Reviews

Poisoned by Jennifer Donnelly

aishah's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

I was very confused for the first like 70 pages of this book, and I took me a while to get used to the writing. There was multiple povs I think 3 or 4. The fmc’s pov was easy to understand but for the rest of them I was like huhhh, because the writing was trying to be lyrical but it really wasn’t in my opinion. Or maybe it was my fault and I just don’t have the brain cells to understand it. 

Anyways the fmc lowkey pissed me off because she was so naive and kind. She made the same mistake like four times, but I can justify it since it was because of her characterisation. It is a Snow White retelling after all, so she’s gonna have sympathy. I did like her character arc, and how she developed as a person. 

Aspects of the original story were integrated well into the story, while still being kinda original. I did like the storyline and how it differed to original. 

Overall the book was okay and definitely got better as you kept reading. But I probably won’t be rereading this book anytime soon or again. 

ocean_cactus's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.0

lvosler21's review against another edition

adventurous funny mysterious 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

3.5

cme0007's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful inspiring mysterious medium-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

2.5

public_nuisance's review

adventurous

5.0

starrysea98's review against another edition

4.0

two things: i really liked stepsister and i think snow white is the worst fairytale ever. so i was really excited to see how jennifer donnelly would spin this story. while there were some parts i thought weren’t so great, overall it was a good read. 3.5 stars.

anxietygirl89's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

celeste329's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

3.0

Decent concepts, but the execution was rather poor. 

This book started off pretty interesting, one could say standard regency style. Iron-hearted step-mother who ruled after the king died and did so with fear. She is determined to keep Sophie away from the throne and that is due to a mix of things:

she hated the previous king's guts - probably ideas too - dislikes that the princess is just like him, and dislikes the fact that she has to resort to a lot of shady stuff to rule because she's a woman, also is slightly (a lot) manipulated by the Main Baddie - Fear personified, under the guide of the Crow King

. As things go on, there is a bigger conspiracy at play with the Crow Siblings - with the Crow King

manipulating the Queen and his sibling just kind of...vibing, I guess?

Some fun magic shenanigans are being introduced, though in not a very "standard magic system" way, but more similar to how old fairy tales use magic, I would say. Sophie also get a ||heart made of clocks and her soul being used as a fragment to keep it together.|| This literally becomes a journey for Sophie to ||find her heart but not her actual physical one that the Crow King stole, but the one that was inside her all along.|| The plot felt kind of obvious to me after the first 20 chapters.

The pacing felt a bit weird due to the chapters being of varied length (and many, this book has 94 chapters - some of them just one-pagers @_@). A lot of the lore and action felt like they were compressed at times and did not really make for an enjoyable experience. The prose, although simple, was not done any favours by the chapter structures and reading it started to slowly feel like an uphill struggle as things went on - to me at least. I would say the plot itself isn't bad - quite predictable but not bad, with things feeling about a 60% telling - 40% showing. 

Sophie (the MC), however, is not a character I liked. It made sense to me that she was kind and wanted to help and

that things were harder to contain because of her clockwork heart that did not regulate her emotions.

But her development felt like one stagnant line for 90% of the book. She gets dragged and battered for most of the book and she only seems to have her big eureka moment right at the end. Her other two revelation were love related (that is she realised one of her love interests was a prick and she actually legitimately loved the other), but the book did not make them feel like...she grew as a person. She just understood a bit what love should be. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Death

Minor: Suicide

amybraunauthor's review against another edition

5.0

Actual rating 4.5! Another great book in Jennifer Donnelly’s retelling series! This one takes the legend of Snow White and turns it into a truly grand adventure.

The story takes place in a wildly magical world filled with all manner of stranger creatures. It also follows Sophie, who is definitely an unconventional hero. She is a little bit ditzy and almost painfully naive, but I couldn’t help but be charmed by her sweetness and kind heart. I really enjoyed some of the other characters, such as Will and Arno, and wished I could have spent more time on them and seeing the ends of their story.

Many of the events seemed to move pretty quickly and were almost rapidly solved. It worked given that this is basically a fairy tale retelling a fairy tale, but I would have loved for a longer story. There were also some POVs that were added which I didn’t fully understand. They made for interesting reading but I wasn’t quite sure why they needed to be there.

Ultimately, I loved this book because of the message. It’s a powerful, inspiring one that so many people need to hear. I genuinely enjoyed Sophie’s self-discovery and her journey to finding her self-worth. A definite recommend to anyone who loves imaginative fantasy and books with strong themes!

luciearan's review against another edition

4.0

Já mám retellingy vážně ráda a tohle byla skutečně poměrně zajímavá kombinace pohádek O Sněhurce a O Jiříkovi. V podstatě se mi celý příběh líbil, samozřejmě tak jako všechny pohádky, je potřeba brát jej s nadhledem. Co mi ale oproti předchozí knize dost vadilo, bylo rozumování autorky na konci jednotlivých částí. Ano, my chápeme, co bylo v podtextu příběhu řečeno a naznačeno, nepotřebujeme to vysvětlit, na rozdíl od pohádek, většina z nás, už nejsou děti. I tak ale hodnotím jako trochu lepší 3,5☆. (Ti, kteří nejsou milovníky retellingů tak jako já, si z celkového hodnocení 1☆ uberou). ☺