It's a hot Australian summer and eleven-year-old Bridie is on holiday with her family at her Aunt and Uncle's dairy farm on the south coast. The farm is a haven for Bridie who revels in the lushness of the green paddocks dotted with Friesian cows and the tang of the ocean breezes that float over the hill. But this summer, Bridie's idyllic childhood is under threat. She grapples with shame and confusion over the unwanted advances of her brother's friend. She feels the sting of abandonment by her longtime holiday bestie. And she longs to shake off her big sister responsibilities to June, for whom she feels equal parts envy and protectiveness. And then there's the horse in Uncle Evan's shed. Bridie dreams of having the magnificent creature to herself, but her efforts to bring that dream to reality have disastrous consequences. Bluebottle Poison explores the fraught mindscape of an eleven-year-old girl trying to find her place in a world where calamity lurks around every corner.
