20/4/24: removing my rating. this author was revealed to be one of many psueds of taylor barton/taylor brookes/brooklyn ray/jupiter wyse/saint harlowe. a brownfacing bully and serial harrasser.

The Poisons We Drink by Bethany Baptiste

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adventurous challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

4.5

this is an urban fantasy ya featuring angry black girl magic. it’s on the upper ya side of the spectrum for me. if na were used in trad pub, imo this is na not ya (which is prob why i enjoyed it).

i liked the world building and how it was informed by the real world - racism and segregation and shitty politicians to name a few elements. i also really liked the portrayal of generation trauma in a way - the failures of adults inherited by their children, the secrets of the people that were supposed to protect the kids, affecting them and becoming the kids’ burdens.

this also features an f/nb b-plot romance! is it a relationship that’s a good idea? not particularly and they both know it. it’s very secondary, tertiary even.

but i did have a few issues in the execution. the pacing was quite choppy and felt like there were too much back and forth with oh we figured it out, oh never mind, here’s the real, real culprit. there were also a few elements that i may have missed but didn’t feel resolved or wrapped up enough for me. especially as this is a standalone. the open-ish ending makes sense for the story there were just a few loose details that felt forgotten with all the different threads that did run through this.

but overall, a really good debut (and a fab cover!!. it’s a rough read at times, it’s dark, it’s very real - magic aside. vaguely reminiscent of the general vibes of HELL FOLLOWED WITH US - angry kids trying to reclaim their lives.

thank you sourcebooks uk for the review copy

Voyage of the Damned by Frances White

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adventurous funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

this a super fun debut! funny, tense, mysterious, and dark. and dee is a fantastic disaster bisexual gremlin narrator. this was a bad book to read during my commute only because of the number of times i almost missed my stop because i wanted to keep reading 😂

a little murder, a little romance, some accidental child acquisition (or did the child acquire the adult) found family, and an unravelling of secrets and questioning of the established ways of being in this world.

the general setting and plot reminded me of part of the dark continent arc in Hunter x Hunter (my fave manga of all time) but only in the most basic sense. the main mystery plot as well as the subplots including the romantic one were all well laid out and engaging. the characters, though most of them are not ones you want to root for, are dynamic and evolve as detective dee works the case.

some parts were predictable but there were some twists that got me. and some of the journeys to a twist i had a feeling about but i couldn’t figure out were also ‘aha’ moments.

the last quarter felt a tad rushed, i found a bit of a pacing issue between certain plot points, but that’s only being super nitpicky.

super excited for more of white’s work!

thank you to the penguin michael joseph for the review copy.

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escapistlit's reviews 367 reviews

escapistlit's reviews
367 reviews