A review by ktrusty416
A Fierce and Subtle Poison by Samantha Mabry

1.0

In choosing Lucas as her protagonist, Mabry misses the mark here: the stories we really want to know are not available to Lucas, a gringo outsider, but to the girls and women of Puerto Rico. And they (the stories, the girls, the land itself) only exist as something Lucas desires. For a young man who finds his developer father's imperialism distasteful, Lucas seems destined to follow in his footsteps (despite all Mabry's wooden attempts to make us believe Lucas is aware of his privilege and casting it off). There was nothing fierce or subtle about this book.