Take a photo of a barcode or cover
dark
emotional
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:
Yes
“Old Venus would’ve swallowed them down and minded her business, but New Venus was petty, angry, and reckless.”
This was an intense book to be reading in our current political climate. In a way, I am thankful that I read it when I did.
This book was refreshing, particularly from a worldbuilding and magic system standpoint. Every new piece of lore that unfolded about this world was interesting and fully realised. From the various types of love potions - spanning from romantic, to familiar, to self love - to the ways different callings and deviations manifested. There was just something about the world and its magic that felt considered and well planned, which is always a big win for me because I absolutely adore fresh new magic systems.
The cast of characters were interesting and complex. Morally grey is the colour of this ensemble, finished with embellishments of questionable choices, family ties, and an inability to ask for help. And while the pacing was a little odd and choppy in some places, I absolutely consumed this book (thank you to the 3ish hour flight that let me eat this shit up).
This is a poignant and timely story of love and hate. Of family bonds and weaponising your love. Of hate and prejudice, and finally standing up and fighting against it. It is a tale of a girl learning that just because she might feel like she’s a monster, it doesn’t mean she has to be monstrous. And in a time where hate is spewed from every angle, this is an important story of fighting for what you believe in and more importantly, who you take up that fight for.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Death, Gun violence, Murder
Minor: Child death, Sexual content, Vomit
challenging
dark
hopeful
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Immediately, that term "reading isn't political" was once again proven wrong.
So wrong. I for a fact believe reading is inherently political.
You immediately get thrown into a situation similar to our past, our present, and what could be our future. Maybe a touch of magic is thrown in but it still shows much that mirrors reality in a way as to the treatment of fellow people by one another.
Ultimately, it is talking about segregation, police raids, families with difficult dynamics, and oppression.
That's all within a few chapters.
It's a reminder that nobody is ever 100% safe. People have lived with getting washed over or undervalued. It's happening today and maybe in your very neighborhood.
People aren't kind to people they don't understand but then they don't bother to understand.
Right now in America, raids are happening.
People are getting taken away.
Within the book it shows how people with magic, or the people they fear, are not allowed to gather in groups of more than twelve. They get thrown in jail for showing any shred of talent. Being themselves is practically illegal.
What I found as a unique detail within was as she's describing the different types of love or potions of love that can be brewed.
That lore was so fascinating and it too gives incite into the nature of people.
It calls to a social aspect.
Such nuance, depth in this book. The societal problems, the nature of people surviving & how they treat each other, and the consequences in taking risks.
stated at YA /Teen but I'd say upper as in 18-20. Or further. The start of chapter 15 had a scene that contains sexually explicit materials. Don't remember if the content warnings said anything but I don't think it did. Proceed with caution. At least it briefly also mentions the importance of protection but I caution against allowing minors to read it.
So wrong. I for a fact believe reading is inherently political.
You immediately get thrown into a situation similar to our past, our present, and what could be our future. Maybe a touch of magic is thrown in but it still shows much that mirrors reality in a way as to the treatment of fellow people by one another.
Ultimately, it is talking about segregation, police raids, families with difficult dynamics, and oppression.
That's all within a few chapters.
It's a reminder that nobody is ever 100% safe. People have lived with getting washed over or undervalued. It's happening today and maybe in your very neighborhood.
People aren't kind to people they don't understand but then they don't bother to understand.
Right now in America, raids are happening.
People are getting taken away.
Within the book it shows how people with magic, or the people they fear, are not allowed to gather in groups of more than twelve. They get thrown in jail for showing any shred of talent. Being themselves is practically illegal.
What I found as a unique detail within was as she's describing the different types of love or potions of love that can be brewed.
That lore was so fascinating and it too gives incite into the nature of people.
It calls to a social aspect.
Such nuance, depth in this book. The societal problems, the nature of people surviving & how they treat each other, and the consequences in taking risks.
stated at YA /Teen but I'd say upper as in 18-20. Or further. The start of chapter 15 had a scene that contains sexually explicit materials. Don't remember if the content warnings said anything but I don't think it did. Proceed with caution. At least it briefly also mentions the importance of protection but I caution against allowing minors to read it.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Gore, Hate crime, Mental illness, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-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:
Yes
So I stumbled across this book because of the pretty cover and the plot. It also helped that it was my turn to pick a book for book club, so The Poisons We Drink was the winner.
I’m not going to lie, it’s was a rough book to read. The combination of it starting out slow and it being too similar to current events made me almost DNFed it. However, I’m glad I kept reading it.
Bethany Baptiste’s debut novel is an amazing book about love, anger, justice, and what we do with it. Venus is D.C’s brewer of love potions in a world where humans and witchers are at odds and where witchers are targets of hate, violence, and worse. Venus is offered a chance to protect her family while tipping the balance in favor of witchers in the US.
I’m not going to lie, this book covers hard topics and her characters are morally gray. However, if you keep an open mind, you’ll find yourself rooting for Venus, Janus, and their friends.
I look forward to reading more books by her in the future!
I’m not going to lie, it’s was a rough book to read. The combination of it starting out slow and it being too similar to current events made me almost DNFed it. However, I’m glad I kept reading it.
Bethany Baptiste’s debut novel is an amazing book about love, anger, justice, and what we do with it. Venus is D.C’s brewer of love potions in a world where humans and witchers are at odds and where witchers are targets of hate, violence, and worse. Venus is offered a chance to protect her family while tipping the balance in favor of witchers in the US.
I’m not going to lie, this book covers hard topics and her characters are morally gray. However, if you keep an open mind, you’ll find yourself rooting for Venus, Janus, and their friends.
I look forward to reading more books by her in the future!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, Violence, Blood
Moderate: Gun violence, Hate crime, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Police brutality, Medical content
Minor: Child death, Toxic relationship, Death of parent
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
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:
Complicated
The last half of this book picked me up by my scalp and threw me around. It took me a while to really get into the story, there seemed to be so many moving parts. But once the pieces started to click together for me I was enthralled.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I find it bizarre that an editor is listed in the author's acknowledgments, because so much of this reads like something barely polished that would get passed around in a writers' group. A less practiced reader would probably enjoy it more, but this needed firstly to be tightened up at the beginning. Another reviewer said it took until 60% for them to be hooked, and I agree with that assessment. The editor and publisher failed the author in not making a better edit of an interesting world and story.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Self harm, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Confinement, Cursing, Gun violence, Hate crime, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Kidnapping
Minor: Bullying, Child death, Chronic illness, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Police brutality, Medical content
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
i really, really wanted to like this book. the premise sounded really cool, and i know the author faced a lot of hate and struggles with getting it out there, so i really wanted to love it. unfortunately, i ended up struggling a lot.
there were definitely good parts. i think the ideas have so much potential, the magic system was interesting and unique, and i really liked a lot of the supporting characters, though i wish we'd seen a bit more of them. also, diverse books are always needed, and this has a lot of representation! nearly all the main characters are Black and/or South Asian, and there is bi+, nonbinary, sapphic and aroace representation.
honestly i think the biggest things i struggled with with this book were not really the author's fault, because my *main* issues could be divided into two sections.
1) the prose felt kind of clunky and awkward in a lot of places, but i think a huge part of this is down to whoever edited/proofread, because it just... wasn't well-edited at all. there were several instances of sentences double-stating the same thing or not making sense and several wrong word choices, which should've been caught. then there was consistent weird grammar (like every time 'maybe' was in a sentence, it was followed by a comma; and when an adjective was, it too was often followed by a comma, despite being the *only* adjective and not being in a list), which absolutely should've been something an editor fixed. and there was an overuse of italics, which i get (i overuse them too!) but a lot of the time the emphasis was simply on the *wrong* word. then there were several instances of referring to a character by pronouns instead of their name, when they hadn't been the last-named character, and whilst you could extrapolate from context who they were referring to, it just didn't make grammatical sense.
all of those things are understandable mistakes an author might make in the course of writing and trying to get their story out, but that's what editors/proof-readers are meant to be for. maybe it was due to a timeline crunch or something, who knows, but whoever edited and proofread this just did not do it well.
2) the pacing was strange, as most of the first 80-odd percent was pretty slow, and then the last part was too fast. apparently the author was forced to condense what were meant to be two books into one? which, if true, would explain a lot of these issues and again, is not their fault. i do think considering this fact, there was a lot of slow/dragging stuff that could've been taken out or sped up, in order to flesh out the ending better.
i did also think there were a few too many different storyline threads going on, especially considering how quickly they all had to be resolved at the end. if they'd been thinned out a bit, i think they would've been a lot stronger. for example, i found the concept of Venus's deviation really interesting and was expecting it to be a big, plot-significant thing, but it just kind of... wasn't? because there was so much other stuff happening.
overall, i think if the author had been allowed to follow their vision for this to be two books, and if it had been better edited and proofread, i would've enjoyed it significantly more, because there were definitely a lot of cool ideas here. i'd be up for checking out what the author does next, and just hope next time they're able to follow their vision and have a higher standard of editing done!
there were definitely good parts. i think the ideas have so much potential, the magic system was interesting and unique, and i really liked a lot of the supporting characters, though i wish we'd seen a bit more of them. also, diverse books are always needed, and this has a lot of representation! nearly all the main characters are Black and/or South Asian, and there is bi+, nonbinary, sapphic and aroace representation.
honestly i think the biggest things i struggled with with this book were not really the author's fault, because my *main* issues could be divided into two sections.
1) the prose felt kind of clunky and awkward in a lot of places, but i think a huge part of this is down to whoever edited/proofread, because it just... wasn't well-edited at all. there were several instances of sentences double-stating the same thing or not making sense and several wrong word choices, which should've been caught. then there was consistent weird grammar (like every time 'maybe' was in a sentence, it was followed by a comma; and when an adjective was, it too was often followed by a comma, despite being the *only* adjective and not being in a list), which absolutely should've been something an editor fixed. and there was an overuse of italics, which i get (i overuse them too!) but a lot of the time the emphasis was simply on the *wrong* word. then there were several instances of referring to a character by pronouns instead of their name, when they hadn't been the last-named character, and whilst you could extrapolate from context who they were referring to, it just didn't make grammatical sense.
all of those things are understandable mistakes an author might make in the course of writing and trying to get their story out, but that's what editors/proof-readers are meant to be for. maybe it was due to a timeline crunch or something, who knows, but whoever edited and proofread this just did not do it well.
2) the pacing was strange, as most of the first 80-odd percent was pretty slow, and then the last part was too fast. apparently the author was forced to condense what were meant to be two books into one? which, if true, would explain a lot of these issues and again, is not their fault. i do think considering this fact, there was a lot of slow/dragging stuff that could've been taken out or sped up, in order to flesh out the ending better.
i did also think there were a few too many different storyline threads going on, especially considering how quickly they all had to be resolved at the end. if they'd been thinned out a bit, i think they would've been a lot stronger. for example, i found the concept of Venus's deviation really interesting and was expecting it to be a big, plot-significant thing, but it just kind of... wasn't? because there was so much other stuff happening.
overall, i think if the author had been allowed to follow their vision for this to be two books, and if it had been better edited and proofread, i would've enjoyed it significantly more, because there were definitely a lot of cool ideas here. i'd be up for checking out what the author does next, and just hope next time they're able to follow their vision and have a higher standard of editing done!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Hate crime, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Self harm, Grief
Minor: Child death, Sexual content, Vomit
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Blood, Grief, Death of parent
Complex. I really liked Venus' voice. This might have worked better for me as a hard copy read. (Some of the narrator's voices were annoying). Older readers.
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
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:
Yes
While the author's comments of the real world are pretty obvious, that's not necessarily a bad thing.
I enjoyed learning more about the characters and their past, and how the magic in this world works. (Also I don't think I could be a brewer, sounds like a ROUGH path)
I enjoyed learning more about the characters and their past, and how the magic in this world works. (Also I don't think I could be a brewer, sounds like a ROUGH path)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Blood
dark
emotional
mysterious
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:
Yes
This book takes you on so many twists and turns, keeping the tension high the entire time. But it's also an incredible story about love: complex family love, platonic and romantic loves, and love within a community.
I also highly recommend the audiobook for this!
I also highly recommend the audiobook for this!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Racism, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder
Moderate: Suicide
Minor: Sexual content, Vomit
dark
emotional
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:
Yes
The world that was created was fascinating, and I was so interested in the different witcher powers and community. I wish we got more of it, like deeper explanations of Venus’s deviation “It” and how her dual-wielding pledges worked after she died and got elder glenn’s anima and what powers witchers had beyond their deviations, both innate and forged via learned/pledged skill. I also really enjoyed Venus’s relationships with everyone around her, from her sister to her cousin to her mother to her love interesg to the grand witcher. Poor Venus could literally NEVER catch a break and it hurt so bad to see how alone emotionally she was in almost everything, the weight of multiple worlds on her shoulders and no one fully understood what she was going through. The story did feel a bit like a slow start to me, and it took me a little while to finally get to get the point of wanting to put the book down to find out what happens next, but after it picked up I was eating it up all right until the reveals about Presley’s family started. I thought the entire twist about their family didn’t need to happen, and it took away from the main plot about Venus as well as killed the momentum building with her revenge arc; we had seen her emotions growing and bubbling and I thought we were going to see that pot satisfactorily spill over and explode, but the wrench that family drama threw in really made everything go sideways emotionally. I also thought that the entire final twist ruined the main plot; the big overpowered villain we find out perpetrated nearly everything from the start turning out to be some random man we barely meet after most of the book is over already and have absolutely no feelings about felt very cartoonish, and when he was giving his whole speech at the end I was just yelling at Venus to kill him. Matrika didn’t need to die when Venus could’ve just shot him (she owns a gun and shouldve brought it to the dinner just in case!!) or jumped him or unleashed her last bit of “It” before he got through his villain spiel and started doing all the blood oath orders. If the author really wanted the battle scene, then fine I’ll take it, but why didn’t Venus just like start gorging on familiar loyalty once It started taking the army out?? Loyalty was all over the floor could she not have done that and then gotten a little boost of strength to take out Levi herself??? I get the poetic justice of her mother killing her own murderer but it felt so anticlimatic of a scene and I wish Venus couldve actually finally gotten the kill she craved by her own hands. Most of the book ran on her drive to avenge her mom and she didn’t get her big monster moment when it mattered most imo. I did enjoy this book though, and I hope we can get more intense low fantasy books with full casts of color in the future!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Hate crime, Racism, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Murder
Moderate: Blood, Police brutality, Abandonment