In a country divided between humans and witchers, Venus Stoneheart hustles as a brewer making illegal love potions to support her family. Love potions is a dangerous business. Brewing has painful, debilitating side effects, and getting caught means death or a prison sentence. But what Venus is most afraid of is the dark, sentient magic within her. Then an enemy's iron bullet kills her mother, Venus's life implodes.
Plot
This book was an absolute rollercoaster ride! There is a bit of a slow start as the large cast of characters and magic system are introduced, but once the pacing picks up, hold on. There are tons of twists and surprises, even twists within twists that I never saw coming. Moreover, the ending was satisfying and exciting and best of all, ended with all the plot lines tied up but not perfectly. I won’t spoil anymore but I closed the book and breathed a sigh of relief for Venus and her family.
Characters
Venus was a great protagonist. I loved seeing her grow from a young girl who wants to stay out of politics to a radicalized powerhouse of a witch as her family is repeatedly threatened. There is a huge cast of characters to keep track of, but they all serve an important function in the story. Because there are so many, though, there’s less room for each character to be fully fleshed out and go through their own development. Particularly, I would have loved to see Venus’s love interest be a bit more well-rounded by the end of the book, but I understand why they weren’t from a writing perspective.
Setting
This story is set in our contemporary world with some magical changes that reflect real life racial and social situations. Particularly, the author’s choice to make witchers an allegory for racial discrimination and violence was powerful. It was well done! My only complaint about the world-building was that the magic system was a bit too complicated for a standalone book of this length. There are a lot of technical rules the reader must learn early on in the book which slows the pacing down in the few first chapters.
My Recommendation
The Poisons We Drink is Bethany Baptiste’s debut novel and she’s clearly made a name for herself with this strong, poignant young adult fantasy novel. The allegories for real-world struggles were powerful and the story was full of wild twists that left me flipping through the pages. Venus, the main character, was beautifully developed. However, I would have liked to see more develop of the secondary characters and a more simplistic magic system to keep the pacing flowing early on. I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for more Baptiste in bookstores soon.
