Reviews with content warning for Misogyny - The Lost Apothecary

I swear I have been reading so many dark books recently and it’s messing with me a little bit so I’m gonna try and pick up some lighter things for a little bit to lift me out of this mood. This story was told from three different perspectives and had three different narrators and I enjoyed that it was a dark feminist dual timeline story about betrayal and murder and coming to terms with Feelings and the important things in life and the people that matter but also damn that plot twist at the end

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lemilyh's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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therainbowshelf's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Excellent! I loved the dual timeline. In the present, a woman recovering from a painful life shock stumbles upon an unexpected history mystery. In the past, a woman dealing in poisons to help women lives out said history mystery. Definitely not my usual kind of book, but I’m glad I read it. Content warnings for infidelity, poisoning, miscarriage, sexual assault, suicide, and death.

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thirdtimesacharm's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional informative mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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querciola's review against another edition

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mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

0.5

Saying that The Lost Apothecary was a disappointment is an understatement.
I have had read some reviews online saying that logic wasn’t this book forte. Nevertheless, I felt intrigued by the gigantic difference between people who said this book was just a pain and those who even said it was a masterpiece. Well, let's just say that I hardly believe someone could say this book was marvellous and that basically, every person on the planet has to read it.
I won't make it too long: I'm going to briefly pinpoint some events that occur in the book and that are just blatantly nonsensical, irritating, and so on. They kinda made me feel like the author intention was to make me think I'm stupid.

Without a doubt, the lovely cover and the premise were the things that caught my attention the most. I thought I would be transported in 1790s London, a socio-political context in which misogyny was ever-present. A time when women had to go down the secretive and criminal path to get justice... or revenge. The synopsis seemed to promise the story of an apothecary who gave help to women using poisons that caused death or afflictions. In other words, a good-ish female serial killer who would bring justice to wronged women, victims of men and good old misogyny. I was expecting some kind of dive into the reasons that brought Nella (this is the name of the apothecary) to act this way. Or get to know her as a character. I thought this would be a historical thriller to get intrigued by.

What I got was merely a collection of notes and a book draft that happened to be published. Good starting point, intriguing ideas, but poor end product. The present-day chapters were thrown into the pot just to raise the length of the book: they do not seem to add anything consistent enough to improve the story or the quality of the writing.
What seemed to be the best part soon proved me wrong, as it quickly became as boring and non-sensical as the rest of the novel.

The story goes back and forth between 3 POV characters. We have Nella, the apothecary who poison people, Eliza, a twelve-year-old who does not seem to bother about poisoning men to death. And then we have Caroline. Caroline is the only present-day character, an American woman who takes a plane off to London after finding out about her husband secret affair. So far, so good. Logic leaves the chat almost immediately: Caroline discovers a vial of Nella lost apothecary on the bank of the Thames. Like, the vial was there for two centuries just to be found by a broken-hearted tourist. Yeah, sure.
The present-day chapters are plainly (and painfully!) boring: readers don't seem to catch what Caroline story has to add to the whole novel. What she did or said irritated me. Even her desire for maternity soon became just an obsession for her to be, what? Useful? Complete? I couldn't understand it. And since we're on this, let's just talk about the portrait of maternity in this novel.

From now on, there is a high chance of finding spoilers. So, if you still want to read this book, just skip this post and go ahead. I still think you will waste your time, but who am I to dissuade you?

Brief recap:

Nella wants to have a child after the miscarriage induced by her former lover;
Caroline becomes quickly obsessed with being pregnant, and for a good portion of the book, she goes on thinking she is pregnant. And when she is conscious of not being pregnant, things just go even crazier. Example? Her husband, who in the meantime took a flight for London to "make up for his faults," thinks that drinking Eucalypt oil is a brilliant idea to make Caroline pity him. Then, when he is puking blood while paramedics are helping him, one of them says to Caroline that she should get rid of that thing because children might get hold of it. She then is angry because the paramedic somewhat rubs her wound with salt. After all, having your children poisoned (or making them see their father taken to the hospital) is what a Parent-of-the-YearTM clearly tags as a priority.
Lady Clarence asks for Nella's help because she plans to poison to death the mistress of her husband, so he can make his wife pregnant.
Eliza, thank Heavens, is not pregnant nor has a desire for motherhood. Nevertheless, she deserves an honourable mention since she thinks that her period happens to be a malevolous spirit who wants to take revenge on her.
Gaynor, on the other hand, as a historian, doesn't seem to be eligible for wishing to have children.

Saying that just these things sound somewhat disgusting is a euphemism. This underlying tone of misogyny that I sensed in this book is ever-present, and it actually worries me. Because it is made clear that a real woman has to be a mother, otherwise is, what? A half-woman?

I won't go too deep with things that just made my eyes roll, but let's just say there were far too many inconsistencies for me to think this book is any good.

To tell you the truth, I think that listening to the audiobook was just the right way to read this novel, as it happened to be a little more entertaining than if I had to read it the old way. But for me is definitely no. I would not recommend it, as it made me feel like the target audience had to be dumb enough to think that this novel had some kind of logic. Spoiler: it doesn't!

Content Warnings

marinable_books's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

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