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sarahp85's review
3.0
Maybe I should have read this one before reading stepsister. As that one was SO good, this felt a bit like a letdown.
I mean, it is not bad. I enjoyed it, just not nearly as good as Stepsister is!
I mean, it is not bad. I enjoyed it, just not nearly as good as Stepsister is!
mariahistryingtoread's review
1.0
I was very close to copying my review for Reign of Shadows by Sophie Jordan and calling it a day. This was ostensibly the same book. The minor difference being that this is a retelling. I read Donnelly's Cinderella retelling Stepsister and I was disappointed in that as well. After reading this I can now firmly say Donnelly’s writing style isn’t for me. There’s a lot of arbitrary switching between second and third person. Outside perspectives from nonexistent characters who offer commentary on the events of the story like an invisible peanut gallery. Don’t even get me started on the wildly fluctuating chapter lengths.
Poisoned is a Snow White story that makes a promise it can’t keep. Intended to be an edgy twist on the famous fairytale, it fails at every turn to deliver.
The basics are the same; Princess Sophie’s evil stepmother tasks a huntsman with carving out her heart because she’s been led to believe that Sophie poses a threat. Though, it is a little different because the stepmother is not jealous of Sophie’s beauty.
Sophie is looked down upon by everyone in the kingdom due to her soft heart. Her stepmother is a tyrant who propagates the disdain by disparaging kindness. On behalf of the mysterious King of Crows, her stepmother has Sophie's heart cut out of her. Saved in the knick of time by the dwarfs, Sophie now has a mechanical heart set to stop beating in two months. Sophie’s arc is about realizing she can be Queen without resorting to dictatorial measures to ensure loyalty.
Except Sophie is an utterly feckless character that her stepmother was completely right about.
For a sizable portion of the book Sophie is obsessed with the idea that one of the characters is coming to save her. This is obviously not going to happen. Despite all evidence to the contrary Sophie remains annoyingly hooked on the idea. It was fine at first because it made sense; part of her arc is learning not to be so trusting of everyone. Except she also falls for the same trick three different times - the whole stepmother disguises herself to try to kill her thing - two of which are AFTER she finds out that this character is not to be trusted. So how did traipsing after this character benefit the story when she still didn't learn the lesson?
Sophie also never does anything for herself. She is saved by the Seven; a group of seven men revered in the kingdom for their respective aptitudes in a variety of talents. They take care of her for a couple weeks, then she runs off on her own to find aforementioned untrustworthy character. This lasts a few pages, no more than a dozen I’d say before she meets the love interest who basically takes over for the Seven in babying her. I’d say Sophie is truly alone, maybe twenty or so pages of the book which would be alright if she learned anything along the journey. Admittedly, while on her trek she does begins to better understand how deeply her stepmothers’ savagery has scarred her kingdom. My problem is that Sophie is not impacted further than the awareness of how this has affected her people.
At the end the book tries to say Sophie has become this strong, independent woman. She doesn’t do anything to become this person. For most of the book she’s worried that her stepmother was right about her. She’s not given the opportunity to be particularly clever, or strong-minded, or politically savvy in order to disprove this notion. Her biggest character trait is being nice. I get it the Queen sucks, but that doesn’t automatically mean Sophie is suited for the role. I wanted to see her shaped by her experiences. I wanted her to recognize the strengths that her stepmother stifled in her. Instead, we get people pushing Sophie to fight for her role without any demonstrable knack for it. This book doesn’t even let Sophie feel the full weight of anyone’s contempt for her. Her love interest alludes to his hatred for the princess a little after meeting her. After he finds out she’s the princess he’s tripping all over himself to apologize because ‘you’re not like I thought at all!’ except Sophie has not done anything at that point and they’ve known each other for like three days. Also total insta love because after three days Sophie has already started falling for him which reinforces how ill-suited she is for the job of Queen. When it’s not the love interest it’s naivete, but it’s true love when it is the love interest? Such an obvious double standard.
She literally believes anything anyone tells her for the majority of this book. It ruins any chance for satisfaction when she finally sheds her previous misgivings. Countless examples of how she is a gullible child with only one rushed climax attempting to solidify her change of heart.
What made me think of Reign of Shadows was how the characters end up backtracking their entire journey, rendering large swaths of the book pointless. We know exactly where Sophie’s heart is for the entire book; it’s said to be perilous journey, but we know it’s in the King of Crows castle. Instead of the book doing the logical thing where Sophie spends the book fighting to get her heart back, Sophie treks in the completely opposite direction to find the aforementioned untrustworthy character she’s fixated on. Only once she finally realizes how badly off her kingdom is and that she’s the only one who can fix it does she set off to get her heart back. She literally goes forward just to walk right back. And this is all happens in the last maybe 50 or so pages of the book. Why did we go on this useless side quest that ultimately means nothing in the grand scheme of the narrative when we could have had the exact same message conveyed if she tried to get to the castle from the beginning? She was actually right next to the perimeter of the castle when she was staying with the Seven making this even worse.
I’ve focused a lot on Sophie. She is not the only who is under developed. All the characters are. I couldn’t keep any of the Seven straight. There was no point learning the names of so many characters who had maybe two lines each the whole book. Her love interest is the same generic love interest seen time and time again in a number of books just like this one. The stepmother surprisingly has a lot of depth except it’s ignored in favor of creating a new villain that fails to measure up to the potential she had. The real villain is boring. The multiple points of view ruins all the suspense because you always know what’s going on due to the different perspectives. This guy is literally omnipresent yet his plans consist of, at most, directing the stepmother to dress up to do his dirty work. He never does anything more than skulk around.
The twist with the villain also is silly. I thought it didn’t fit this story at all. It was much too large a concept to be wormed into this one tangentially.
All my griping aside I did not actively hate reading this. Regardless, I definitely would not recommend it. For a better Snow White retelling I’d say read Fairest or even one that’s average that did something different read Girls Made of Snow and Glass.
Poisoned is a Snow White story that makes a promise it can’t keep. Intended to be an edgy twist on the famous fairytale, it fails at every turn to deliver.
The basics are the same; Princess Sophie’s evil stepmother tasks a huntsman with carving out her heart because she’s been led to believe that Sophie poses a threat. Though, it is a little different because the stepmother is not jealous of Sophie’s beauty.
Sophie is looked down upon by everyone in the kingdom due to her soft heart. Her stepmother is a tyrant who propagates the disdain by disparaging kindness. On behalf of the mysterious King of Crows, her stepmother has Sophie's heart cut out of her. Saved in the knick of time by the dwarfs, Sophie now has a mechanical heart set to stop beating in two months. Sophie’s arc is about realizing she can be Queen without resorting to dictatorial measures to ensure loyalty.
Except Sophie is an utterly feckless character that her stepmother was completely right about.
For a sizable portion of the book Sophie is obsessed with the idea that one of the characters is coming to save her. This is obviously not going to happen. Despite all evidence to the contrary Sophie remains annoyingly hooked on the idea. It was fine at first because it made sense; part of her arc is learning not to be so trusting of everyone. Except she also falls for the same trick three different times - the whole stepmother disguises herself to try to kill her thing - two of which are AFTER she finds out that this character is not to be trusted. So how did traipsing after this character benefit the story when she still didn't learn the lesson?
Sophie also never does anything for herself. She is saved by the Seven; a group of seven men revered in the kingdom for their respective aptitudes in a variety of talents. They take care of her for a couple weeks, then she runs off on her own to find aforementioned untrustworthy character. This lasts a few pages, no more than a dozen I’d say before she meets the love interest who basically takes over for the Seven in babying her. I’d say Sophie is truly alone, maybe twenty or so pages of the book which would be alright if she learned anything along the journey. Admittedly, while on her trek she does begins to better understand how deeply her stepmothers’ savagery has scarred her kingdom. My problem is that Sophie is not impacted further than the awareness of how this has affected her people.
At the end the book tries to say Sophie has become this strong, independent woman. She doesn’t do anything to become this person. For most of the book she’s worried that her stepmother was right about her. She’s not given the opportunity to be particularly clever, or strong-minded, or politically savvy in order to disprove this notion. Her biggest character trait is being nice. I get it the Queen sucks, but that doesn’t automatically mean Sophie is suited for the role. I wanted to see her shaped by her experiences. I wanted her to recognize the strengths that her stepmother stifled in her. Instead, we get people pushing Sophie to fight for her role without any demonstrable knack for it. This book doesn’t even let Sophie feel the full weight of anyone’s contempt for her. Her love interest alludes to his hatred for the princess a little after meeting her. After he finds out she’s the princess he’s tripping all over himself to apologize because ‘you’re not like I thought at all!’ except Sophie has not done anything at that point and they’ve known each other for like three days. Also total insta love because after three days Sophie has already started falling for him which reinforces how ill-suited she is for the job of Queen. When it’s not the love interest it’s naivete, but it’s true love when it is the love interest? Such an obvious double standard.
She literally believes anything anyone tells her for the majority of this book. It ruins any chance for satisfaction when she finally sheds her previous misgivings. Countless examples of how she is a gullible child with only one rushed climax attempting to solidify her change of heart.
What made me think of Reign of Shadows was how the characters end up backtracking their entire journey, rendering large swaths of the book pointless. We know exactly where Sophie’s heart is for the entire book; it’s said to be perilous journey, but we know it’s in the King of Crows castle. Instead of the book doing the logical thing where Sophie spends the book fighting to get her heart back, Sophie treks in the completely opposite direction to find the aforementioned untrustworthy character she’s fixated on. Only once she finally realizes how badly off her kingdom is and that she’s the only one who can fix it does she set off to get her heart back. She literally goes forward just to walk right back. And this is all happens in the last maybe 50 or so pages of the book. Why did we go on this useless side quest that ultimately means nothing in the grand scheme of the narrative when we could have had the exact same message conveyed if she tried to get to the castle from the beginning? She was actually right next to the perimeter of the castle when she was staying with the Seven making this even worse.
I’ve focused a lot on Sophie. She is not the only who is under developed. All the characters are. I couldn’t keep any of the Seven straight. There was no point learning the names of so many characters who had maybe two lines each the whole book. Her love interest is the same generic love interest seen time and time again in a number of books just like this one. The stepmother surprisingly has a lot of depth except it’s ignored in favor of creating a new villain that fails to measure up to the potential she had. The real villain is boring. The multiple points of view ruins all the suspense because you always know what’s going on due to the different perspectives. This guy is literally omnipresent yet his plans consist of, at most, directing the stepmother to dress up to do his dirty work. He never does anything more than skulk around.
The twist with the villain also is silly. I thought it didn’t fit this story at all. It was much too large a concept to be wormed into this one tangentially.
All my griping aside I did not actively hate reading this. Regardless, I definitely would not recommend it. For a better Snow White retelling I’d say read Fairest or even one that’s average that did something different read Girls Made of Snow and Glass.
lovelife1008's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
athenas_bookshelf's review
lighthearted
relaxing
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
crosswarrior7's review
4.0
This is probably a low 4, perhaps a high 3, but I'll leave it at a 4 star. I was so happy when I stumbled upon this book because I absolutely adored Stepsister. Donnelly did a fantastic job creating more dimensions to that retelling while adding this sort of mythical happening in the background, and that carries on to this book, though the mythical aspect was more evident, and I must say, I greatly enjoyed that.
I will start by saying that I did prefer Stepsister to this book. Stepsister felt a bit more alive and a little more developed than Poisoned. Poisoned oddly felt more fairy tale-y in the sense that Sophie felt more like a story princess and less like a full blown character. However, it was done very well, so it was like this odd but perfect combination of 2D and 3D. So although I really enjoyed it and liked it, it put it a little below Stepsister for me.
But to focus purely on Poisoned! *high fives self for guessing who the villain was* But yes, this book is an amazing mixture of Young Adult writing and fairy tale storytelling. It had a message that felt very important in today's time about how, like the summary says, kindness is the ultimate form of strength, and I really felt victorious watching Sophie make it through her tale by all her acts of kindness catching up to her and helping her along the way. I also felt the poison of society's words seeping into Sophie, and the sucky (good) thing was, I could sometimes see where they "anti-kindness" camp was coming from :/ Like, there is logic behind how they think, and it sort of made me ache for them, but also made me so happy when kindness still won out.
I really enjoyed the characters throughout this story, especially Will and a grave robber whose name escapes me at the moment. Sometimes it felt like the characters had too perfect a thing to say, which is probably part of what took it down to a somewhat 2D notch, but outside of those moments, they were still really great characters.
The story also had a fun way of treating its magic like magical realism. There was nothing big and flashy. There was just this random magical spider who could make silk that could do great things, and there were dwarves, and there were monsters, but the world didn't seem to see them as fantastical or magical. They just were, and then there was this whole other part of their world that was magical in the form of a Crow King and his sister, and somehow that mixture of the magical more feeling like magical realism and the bigger magical feeling like the fantastical created a very, well... magical feeling. And man, did I love the concepts done with the Crow King and his sister, especially since they were like the spirits found in Stepsister. Entities embodying things we all feel and experience.
The ending also made me super happy, because it left it open for more standalones stemming from this world, and I am completely here for it. Even if this book wasn't as much a hit out of the park as I felt Stepsister was, it was still a very enjoyable twist on the well-known tale.
I will start by saying that I did prefer Stepsister to this book. Stepsister felt a bit more alive and a little more developed than Poisoned. Poisoned oddly felt more fairy tale-y in the sense that Sophie felt more like a story princess and less like a full blown character. However, it was done very well, so it was like this odd but perfect combination of 2D and 3D. So although I really enjoyed it and liked it, it put it a little below Stepsister for me.
But to focus purely on Poisoned! *high fives self for guessing who the villain was* But yes, this book is an amazing mixture of Young Adult writing and fairy tale storytelling. It had a message that felt very important in today's time about how, like the summary says, kindness is the ultimate form of strength, and I really felt victorious watching Sophie make it through her tale by all her acts of kindness catching up to her and helping her along the way. I also felt the poison of society's words seeping into Sophie, and the sucky (good) thing was, I could sometimes see where they "anti-kindness" camp was coming from :/ Like, there is logic behind how they think, and it sort of made me ache for them, but also made me so happy when kindness still won out.
I really enjoyed the characters throughout this story, especially Will and a grave robber whose name escapes me at the moment. Sometimes it felt like the characters had too perfect a thing to say, which is probably part of what took it down to a somewhat 2D notch, but outside of those moments, they were still really great characters.
The story also had a fun way of treating its magic like magical realism. There was nothing big and flashy. There was just this random magical spider who could make silk that could do great things, and there were dwarves, and there were monsters, but the world didn't seem to see them as fantastical or magical. They just were, and then there was this whole other part of their world that was magical in the form of a Crow King and his sister, and somehow that mixture of the magical more feeling like magical realism and the bigger magical feeling like the fantastical created a very, well... magical feeling. And man, did I love the concepts done with the Crow King and his sister, especially since they were like the spirits found in Stepsister. Entities embodying things we all feel and experience.
The ending also made me super happy, because it left it open for more standalones stemming from this world, and I am completely here for it. Even if this book wasn't as much a hit out of the park as I felt Stepsister was, it was still a very enjoyable twist on the well-known tale.
lenaoknihach's review against another edition
2.0
Kdo by neznal Sněhurku a sedm trpaslíků. A už jste četli nějaký retelling na tuhle pohádku? Já jsem četla snad jenom Winter (Měsíční kroniky #4), a proto jsem na Otrávenou byla moc zvědavá. Po autorčině předchozí knize - Nevlastní sestra - jsem si myslela, že můžu čekat stejnou pecku. No.. to jsem si ale jenom myslela.
Začátek mě bavil a říkala jsem si, že pokud to všechno půjde takhle dál, bude to bomba. Jenže to šlo všechno pomalu z kopce. Postavy mě vůbec nebavily. A přitom věřím, že 7 bratrů i Willa bych měla ráda, ale tohle bylo tak neskutečně moc uspěchané, že autorka neměla ani šanci ty postavy lépe vykreslit, dodat jim hloubku.
Na jednu stranu to sice bylo čtivé, krátké kapitoly hnaly děj dopředu, ale na druhou stranu to bylo nudné a nebavilo mě to. Musím přiznat, že pohádkově temné prostředí uměla ale Jennifer Donnelly popsat velmi dobře.
Začátek mě bavil a říkala jsem si, že pokud to všechno půjde takhle dál, bude to bomba. Jenže to šlo všechno pomalu z kopce. Postavy mě vůbec nebavily. A přitom věřím, že 7 bratrů i Willa bych měla ráda, ale tohle bylo tak neskutečně moc uspěchané, že autorka neměla ani šanci ty postavy lépe vykreslit, dodat jim hloubku.
Na jednu stranu to sice bylo čtivé, krátké kapitoly hnaly děj dopředu, ale na druhou stranu to bylo nudné a nebavilo mě to. Musím přiznat, že pohádkově temné prostředí uměla ale Jennifer Donnelly popsat velmi dobře.
adelle_bookworm's review against another edition
4.0
Nevlastní sestra mě bavila víc, mělo to větší šmrnc, tady mi to dost kazila Sophie, která je vážně hloupá (což je samozřejmě úmysl, ale nevím, jestli tak měla být fakt skoro až do konce knihy). Otrávená je taková nenáročná, má poselství jako teď každá druhá kniha a děj není tak akční. Ale jinak je to taky skvělá záležitost a autorčiny metafory pořád zbožňuju.
katykelly's review against another edition
4.0
Snow White rewritten, darker and with a moral/political angle.
For a teenaged audience, this dispatches with the 'jealous Queen' motivation early on. Sophie may be beautiful, but her stepmother does not ask the hunter to take her heart because she cannot stand that her rival is young and fair. The Queen sees her kindness as weakness, she cannot be her heir.
And so the famous story is set in motion, though it is through the assistance of seven strange new acquaintances that Sophie is saved, and begins a long and arduous journey towards finding her own strengths, learning what loyalty is, and understanding that not everything is black and white.
With princes, mirrors, fairytale creatures, the story feels like a children's story but with a more adult bent, more mature relationships and characters.
All narrated by one female reader on Audible, I actually forgot this, which doesn't often happen. She voiced the sweet Sophie, potential male love interests, the Queen, all very naturally and without me feeling it was overdone or pushed. This made a very engaging listen, definitely suited the audio format.
I enjoyed Sophie's character development and seeing inside the heart and life of the Queen, her possible motivations and history. Lots of action, a few too many coincidences with the repeated attempts on the princess's life, but the world was well-maintained and could easily be made into a series or film.
Thoroughly enjoyed the story and adventure. Adults as well as teenagers who enjoy a good childhood-reminiscent story but more geared towards an older audience will find this an entertaining read.
With thanks to Nudge Books for providing a sample Audible copy.
For a teenaged audience, this dispatches with the 'jealous Queen' motivation early on. Sophie may be beautiful, but her stepmother does not ask the hunter to take her heart because she cannot stand that her rival is young and fair. The Queen sees her kindness as weakness, she cannot be her heir.
And so the famous story is set in motion, though it is through the assistance of seven strange new acquaintances that Sophie is saved, and begins a long and arduous journey towards finding her own strengths, learning what loyalty is, and understanding that not everything is black and white.
With princes, mirrors, fairytale creatures, the story feels like a children's story but with a more adult bent, more mature relationships and characters.
All narrated by one female reader on Audible, I actually forgot this, which doesn't often happen. She voiced the sweet Sophie, potential male love interests, the Queen, all very naturally and without me feeling it was overdone or pushed. This made a very engaging listen, definitely suited the audio format.
I enjoyed Sophie's character development and seeing inside the heart and life of the Queen, her possible motivations and history. Lots of action, a few too many coincidences with the repeated attempts on the princess's life, but the world was well-maintained and could easily be made into a series or film.
Thoroughly enjoyed the story and adventure. Adults as well as teenagers who enjoy a good childhood-reminiscent story but more geared towards an older audience will find this an entertaining read.
With thanks to Nudge Books for providing a sample Audible copy.