Goldsmith cultivates a fierce, frightening fantasy that draws powerful parallels between folkloric tragedy and the grim mundanity of modern misogyny. Predatory Natures grafts itself into the flourishing genre of botanical horror, joining the ranks of Krystal Sutherland’s House of Hollow (2021) and Andrea Hannah’s Where Darkness Blooms (2023).