Wow, how to describe this book? Written as journal entries by Nell, an expelled PhD student from a biology program, it unwinds the threads of her two obsessions: poisonous plants and her academic mentor, Dr Joan Kallas. Nell is maybe in love with Joan, or else wants to be her, or at the very least wants her constant attention-- something hard to get since an accidental death in Nell's lab closed the whole department. Nell attempts to carry on the research of her diseased colleague from an unfurnished New York apartment. Meanwhile, Nell's best friend and ex both continue to take Joan's Columbia graduate classes, and a web of tangled relationships, jealousy, and unrequired love unfold between them all. Many of the entries are written in the second person, addressed to Joan, who we only get to see through Nell's eyes. She is a powerful, intelligent, icy, magnetic woman and Nell's fixation on her seems doomed; but who this doom will fall on is an open question. I listened to this as an audiobook and deeply enjoyed the story and the writing style, woven through with herbal and medieval imagery.