Review: A Fierce and Subtle Poison

Review:

I received a copy from Netgalley.

I honestly don't quite know what to make of this one. On the one hand, there were lots of things about it I loved - the writing was brilliant, vivid and evocative. The plot was compelling, the mystery was aspect gave an incredible edge to the novel, and the setting and mythology were fantastic. My biggest problem with it was that I just hated the main character, Lucas.

Lucas is the son of a very rich developer dad who's quite happy to tear down beautiful old buildings to make room for new modern hotels. The dad is your typical rich businessman - money focused and doesn't give a crap about the locals. Even when the girl's start going missing and its clear Lucas knows one of them - quite well - the dad is completely indifferent. Where Lucas does make an effort to make friends with some of the local kids, dates the local girls without little thought, immerses himself in the strange mythology he hears about a local legend involving a house on a corner full of strange plants and a witch who lives there who may or may not grant wishes and a mad scientist that once lived there.

But Lucas is also the butt of everyone's anger, when he and his friends get in trouble, he's the one who takes the fall, the police only seem to arrest him. It sounded like, at least to me, a lot of rich white boy problems. Which were more eye roll inducing than anything.

Girls start disappearing, and there's a connection to the strange house and legends surrounding the house. The old ladies of the neighbourhood have plenty of stories to tell to anyone who will listen, warnings about curses, gods and such. Lucas gets quite tangled in trying to solve the mystery and finds himself meeting a strange girl who lives in the house - Isabel. But nothing is what it seems.

There's quite a dark overall tone to the novel, more girls start disappearing and things get more and more twisted, Isabel's world inside the house is strange and she herself has some pretty dark secrets. It's quite twisty turny and the plot is totally unpredictable. The brilliance of the story telling make the novel hard to put down and it was like, I have to know what's going to happen, in spite of the fact I didn't really like any of the characters.

Definitely an author I would read again.

Thank you to Netgalley and Algonquin Young Readers for approving my request to view the title.

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