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readwithria's review against another edition
This was very much a case of a good book not finding the right reader. It was easy for me to put down and hard for me to pick up.
I think that the premise is interesting, the magic is unique, and the themes are important. I hope this book finds the readers it deserves.
I think that the premise is interesting, the magic is unique, and the themes are important. I hope this book finds the readers it deserves.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Self harm, and Racism
libraryofnyla's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.0
Thank you to NetGalley for providing an advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.
I was super excited to read this ARC as I'm always on the hunt for diverse fantasy and the premise of this book sounded exactly like the kind of story I would want/do read. An urban fantasy with diverse characters and gritty social-political commentary on real-world issues, plus, a stunning cover - what's not to love! Unfortunately, I didn't love it... at all.
To start, The Posions We Drink is marketed as YA which, in my opinion, is not the correct readership. I get that the YA label is an easier sell, but this book should have been a New Adult. The characters are not facing the kind of issues typical of a YA, the FMC is an established character whose main issue is dealing with providing financially for her family and protecting them whilst navigating political and criminal organizations in a world that is weighted with metaphors of real-life systems of oppression. I'm not saying YA readers can't read this material, I just don't see how that's the target audience. There is also frequent swearing, graphic violence, and sexual content - nothing egregious (I've read far worse) but, again, arguably not appropriate to be aimed at YA readers.
Secondly, the writing itself reads as very amateur. I understand this is a debut and an ARC, both of which could be contributing to the problem, but there is a number of copyedit issues. Such as: typos and awkward phrasing and repetitive prose. Beyond the opening chapter, which was very good, the rest of the book read like an early draft.
Thirdly, the storytelling is rough. The pacing is all over the place with long bouts of needless dialogue and interiority then back-to-back action interrupted by more clunky descriptions and dialogue. The book was just non-stop irregular pacing. Character development was also next to nothing, the FMC (and supporting cast) barely changed over the course of the entire book, despite the surplus of external circumstances that could have easily pushed character growth. The plot itself was also very predictable, even with the erratic story beats. I ended up checking the page count to see how much I had left to get through instead of hoping it wouldn't end.
Lastly, the worldbuilding... Ouch. The worldbuilding in the story had SO much potential and yet, it was so badly executed. Every chapter started with an excerpt from an article or a potion or the like outlining some aspect of the worldbuilding and magic system instead of having that information organically being fed to the reader through the story itself. This resulted in me literally skimming the majority and retaining none of that information whatsoever. Additionally, within the story, the worldbuilding isn't woven in but wedged into scenes via long-winded and clunky explanations. Honestly, the worldbuilding was the biggest disappointment because I really wanted this concept to work.
Overall, The Posions We Drink, was a huge miss for me. It had all the pieces to make a great diverse fantasy but unfortunately the execution really failed to bring this original and fresh idea to life
I was super excited to read this ARC as I'm always on the hunt for diverse fantasy and the premise of this book sounded exactly like the kind of story I would want/do read. An urban fantasy with diverse characters and gritty social-political commentary on real-world issues, plus, a stunning cover - what's not to love! Unfortunately, I didn't love it... at all.
To start, The Posions We Drink is marketed as YA which, in my opinion, is not the correct readership. I get that the YA label is an easier sell, but this book should have been a New Adult. The characters are not facing the kind of issues typical of a YA, the FMC is an established character whose main issue is dealing with providing financially for her family and protecting them whilst navigating political and criminal organizations in a world that is weighted with metaphors of real-life systems of oppression. I'm not saying YA readers can't read this material, I just don't see how that's the target audience. There is also frequent swearing, graphic violence, and sexual content - nothing egregious (I've read far worse) but, again, arguably not appropriate to be aimed at YA readers.
Secondly, the writing itself reads as very amateur. I understand this is a debut and an ARC, both of which could be contributing to the problem, but there is a number of copyedit issues. Such as: typos and awkward phrasing and repetitive prose. Beyond the opening chapter, which was very good, the rest of the book read like an early draft.
Thirdly, the storytelling is rough. The pacing is all over the place with long bouts of needless dialogue and interiority then back-to-back action interrupted by more clunky descriptions and dialogue. The book was just non-stop irregular pacing. Character development was also next to nothing, the FMC (and supporting cast) barely changed over the course of the entire book, despite the surplus of external circumstances that could have easily pushed character growth. The plot itself was also very predictable, even with the erratic story beats. I ended up checking the page count to see how much I had left to get through instead of hoping it wouldn't end.
Lastly, the worldbuilding... Ouch. The worldbuilding in the story had SO much potential and yet, it was so badly executed. Every chapter started with an excerpt from an article or a potion or the like outlining some aspect of the worldbuilding and magic system instead of having that information organically being fed to the reader through the story itself. This resulted in me literally skimming the majority and retaining none of that information whatsoever. Additionally, within the story, the worldbuilding isn't woven in but wedged into scenes via long-winded and clunky explanations. Honestly, the worldbuilding was the biggest disappointment because I really wanted this concept to work.
Overall, The Posions We Drink, was a huge miss for me. It had all the pieces to make a great diverse fantasy but unfortunately the execution really failed to bring this original and fresh idea to life
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Self harm, Injury/Injury detail, Police brutality, Racism, Colonisation, Murder, Cursing, Drug use, Toxic relationship, Abandonment, Child abuse, Sexual content, Gun violence, Emotional abuse, Grief, Classism, Gaslighting, Death, Blood, Bullying, Hate crime, and Violence
natraf_reads's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
A beautifully written book reflective of real political issues and a history of racism. The witchers represent black people in America and the discrimination that has historically and unfortunately continues to be committed against this population.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Violence, Racism, and Gun violence
Moderate: Cursing, Death, Death of parent, and Grief
kimwritesstuff's review against another edition
dark
inspiring
tense
slow-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
3.25
This book was a little bit of a slow burn for me and took me a few chapters to really get into it. Venus is a tough-as-nails character who brews love potions in order to support her family. Magic has a cost, and being a brewer means there are horrific blowbacks from potions. Every time Venus brews, her potions have effects on her, such as broken bones or burned skin.
Regardless of the blowback, Venus is the main breadwinner of her family. Her mother, Clarissa, sacrificed her magic by breaking a magical vow, and her father is dead. When Clarissa is killed with iron bullets, Venus is sucked further into the underground trade of magic potions. The world is about to burst with humans demanding that witchers be on a public registry, a registry that would allow people to find them and likely kill them. Venus gets roped into a political scheme to poison senators with love potions to sway their opinions.
The story builds its tension beautifully, and while I did find some plot points fairly predictable, this book still had plenty of twists and turns. Venus's little sister Janus can create portals and is determined to follow in her activist father's footsteps. A lot of Venus's motivation is to protect Janus. I thought the push-pull of their relationship was so realistic and well done. I also have a half-sister, and the dichotomy is similar.
Presley's character was easily my favorite character. I thought the expression of their gender fluidity/non-binary expression was well done. Too many people get caught up in the idea of pronouns. Presley didn't have a painful coming out or confrontation. They just were. I enjoyed that the author didn't try to add an additional level of struggle.
I did think that the secondary storylines were a bit hobbled together. We understand Venus's motivation isn't political, but the other characters seem to have no motivation but power. It just didn't flow well. I kept expecting like a villain info dump to better understand the power dynamics and struggles. The issues between humans and witchers also lacked nuance, which sort of made sense when looking at the parallels of racism.
Overall, I thought this was a good read, and I'd read the next in the series.
Thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for the ARC.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Blood, Violence, and Xenophobia
Minor: Vomit
beccisays's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Definitely recommend you to read this book, the magic system is so unique that I struggle to draw comparisons to anything else I’ve read recently.
The story is heavily steeped in deep lore, originality and magical elements, which truly show the author’s creativity and charm. I wish we could have seen more of these aspects, like make-dos, magical artefacts and other character’s gifts, earlier on as they were really captivating. Chapters began with excerpts of articles, books, letters etc, which reminded me of Fourth Wing and really helped to flesh out your understanding as a reader.
The world Bethany Baptiste weaves is rich in black culture, history and sociological commentary, the parallels between the plight of witchers in her society and POC in our own is enlightening and thought provoking. Especially so with the rights movement and the ample blood spilled and lives lost on the road to freedom. The representation for realistic and true to life ethnicities, cultures, genders and sexualities was refreshing, particularly within a fantasy book.
It did take a while for me to get immersed into the book, I would say around at 50% things took a turn and I finished the rest in one sitting.
The story is heavily steeped in deep lore, originality and magical elements, which truly show the author’s creativity and charm. I wish we could have seen more of these aspects, like make-dos, magical artefacts and other character’s gifts, earlier on as they were really captivating. Chapters began with excerpts of articles, books, letters etc, which reminded me of Fourth Wing and really helped to flesh out your understanding as a reader.
The world Bethany Baptiste weaves is rich in black culture, history and sociological commentary, the parallels between the plight of witchers in her society and POC in our own is enlightening and thought provoking. Especially so with the rights movement and the ample blood spilled and lives lost on the road to freedom. The representation for realistic and true to life ethnicities, cultures, genders and sexualities was refreshing, particularly within a fantasy book.
It did take a while for me to get immersed into the book, I would say around at 50% things took a turn and I finished the rest in one sitting.
Thank you Sourcebooks for providing this ARC for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Violence, Grief, Hate crime, Blood, Death, Gun violence, Death of parent, Police brutality, and Racism
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