Reviews

The Poisons We Drink by Bethany Baptiste

hurburb's review against another edition

dark inspiring slow-paced

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

2.25

jane_anon's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

craftyanty's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.75

I had really high hopes for this book.  It started off strong. The story was interesting, and I was fully engaged.  The narrator was lively and entertaining, although the way she voiced the sister grated on my nerves. 

I'm not sure what happened, but at about 40% my interest started to dissipate. By 60%, I found I just didn't care anymore. I trudged through the remainder of the book, but it never truly pulled me back in.  

Thank you NetGalley and RB Media for allowing me early access to the ARC audiobook edition of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.  

deelisch's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-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? No

4.0

stateofiction's review against another edition

3.5

Enjoyment wise, this was a 4, but there were a couple things that I just couldn't get over that dropped it down to a 3.5.

- maybe this was me, but I really didn't get the magic system. I did not understand the rules and why certain people could do things but then others couldn't, but they also still could? idk. how did the deviation actually get in Venus? like I know but I don't know. and Presley??? what about them?

- sometimes the chapters would end super abruptly. like it still felt mid-scene, and it didn't help that a lot of times these end chapter pages would still fill the entire page. like I would turn the page expecting more but then we switched chapters and I was like okay?

overall though I do recommend this. the importance of family was a very strong theme which made it so easy to care about these characters. and it was FUNNY. like some incredibly serious information was given to Venus and she literally responded "say sike right now". I just love fantasy stand alones.

alocalarchivist's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

grunkle's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

One of the most creative, well-thought out fantasies I’ve ever read. The twists and turns kept on coming, and the stakes were always sky high. An INCREDIBLE book

vanessamariebooks's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

Bookclub discussion: https://www.youtube.com/live/L0GNH8W7CAU?si=OG-rwimTPy_ZTpoE 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Gun violence, Hate crime, Murder, and Child death

Minor: Death of parent

kris_82's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-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? No

4.0

shieldbearer's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

 

Overall, I really loved how detailed the world building was in this book. Baptiste really put a lot of work into this and it really shows. The musing on the nature of power, and how it is not inherently the same thing as magic, is an excellent tack to take and it's a very well developed theme in the book. 

The characters are raw and real- they make choices that a hurt, scared, angry teenager would make in the moment and not the “smart” decisions. Baptiste really has a way of bringing the characters to life. (though, it does break my suspension of disbelief a bit that people constantly notice scars that are obviously from a blood oath and then never give them a second thought until the plot bowls them over. If this happened once that would be one thing but it happens at least three separate times.) 

Some of the plotting issues are definitely because the publisher forced Baptiste to cram a planned two-book series into one. 

I will say, there are three things that stand out about the world building, as stellar as it is. 

1. It feels “young”. Even though Witcher society has been around for hundreds of years, some of the revelations and “twists” rely on some blind spot or technicality in witcher magic that seems as if it would have been known by then
2. There's a throwaway line about america being the only country that still hasn't accepted Witchers, and ????
3. The most egregious world building blind spot is the fact that Witchers have nothing at all to do with religion because of persecution... but a Witcher character has a cross on their temporary headstone. There is no thought given to the afterlife, and frankly I don't agree that Witcher society would have absolutely nothing to do with religion- there is far more “religion” out there than just Christianity. There's Black spiritualism, oral traditions passed down through families- this aspect of the worldbuilding was jarringly underdeveloped. 

But that aside, I greatly enjoyed this and I will definitely read anything else Baptiste wites.