Reviews with content warning for Trafficking - Poison Study

Poison study starts with Yelena, a girl that has been in prison for a year because she killed the son of a powerful man, both of which had tortured her, being selected to become the food taster of the Commander, Ixia's ruler, after the previous one had died.
She learns to recognise poisons and to defend herself, she makes some friends, falls in love, finds out she has magic, and gets involved in the country's politics.
Mostly, this book is okay. It's exactly what you'd expect from a YA Fantasy book, nothing less, nothing more. Nothing bad about it, but also nothing special about it.
All the relationships - both platonic and romantic - somewhat lack chemistry, but not to a degree that makes them unbelievable either.
I kept reading because it was an enjoyable enough read and I had no reason to stop, but planned not to continue with the sequel. Luckily, the end does pick up, and once we get to know more about the political plot brewing inside Ixia and Yelena gets involved in it, the plot did catch my interest.
The relationships didn't become any more interesting, though, but the dimension of their political allyship between Yelena and her love interest made me willing to overlook their lack of chemistry towards the end.
There is no way this series will become one of my favourites, but the glimpse we got into the magical and political landscape in Ixia and its neighbour Sitia towards the end, makes me think the series will probably turn out to be in overall an enjoyable, if mediocre, read after all.

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msstearns13's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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itsnotalakeitsanocean's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

3.0

I don't have much to add that hasn't already been added but I guess I'll do a quick rundown of what I did and didn't like of the book.

What I liked

The castle staff felt believable and you could really get a sense of both their overall dynamic serving the Commander and their individual dynamics within their colleague groups. It really helped set up a lot of the intrigue that came later as Yelena navigated her new life.
I was always excited to see what Yelena would do next or what she was planning. I also liked seeing her reflect on how far she'd come and survived at the end of the book.
I liked the fact that
the Commander was transgender and although he had inner conflict stemming from the fact he could be potentially outed, it was not presented as a negative and I thought it was sweet the way Yelena helped him through his inner dysphoria. I think the way he was initially described could have been avoided to have less gender essentialism to it, I think the inclusion of a transgender character was a pleasant surprise.
I really liked the plot twist with the
Criollo. The way it was seemingly benign only for its true horrific potential to be revealed later was good.

What I didn't like

Valek reciprocating Yelena's feelings came out of nowhere for me. And the same could be said for the random sex scene towards the end of the book (because clearly nothing screams sexier than sex in a cold dank rat-infested dungeon).
The villains weren't particularly strong characters and felt like they were cut from the same cloth of evil.
Mogkam especially felt like a stereotypical evil magical advisor to his boss, as if he did what he did just for the sake of being evil instead of having a clear reason
.
One of the side characters, Rand, seems to get left by the wayside after he died - which felt disproportionate to how much a part of Yelena's life in good and bad ways.

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aseel_reads's review

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dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

this had so much potential and it just flopped so bad. the magic system was quite vague and i don't see the point of its addition. the story was quite predictable as well.

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booksoflore's review against another edition

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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

4.25

So I read this book back in 2012 (!!!) and gave it 5 stars. Now that I am almost twice as old as I was when I first read this book, imma give it a smooth 4.25. honestly I still really love this book but

HOLY SHIT WAS THERE REALLY A WHOLE TRANS NARRATIVE SIDEPLOT THAT I TOTALLY FORGOT ABOUT AS A KID. the library really did turn me gay, I’m so shook

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