Reviews with content warning for Eating disorder - Lies Like Poison

✨🌠 my about / byf / CW info carrd: uchiha-madara 🌠✨

This book fucking sucked. I don't know why people are afraid to say that. The lgbt parts do not automatically redeem or make good that which is hot shit [like this book]. It's ok to say lgbt media like this book sucks shit straight out of a butthole.

content warnings.

medium teen pregnancy, child abandonment, sexual content [underage ],

major domestic abuse, eating disorders, mental health institutions, child abuse, fire, homophobia, child death, medical abuse,

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claresbookshelf's review against another edition

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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? It's complicated

3.5

3.5 out of 5 stars.

Be gay do crimes.

This book was a rollercoaster. For once, when I thought I had certain plot points figured out the author pulled the rug from under my feet and dangled a new little clue in my face as I lay on the floor dazed from the sudden upheaval.

It was all over the place at points, and yet somehow every last little thread tied together at the end in a nice bow as we discover that in the world of this novel there are no great parents, only a couple of good ones and then purely abusive monsters who took out their own trauma on their children.

I'm glad I picked this one up, even though there were points where some of the characters were simply getting on my nerves for being absolutely conniving or plain stupid to the detriment of themselves.

And I'm glad I held off of questioning online about what was going on with Jack's pronouns. Like, I understood immediately that Jack is trans, but I didn't know whether they were being misgenderd or what was going on. Glad to note that I had simply missed a minor detail and things get cleared up very neatly and this book doesn't state any gender that Jack doesn't want stated.

Honestly, this is the queerest mystery novel I've read ever and I need more LGBTQ+ murder mysteries please.

Not the "Bury your gays" type though, screw those.

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elliejay's review against another edition

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medium-paced

Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.0

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enmcurrie's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced

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

2.75

I found this book … okay.

The plot was there, the mystery was there, it had an interesting concept and it had good writing. It comes with four different POVs from this dysfunctional group of 4 friends, that each have their own issues/something to hide: Belladonna, Poppy (Jack), Raven and Lily. It was definitely very interesting and curious to read about all these skeletons in the closet that these characters were hiding, I think that added to the novel a lot. Each character’s storyline and concept was well written. It was a good read, and I was interested to know what happened. It had great gender and lgbtqia+ representation that didn’t feel forced, which is great.

I can’t really put my finger on exactly what I didn’t like. I think it started off great but then after more reading it just felt a bit too weird to me? The plot began to fall flat with each page I turned when I got around halfway through. The whole fairytale linking and heavy connections to children’s stories just didn’t really make any sense to me; it felt way too forced. We’re in the real world, talking about murders and all these characters kept talking about was playing the role of the Witch or the dazzling Princess locked away in a tower, I just didn’t deem it necessary. It added nothing to the plot, and made the book feel more unrealistic. None of the characters were really likeable either. I disagreed with their way of thinking a lot. The more I read the more I just wanted to finish it and get the ending over and done with. When I neared the end and was closer to finding out who the killer was I really didn’t enjoy it. The plot kept going back and forth, back and forth, accusing the same people of being the killer and then not. When the actual killer was revealed, the plot just fell flat completely and there was nothing interesting about the way in which it was revealed. The killer’s response to being discovered was also quite dull, which made the ending feel very rushed. The ending was also quite an anti-climax and felt a bit immature and unrealistic to me.

Overall, it’s a decent mystery but I don’t think it’s great. Based on what I’ve heard, Pitcher’s other novel “This Lie Will Kill You” is better.

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bookowllover's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

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alannah_m's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-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

2.5

I...don’t know what to rate this book. It was given to me as a gift, but honestly I just don’t think I’m the target audience anymore. On the plus side, the abundance of LGBTQ+ rep was lovely to see (still too rare!!) and none of the trauma was linked with being LGBTQ+, which makes a nice change from tropes. However, I think this book was just trying to do too many things for me. If it was just a coming-of-age/ thriller, I may have liked it better. But, the addition of the fairy tale retelling, I felt, stilted the story and make it feel kind a little ridiculous to me.

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