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lumbermouth's review against another edition
2.0
Wanted desperately to be The Likeness. Was not The Likeness. Fortunately it didn't take very long to read.
cosg777's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
emilyyjjean's review against another edition
4.0
This book was okay...
I say this because it only got me totally hooked until about 3/4 of the way through. The beginning was okay, but riddled with details that I thought were sometimes unnecessary. The questions were always there of who was killed and who had done the killing, so the book had me hooked and I knew I had to finish it; it just took me way longer to read it than what I originally thought.
Another aspect of the book that made it harder to read was the fact that it switched between present and past so much and sometimes without warning. At first I thought I had got the system down (past one chapter, present the next), but I was clearly wrong about that because the book switched between past and present in the same chapter and between paragraphs without any indication or break. Sometimes I would start reading with the mindset of it being in one time period and then some clue later on would allow me to realize that I had been thinking the wrong time frame, so it would force me to kind of skim back through what I had read to properly read it.
This story though...I was not able to predict everything in the ending, and that's why I gave the book 4 stars instead of 3. There were two twists that I kind of predicted in my notes, but I wasn't 100% certain when I wrote them down. The rest it totally blew my mind. That ending and last chapter!
If you don't mind trudging through the first part, but want to be completely surprised at the ending I would definitely recommend this book.
I say this because it only got me totally hooked until about 3/4 of the way through. The beginning was okay, but riddled with details that I thought were sometimes unnecessary. The questions were always there of who was killed and who had done the killing, so the book had me hooked and I knew I had to finish it; it just took me way longer to read it than what I originally thought.
Another aspect of the book that made it harder to read was the fact that it switched between present and past so much and sometimes without warning. At first I thought I had got the system down (past one chapter, present the next), but I was clearly wrong about that because the book switched between past and present in the same chapter and between paragraphs without any indication or break. Sometimes I would start reading with the mindset of it being in one time period and then some clue later on would allow me to realize that I had been thinking the wrong time frame, so it would force me to kind of skim back through what I had read to properly read it.
This story though...I was not able to predict everything in the ending, and that's why I gave the book 4 stars instead of 3. There were two twists that I kind of predicted in my notes, but I wasn't 100% certain when I wrote them down. The rest it totally blew my mind. That ending and last chapter!
If you don't mind trudging through the first part, but want to be completely surprised at the ending I would definitely recommend this book.
secre's review against another edition
2.0
I struggled to engage with this on a multitude of levels and so whilst I finished it, it was very much out of a sense of duty rather than enjoyment. The best past of the novel in fact is the last five percent and it was only really in those last pages that I really engaged with the novel.
There are any number of reasons for this; firstly, it's slow, really really slow. The plot seems to take forever to inch it's way forward, despite not being a huge book on length. Secondly, the flicks between present and past when neither story is particularly interesting except in small blasts of the story make this dragging out actively painful. This would have been better told as a consecutive tale rather than the pointless faffing, which is I suppose intended to raise tension but instead serves as an exercise in tedium.
Thirdly, the characters are annoying and it is difficult to empathise with virtually any of them. Biba only cares about herself, Rex is rather weak and wimpy, Karen is supposedly smart and yet utterly falls for these two wasters head over heels and makes a series of seriously poor decisions impacting her future. The rest of the characters are virtual non entities. The only real empathy I felt was for our protagonists father at one very heartfelt moment... but that's a single moment with a secondary character in an entire book.
All in all, it's a shame because the writing shows promise, but this just didn't live up to expectations.
There are any number of reasons for this; firstly, it's slow, really really slow. The plot seems to take forever to inch it's way forward, despite not being a huge book on length. Secondly, the flicks between present and past when neither story is particularly interesting except in small blasts of the story make this dragging out actively painful. This would have been better told as a consecutive tale rather than the pointless faffing, which is I suppose intended to raise tension but instead serves as an exercise in tedium.
Thirdly, the characters are annoying and it is difficult to empathise with virtually any of them. Biba only cares about herself, Rex is rather weak and wimpy, Karen is supposedly smart and yet utterly falls for these two wasters head over heels and makes a series of seriously poor decisions impacting her future. The rest of the characters are virtual non entities. The only real empathy I felt was for our protagonists father at one very heartfelt moment... but that's a single moment with a secondary character in an entire book.
All in all, it's a shame because the writing shows promise, but this just didn't live up to expectations.
prof_shoff's review against another edition
3.0
While well written, the characters were so exceptionally unlikeable, I found it difficult to care about the story.
paulineerika's review against another edition
2.0
2.5 stars. Hard to really care about any of the characters and the plot was uneven.
emmasamm's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Suicide
Minor: Rape
louisegraveyard's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder and Gun violence
Moderate: Sexual content
jacque18's review against another edition
1.0
This book moved way too slowly for me. About 2/3 of the way through I started quickly flipping through pages just to see what happened at the end.
captainjemima's review against another edition
4.0
I think 'The Poison Tree' is one of those dramatic, twisty, gripping books that I seem to be frequenting this year. It really was a ride. At first, I wasn't too sure about it. The cover was unassuming, I thought that perhaps it was a boring family drama. I read it because I had finished reading a Shakespeare play on my Kindle and stupidly hadn't brought a backup book. Rather than face an hour's lunch time staring at the floor, I delved into this novel.
Our narrator is Karen Clarke. At the beginning of a book we see that she is supposedly running away from something to protect her family, or doing something daring and dramatic. Anyway then we are introduced into the main bulk of the story which describes what led Karen to such a fraught evening. Karen is at Queen Charlotte's College in London, studying translation. She has always had a knack with languages - they just stick - and this leads her to meet the fabulous Biba. Karen is brought up by parents who still love each other and who look forward to her phonecalls on a weekly basis. Biba is everything Karen is not. She is taking drama in order to be discovered by an agent, and she has the personality to match. When Karen meets her, she is scrawling an advert for a German teacher to help her perfect a song for a play. Karen just so happens to be a German-speaker, and the two become fast friends. Really, Karen is more in awe of Biba than friendly with her. Biba's hectic life is something completely out of her small sphere of experience.
Karen longs to be whisked by Biba out of her dull, predictable existence, and her wish comes true. She meets Biba's reserved brother Rex, the voluptuous hippy Nina and her unschooled children. Other people come and go in the orbit around Biba, in a house haunted by a dark past. Biba tells Karen she is an orphan, and that she cannot bear to leave the house and its woods at the back.
Most of the book is fairly straightforward - we see Karen in her present life, with a child of 12 named Alice, contrasted by episodes of her "one summer" with Biba and Rex. I could tell that every step was leading towards the climax. Something shocking and explosive had to happen. Finally, when I was 75% of the way through, I was hit with it and completely stunned.
I really did like the character of Karen. When she meets Biba and Rex, she is full of the innocence of a sheltered upbringing, with no further aspirations than to use her gift for languages to pursue a degree in translation. Some of the choices she makes once the 'climax' happens are questionable, but I could see that every decision she made was for the good of the people around her. She does not stop for very long to consider herself. She protects Biba, she protects Rex, she protects her daughter. She does have a few months where she disappears to try to come to terms with things, and I don't know if she emerges stronger at all... Biba as a character made me feel intoxicated as Karen was, at first, but then slowly exasperated, betrayed and sickened. Rex, I just wanted to stand up for himself and take control, to stop being a doormat.
Despite my mixed emotions about the characters, this was a gripping novel. It's always good for me if I can't stop reading it. Even though it was punctuated by a long four-day weekend in which I only read a few pages, I still slid back into it with comfort and intrigue when work started up again.
Our narrator is Karen Clarke. At the beginning of a book we see that she is supposedly running away from something to protect her family, or doing something daring and dramatic. Anyway then we are introduced into the main bulk of the story which describes what led Karen to such a fraught evening. Karen is at Queen Charlotte's College in London, studying translation. She has always had a knack with languages - they just stick - and this leads her to meet the fabulous Biba. Karen is brought up by parents who still love each other and who look forward to her phonecalls on a weekly basis. Biba is everything Karen is not. She is taking drama in order to be discovered by an agent, and she has the personality to match. When Karen meets her, she is scrawling an advert for a German teacher to help her perfect a song for a play. Karen just so happens to be a German-speaker, and the two become fast friends. Really, Karen is more in awe of Biba than friendly with her. Biba's hectic life is something completely out of her small sphere of experience.
Karen longs to be whisked by Biba out of her dull, predictable existence, and her wish comes true. She meets Biba's reserved brother Rex, the voluptuous hippy Nina and her unschooled children. Other people come and go in the orbit around Biba, in a house haunted by a dark past. Biba tells Karen she is an orphan, and that she cannot bear to leave the house and its woods at the back.
Most of the book is fairly straightforward - we see Karen in her present life, with a child of 12 named Alice, contrasted by episodes of her "one summer" with Biba and Rex. I could tell that every step was leading towards the climax. Something shocking and explosive had to happen. Finally, when I was 75% of the way through, I was hit with it and completely stunned.
I really did like the character of Karen. When she meets Biba and Rex, she is full of the innocence of a sheltered upbringing, with no further aspirations than to use her gift for languages to pursue a degree in translation. Some of the choices she makes once the 'climax' happens are questionable, but I could see that every decision she made was for the good of the people around her. She does not stop for very long to consider herself. She protects Biba, she protects Rex, she protects her daughter. She does have a few months where she disappears to try to come to terms with things, and I don't know if she emerges stronger at all... Biba as a character made me feel intoxicated as Karen was, at first, but then slowly exasperated, betrayed and sickened. Rex, I just wanted to stand up for himself and take control, to stop being a doormat.
Despite my mixed emotions about the characters, this was a gripping novel. It's always good for me if I can't stop reading it. Even though it was punctuated by a long four-day weekend in which I only read a few pages, I still slid back into it with comfort and intrigue when work started up again.