Scan barcode
A review by crosswarrior7
Poisoned by Jennifer Donnelly
4.0
This is probably a low 4, perhaps a high 3, but I'll leave it at a 4 star. I was so happy when I stumbled upon this book because I absolutely adored Stepsister. Donnelly did a fantastic job creating more dimensions to that retelling while adding this sort of mythical happening in the background, and that carries on to this book, though the mythical aspect was more evident, and I must say, I greatly enjoyed that.
I will start by saying that I did prefer Stepsister to this book. Stepsister felt a bit more alive and a little more developed than Poisoned. Poisoned oddly felt more fairy tale-y in the sense that Sophie felt more like a story princess and less like a full blown character. However, it was done very well, so it was like this odd but perfect combination of 2D and 3D. So although I really enjoyed it and liked it, it put it a little below Stepsister for me.
But to focus purely on Poisoned! *high fives self for guessing who the villain was* But yes, this book is an amazing mixture of Young Adult writing and fairy tale storytelling. It had a message that felt very important in today's time about how, like the summary says, kindness is the ultimate form of strength, and I really felt victorious watching Sophie make it through her tale by all her acts of kindness catching up to her and helping her along the way. I also felt the poison of society's words seeping into Sophie, and the sucky (good) thing was, I could sometimes see where they "anti-kindness" camp was coming from :/ Like, there is logic behind how they think, and it sort of made me ache for them, but also made me so happy when kindness still won out.
I really enjoyed the characters throughout this story, especially Will and a grave robber whose name escapes me at the moment. Sometimes it felt like the characters had too perfect a thing to say, which is probably part of what took it down to a somewhat 2D notch, but outside of those moments, they were still really great characters.
The story also had a fun way of treating its magic like magical realism. There was nothing big and flashy. There was just this random magical spider who could make silk that could do great things, and there were dwarves, and there were monsters, but the world didn't seem to see them as fantastical or magical. They just were, and then there was this whole other part of their world that was magical in the form of a Crow King and his sister, and somehow that mixture of the magical more feeling like magical realism and the bigger magical feeling like the fantastical created a very, well... magical feeling. And man, did I love the concepts done with the Crow King and his sister, especially since they were like the spirits found in Stepsister. Entities embodying things we all feel and experience.
The ending also made me super happy, because it left it open for more standalones stemming from this world, and I am completely here for it. Even if this book wasn't as much a hit out of the park as I felt Stepsister was, it was still a very enjoyable twist on the well-known tale.
I will start by saying that I did prefer Stepsister to this book. Stepsister felt a bit more alive and a little more developed than Poisoned. Poisoned oddly felt more fairy tale-y in the sense that Sophie felt more like a story princess and less like a full blown character. However, it was done very well, so it was like this odd but perfect combination of 2D and 3D. So although I really enjoyed it and liked it, it put it a little below Stepsister for me.
But to focus purely on Poisoned! *high fives self for guessing who the villain was* But yes, this book is an amazing mixture of Young Adult writing and fairy tale storytelling. It had a message that felt very important in today's time about how, like the summary says, kindness is the ultimate form of strength, and I really felt victorious watching Sophie make it through her tale by all her acts of kindness catching up to her and helping her along the way. I also felt the poison of society's words seeping into Sophie, and the sucky (good) thing was, I could sometimes see where they "anti-kindness" camp was coming from :/ Like, there is logic behind how they think, and it sort of made me ache for them, but also made me so happy when kindness still won out.
I really enjoyed the characters throughout this story, especially Will and a grave robber whose name escapes me at the moment. Sometimes it felt like the characters had too perfect a thing to say, which is probably part of what took it down to a somewhat 2D notch, but outside of those moments, they were still really great characters.
The story also had a fun way of treating its magic like magical realism. There was nothing big and flashy. There was just this random magical spider who could make silk that could do great things, and there were dwarves, and there were monsters, but the world didn't seem to see them as fantastical or magical. They just were, and then there was this whole other part of their world that was magical in the form of a Crow King and his sister, and somehow that mixture of the magical more feeling like magical realism and the bigger magical feeling like the fantastical created a very, well... magical feeling. And man, did I love the concepts done with the Crow King and his sister, especially since they were like the spirits found in Stepsister. Entities embodying things we all feel and experience.
The ending also made me super happy, because it left it open for more standalones stemming from this world, and I am completely here for it. Even if this book wasn't as much a hit out of the park as I felt Stepsister was, it was still a very enjoyable twist on the well-known tale.