I received this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
The Poisons We Drink by Bethany Baptiste Published by Sourcebooks on March 5, 2024
Genres: Young Adult / Fantasy / Urban, Young Adult / Fantasy & Magic, Young Adult Fiction / Action & Adventure / General, Young Adult Fiction / Dystopian, Young Adult Fiction / Fantasy / Wizards & Witches
Pages: 592
Format: ARC
ISBN: 9781464221323In 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. Keeping her reckless little sister Janus safe is now her responsibility. When the powerful Grand Witcher, the ruthless head of her coven, offers Venus the chance to punish her mother's killer, she has to pay a steep price for revenge. The cost? Brew poisonous potions to enslave D.C.'s most influential politicians.
As Venus crawls deeper into the corrupt underbelly of her city, the line between magic and power blurs, and it's hard to tell who to trust...Herself included. The Poisons We Drink is a potent YA debut about a world where love potions are weaponized against hate and prejudice, sisterhood is unbreakable, and self-love is life and death.
While I absolutely loved this novel, it took me a while to really get into it. The inciting action of the story, the murder of Venus’s mom, doesn’t happen till about 20% into the book. A couple of chapters later, when the Grand Witcher offers Venus revenge, that the story starts becoming interesting. To clarify, the story leading up to that part wasn’t bad, but with how the summary is written, I thought the murder would happen sooner.
Everything else about the novel was amazing!! I love how the magic system worked, especially where using/brewing magic has a cost to the user. The limits on magic in the novel made it more believable when there were set backups. Not to compare it to other magic systems, but the endless power that is present in other fantasy novels makes problems seem too easy to solve. With this, Venus has to make sure her power isn’t drained, along with keeping control of her deviation. Venus has so much pressure on her shoulders as an older sister and all the expectations her mom, Clarissa, laid out for her that watching her grow over the novel to realize that relying on others isn’t a weakness was wonderful to read.
The side characters were completely fleshed out as well. Janus, Venus’s sister, had such a typical big sis, lil’ sis relationship that felt so familiar at times to my relationship with my big sister. It’s not perfect but it was so real, plus, at the end of the day, they both truly love the other. Along with Janus, we have Tyrell, Venus’s cousin, and Presley, Venus’s love interest playing leading roles in the novel. Tyrell was so much fun, but he wasn’t only comic relief for the rest of them. There were many times were Tyrell had to give Venus some hard truths. I love love love the nonbinary representation we have with Presley. Venus and Presley’s relationship is multi-faceted as both have so much trauma from their own lives and childhood, and they care so much for each other but don’t know if the love they have for one another will survive what happens. I definitely appreciate Presley being nonbinary wasn’t some big deal, it just was.
The story itself was so compelling, especially with our current political climate. I fear that what is present in this novel will come to pass in some areas of the country. The murder mystery wasn’t the only issue going on but the political drama threaded through the whole story is a commentary on what is going on with BIPOC, queer, Arab, and other minorities. I was actually surprised by the ending and totally bought the red herring suspect. It was great to see how all the characters weren’t necessarily all bad or all good but shades of grey.
What a stunning cover. Glad it was a great read!