Reviews with content warning for Animal death - The Lost Apothecary

This book was very enjoyable. I came into it with little knowledge of what to expect but I was not disappointed.

This book is about what women do to be remembered. It's about pain and endurance and finding one's self through that.

It begins with an introduction to Nella. An apothecary who while dispensing harmless tinctures, also gives out poisons to women who need to be rid of the men in her life.

The other narrative voice is that of Caroline. A woman who has come to London for her 10th wedding anniversary alone since her husband has cheated on her. After finding a glass jar during a mudlarking trip, she begins a journey to find out just how this jar came to be there and the women surrounding its story.

I expected something simple when coming into this, stories of betrayal and how the revenge is carried out but it wasn't what I got. Instead, I got a story about the importance of recording and remembering the story of the everyman and also the complex actions that lead people to their current point in life. How much other people affect our own choices and who we become.

Despite how intricate this story was, I felt there was a disconnect between the story of Caroline and Nella. Until the very end, though their slight similarities, one story was marginally more interesting than the other. While I enjoyed how you watched things unfold in both settings until the story is completed, it took longer than I wanted to get back to the story I wanted to read.

The characters were realistic. Full of pain and you understand why they made the decisions they did. It made them particularly likeable especially Eliza who was a welcomed innocent in the story. Nella's age was also something that stood out to me. I like that we don't follow someone young, naive and impressionable and have the story of someone with experience. It added a layer to the story and is a much-needed point of view.

The one thing that bothered me with the characters was the talk about pregnancy and children. At times it felt unneeded, the point had been drummed in at the beginning and I felt that at times it reduced the female characters to their abilities to become mothers.

Overall, this is a story I'm glad was told. It truly is a lost story and I'm happy with the message about the importance of forgotten people and about telling stories about them, about recording their existence. I was very pleased with how it ended, while I was not expecting part of it at all, it is a satisfying ending to a lost story.

Content Warnings

More...