Reviews with content warning for Sexual violence - Poison Study

Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder

33 reviews

stephaniemcuervo's review against another edition

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adventurous lighthearted slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

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kesbooks's review against another edition

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4.5

When I first started this book, I didn’t expect to give it a high rating but by the end it was closer to a 5 star than any fantasy this year.

The Story follows Yelena, a woman set to hang for murder, receive an offer she can’t refuse. Die or become the food taster for the Commander and leader of Ixia. She takes the deal but there is a catch. She must take a poison every day to insure she doesn’t attempt to escape with the only antidote being in the hands of a trained assassin and head of security for the Commander.

Yelena is a character you will root for. Healing. Found family. Love. This book was so good! It's been so long since I have felt generally sad for a book to end. The second book can’t get here fast enough!

*Please look up TW if needed. This book is dark. *

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jgalla's review

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

2.75

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lupin92's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful sad 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? No

4.25

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ayah_reads's review

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medium-paced

3.0

This book was the epitome of "go girl give me nothing" yet tell me why I blew through it?? Wanted to keep reading?? Enjoyed it???

This books is somewhere between good enough and so bad it's good. The characters have no character, I don't even feel like I had a solid description of their physicality let alone their personality (Valek suddenly had black curls three quarters of the way through??), the writing is so basic, even bad at times, literally repeating what's already been told before, the plot is pretty easy to pierce together, many points had obvious connections and YET I still had a fun time???? IDK WHY. This is the first book I've finished in over a month since spending a semester reading Austen and I think it's what I needed - something so bad that I can't in anyway compare it to Austen and can therefore actually read it in peace 🤣

I think a drive that kept me reading was to see the development of Valek and Yelena. It really had me until the last 50 page being like maybe... we're getting...a slow burn??? Even though all the reviews said otherwise 🤣 It's an insta love that you don't think is gonna be an insta love until basically the ending which is a very odd thing and I don't think I've read an insta love like that before?? Insta loves tend happen halfway through so you're very aware it's an insta love. I don't get why authors are so scared to have their mains confess their love in book 3, like give me a slow burn, three book arc, I'll read for the slow burn, I won't loose interest if you develop it well. With Yelena and Valek it was also odd cos they had a decent amount of time together, solid amount of interactions i.e. page time, but there was still no real romantic implication or development in that sense?? Which is why I really thought we were gonna get a "I don't want you to die and I will save you and protect you but idk pssh what are feelings" (think Kaz "I protect my investments" Brekker) and that's what we got for most of the book (from Valek especially), with Yelena feeling a bit more which I'll give it to her cos he really was saving her life left right and centre, Yelena could not catch a break, everyone wanted to kill her 🤣🤣 But we had to have a love confession come from nowhere and ruin the potential 😭😭😭 The ending has me 👀👀 and it would have worked so well with the above slow burn but now it's like...do I...even...care to see it through??

In speaking of them tho, I cannot not mention the age gap !!! Gahhhh WHY. Honestly this whole story could have been aged out of YA and be adult. Yelena goes through terrible, horrific, traumatic experiences, and it would have just made sense to have her older, with the bonus of balancing the age gap. Or Valek could have been younger and the plot shifted a little but gahhhhh I pretended not to see it so I could continue 😬😭

One thing that did surprise me was Yelena being (ambiguously) a person of colour, and considering this is veryyyy earlier YA, I was impressed.

Overall, not a great book but I had a great time! 😂 Now to continue with the second book or read an actually good book is the question....

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