Reviews - The Poisoner | The StoryGraph

1.17k reviews for:

The Poisoner

I.V. Ophelia

3.69 AVERAGE

kp_13's review against another edition

3.0

dark mysterious medium-paced

jessi_13's review against another edition

4.0

dark emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

squeeze1807's review against another edition

5.0

dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Honestly people have been unfair to this book recently.

Where to start??? Did it give me the ick? Yes. Did I still love it? Also yes.

Let's talk trigger warnings:
Dub con/non con - it's not Haunting Adeline levels. He does NOT rape her. She literally begs him to shag her. The dubious bits are all the stuff before, like watching her in the bath.

Inappropriate use of rice - if you've read a Brynne Weaver book you're good. Nothing is as bad as Weaver's inappropriate use of food items.

Forked/split tongues - this does border on monster smut. Not gonna lie absolutely gave me the ick in the greenhouse.

Brat/brat tamer - yeah turns out I live for this.

As far as everyone says about her being kidnapped and then the MMC joining in on raping her while kidnapped - y'all I don't know what book you read but it was not the same one as me.

Honestly people these days are getting a head of themselves in the dark romance and just need to go back to Julia Quinn. (Also I love her books too. No shame).

jlb_books's review against another edition

3.0

dark mysterious slow-paced

I am struggling to come to terms with how I feel about this book. I didn't dislike it enough to give it 2 stars but 3 also seems generous. I don't know.

I was bored for a good portion of this. It was slow paced, which isn't always a bad thing, but I felt like there was a lot of filler, and I started to struggle to keep interested. I also felt like the characters weren't super developed. Alina was a poisoner but...what else? Silas was a monster but...what else? I got the idea, but they just weren't fleshed out.

The ending did surprise me. I do want to read book two to find out what happens next, but even that felt a little...stale? I don't know. I wanted more world-building and character development.

I did like the gothic tone and some of the witty banter. And when the book was flowing, I did like what I was reading. This has the bones for a good story so I do hope book two is edited better.