Nightshade by Lynn Hutchinson Lee
Reviewed by Lisa Timpf
Lynn Hutchinson Lee’s Nightshade is billed as a “gorgeous, Gothic coming-of-age story set against the backdrop of the 1980s Southern Ontario tobacco belt.” The book includes magical realism, and is told in lyrical prose, using short chapters.
The story’s protagonist Zelda is of Romany descent, and is, in her own words, a “poshrat, a half-blood.” This leaves her with one foot in her family’s world and one foot outside it. In Nightshade, she is attempting to navigate this complexity.
“Nightshade incorporates symbolism and repeated motifs to deepen the story’s resonance. There is an undercurrent of foreboding, and Puri Dai’s stories of the devil-man, who walks the fields at night, add to the atmosphere.”
At the start of the book, Zelda’s family, which includes Zelda, her mother, and Zelda’s aunts Lilly and Liza May, accept work at a farm owned by Jack Tormentine. Zelda is impressed by the Tormentines’ wealth and the glamorous aura exuded by the farmer’s flashy wife, Trixie. Tired of living in poverty, Zelda dreams of one day enjoying an opulent lifestyle like that of the rich farmers they work for.
Much of the story is told from the viewpoint of Zelda and an unusual second character, the puppet Puri Dai. In addition to doing farm labour, Zelda’s family earns extra money by performing puppet shows. Puri Dai, the old grandmother puppet, is one of the characters in these shows. In Nightshade, she narrates several chapters, sharing her thoughts and her worries about Zelda.
Nightshade includes Romany words and references to Romany culture, as well as alluding to the discriminatory attitudes Zelda’s family has encountered because of their heritage. Though Nightshade deals with intolerance, there are also characters who are more open-minded, offering hope.
Nightshade incorporates symbolism and repeated motifs to deepen the story’s resonance. There is an undercurrent of foreboding, and Puri Dai’s stories of the devil-man, who walks the fields at night, add to the atmosphere.
In Nightshade, Zelda has some growing up to do. Initially, she does not appreciate the sacrifices her mother has made. When she stands in the Tormentines’ home, Zelda thinks of her mother’s ambition to one day own her own house, and belittles that dream, thinking that the Tormentines’ massive home is several times larger than anything her mother could afford.
Puri Dai hopes that Zelda will come to see that wealth isn’t everything, that money doesn’t guarantee happiness, and that there is joy to be found in her family’s lifestyle and ways.
As author Lynn Hutchinson Lee noted in an interview for Interstellar Flight Press, she herself is half-Romany, with “the other half…a soup of Scottish/Irish/English.” In the interview, she went on to say that “I feel myself in neither one world (Romany) nor another (non-Romany, or gorjo), and this dilemma is reflected in the experiences and relationships of the characters” in Nightshade and her earlier book, Origins of Desire in Orchid Fens.
As someone who grew up in the tobacco country of Southwestern Ontario, I appreciated the book’s setting. Fans of Lynn Hutchinson Lee’s Origins of Desire in Orchid Fens, and readers who enjoy lyrical prose, stories that offer a strong sense of place, and insightful writing, should enjoy Nightshade.
About the Author
Lynn Hutchinson Lee is an award-winning author of Anglo-Romany descent. Her short fiction was published in Room, Wagtail: The Roma Women’s Poetry Anthology, and elsewhere. An excerpt from Nightshade won first prize in the 2022 Joy Kogawa Award for Fiction and was shortlisted for the 2022 Swedish Writers’ Festival Prize. In 2023, Nightshade was shortlisted for the Guernica Prize. Her flash fiction won the Editors’ Choice Award in Guernica’s This Will Only Take a Minute . Her novella Origins of Desire in Orchid Fens is published with Stelliform Press. Lynn writes in Toronto, cooks for friends, feeds birds, and gets lost in her garden.
About the Reviewer
Ontario resident Lisa Timpf writes poetry, book reviews, short stories, and creative nonfiction. Her speculative poetry collections Cats and Dogs in Space (2025) and In Days to Come (2022) are available from Hiraeth Publishing in print and electronic formats. Lisa is a member of SF Canada and the Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association. You can find out more about her writing projects at http://lisatimpf.blogspot.com/. Lisa is also on Bluesky, @lisatimpf.bsky.social
Book Details
Publisher: Assembly Press
Publication date: March 3, 2026
Language: English
Print length: 336 pages
ISBN-10: 1998336271
ISBN-13: 978-1998336272
This looks intriguing! Thanks for bringing it to my attention.