The Poisons We Drink was a good book with an interesting concept and magic system, even if sometimes it was a bit confusing. It touches important topics too, such as discrimination, racism, oppression, politics, etc. So why a low rating? Because my problem was with the characters. I couldn't fully connect with them, and some of them irritated me, especially Venus' sister. Consequently, I didn't care for them and that penalized the reading. But being a debut novel it was still a great story.

Loved this. Can’t get behind this enough. Magic and a world where it’s forbidden is my total jam. I cant wait for it to be released into the world and everyone to enjoy it too!

The Poisons We Drink by Bethany Baptiste is a brilliant fantasy debut.
The story is centred on a Witcher named Venus Stoneheart and her family. Venus works as an illegal brewer of potions in a community where humans and witchers are divided. Venus finds herself out of her depths, as she is forced to brew potions for the Grand Witcher’s political gain.

I really enjoyed The Poisons We Drink. The characters were likeable and relatable and the world building was brilliant. I found it hard to put this book down, although I did find it was a little longer than it needed to be. I enjoyed all the twists and turns, many of which I did not expect. I would recommend The Poisons We Drink to fantasy enthusiasts and I look forward to reading future books by Bethany Baptiste.

I really enjoyed this book but I'm not sure YA is quite the right description for it. Although the main character is only 18, the book includes quite a lot of graphic descriptions, especially of injuries. Some of them really made me cringe so would likely be a bit much for a young teen audience. It also includes a sex scene, and while this scene is fairly short and not very detailed, it may not be suitable for younger audiences.

Beyond this, the story was brilliant and so gripping. I loved all the representation in this book - more Black-led fantasy please! The way that queer characters were dealt with was fantastic - there were no lengthy explanations or big songs and dancing, the characters were there and they were accepted. It was really refreshing to see they/them pronouns used for an important character too.

I'm a big fan of the magic system in this book, even more so because it is explained well and without loads of info dumping. It's incredibly well-thought-out and makes sense. The only thing I wanted more clarity on was the idea of deviations as I'm still slightly confused by this, but overall, everything was done really well.

I loved the layered mystery in this book and that I was never sure what was going to happen next. Venus really does get put through the wringer! Some of the pacing seemed slightly off to me though and that really impacted the end. At some points a lot of things happened within a single day, spanning several chapters but at other points we'd jump past several days. The ending seemed to happen so much quicker than expected and I think more time being spent on the big reveal and ending would have made sense and added to the suspense.

The book is great as a standalone but also has the opportunity to be developed into a series, and I really won't be mad if it is. I'd be excited to see how the world develops and how Venus grows as a character after all that she's been through.

I would like to thank the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to read and honestly review an advanced reader’s copy of this book.

I absolutely tore through the first 35% of this book. I loved the magic system, I was so interested in the potion brewing and the deviations and
And then the plot just kind of… meandered a bit. I found it very hard to keep my focus. I don’t know if it was the pacing, or just the story elements not coming together, but it just dragged and dragged.

Don’t get me wrong. This is a well written story, reflecting real world issues. I just don’t think I’m the target audience for this. If you want an intriguing magic system, immersive writing, and characters that fuck up a lot, this might work for you!

Venus Stoneheart belongs to belongs to a magical community that’s oppressed by the state, so she has to keep her potion brewing under the radar—she isn’t able to give it up, despite the risk and the debilitating consequences of brewing because she needs to support her family. The best thing about this book was the worldbuilding. The magic system is so cool, and very complex (there are certain aspects that stop making sense if you think about them too hard so I just. Didn’t think about them too hard).

I think this would have been a solidly four star book for me if the prose didn’t make it insufferable to read. So many paragraphs were a single line long. When used in moderation this can go a lot of vary or speed up the pacing, but it happened so. Much. That it ended up feeling jerky and repetitive. Eventually I gave up and skim-read so I could know how to story worked out without paying too much attention to the actual words.

I’ve seen some other reviews quibbling over whether it’s ‘age appropriate’ for teenagers — yes, it is. Suitable for teenagers doesn’t mean suitable for ALL teenagers, and kids that aren’t ready or don’t want to deal with certain topics, including violence or non-graphic sex (no genitals are shown, it’s about the feelings not the actions, also it takes up literally a single page of space), can decide that based on the content warnings. Certainly, none of this would have phased fifteen-year-old me, and the discussion around racism, state violence and mental illness are important ones.

The Poisons We Drink by Bethany Baptiste is a compelling tale that seamlessly weaves together elements of magic, societal injustice, and familial devotion.

At its heart lies Venus, a resilient protagonist who navigates the treacherous waters of a magical world eerily reminiscent of our own.
As a brewer of illicit love potions, Venus strives to support her family.

Through poignant backstory and vivid world-building, Bethany Baptiste immerses us in a realm where prejudice and discrimination lurk at every corner, echoing the stark realities of our own society.

What sets The Poisons We Drink apart is its thought-provoking exploration of themes deeply rooted in contemporary issues. With poignant parallels to modern-day racism and echoes of historical atrocities like the Holocaust, the story invites readers to confront uncomfortable truths.

Yet, amidst the darkness, there is hope embodied by Venus’s unwavering determination to protect her loved ones. Her journey becomes a poignant homage to the resilience of those forced to mature prematurely in the face of adversity.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and can’t wait to see what Bethany Baptiste writes next.

Thank you for granting me early access to this novel. Right off the bat, it's a very easy novel to get into, I enjoyed the character development, they're all very distinct, even the side characters are memorable. My problem with this book isn't the plot it's more about the magic, I had problems understanding or believing the magic, it didn't seem powerful or impactful enough, it's almost like the characters were strong enough to carry on fighting without magic and it would have still worked. Maybe it's just a me thing. Looking forward to seeing more opinions when it hits the shelves.

Thank you NetGalley for the E-arc in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed the world that Bethany Baptiste created within this book, the world and the magic system were super complex and inventive. I especially loved the relationship that Venus had with her family, no matter what happened Venus was there to help and protect those around her, and her family was there for Venus no matter what.

I really want to thank Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to review The Poisons We Drink.

The Poisons We Drink by Bethany Baptiste is a story that tells a very important tale. The plot surrounds a society of witches and humans, separated by a few strands of DNA, but creating a big divide between the two groups. Because of the innate magic that witches have the humans are afraid of them and choosing to turn that hate into violence and actions against them.

The story follows a young witch named Venus who is the primary brewer of love related potions for her family - bringing in most of their income. The rest of her family all have their own issues going on, but Venus is also dealing with keeping a deadly force within her bottled up. As things get more and more dangerous with political friction between witches and humans, Venus gets pulled into the inner mechanisms due to the aftereffects of her family's decisions. And Venus ends up having to make some difficult decisions to keep what means most to her.

This book was a difficult one to read. It was definitely a good book, and the message is really important. But reading it, the animosity and friction is palpable from the first page. It made it a very hostile read. And as this was an advanced copy I really hope that all the typos and formatting issues will be resolved by the time it goes to print - there were a lot!

Overall, while it was difficult to get into, I really do think this has an important message and the plot is good. I will probably continue with this series, since I'm invested in the main characters. (A lot happened in this book!) But sadly it wasn't my favourite read so far this year.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I really wanted to love this, but that just didn't happen. 😭 It's not that it wasn't nicely written, but a lot of elements didn't do it for me. However, I'm not part of the targeted audience, so this is only my humble experience...

It's told by the perspective of our main character, Venus Stoneheart, who after losing her mother has to care for her younger sister and survive the political warzone of Washington DC. Venus was a stubborn, dedicated heroine who prioritizes her sister in everything. She struggled against her mother's never-ending expectations and later against her death. She also struggled against her own deviation-a sentient contamination of her magic. Her inner turmoil made us root for her, but to be honest, seeing so many "it" in italics was distracting and annoying. I wish the team had made a different choice about how to refer to that deviation. I was also dumbfounded at how naive she was, at how easily she believed in what she was told by certain people.

While Venus was an okay main character, I'm afraid that the rest of the cast was not, especially her younger sister, Janus. I just couldn't tolerate her. She was a selfish and talked the big game, how they all needed to do the right thing and how she could handle anything with her magic, but when a frightening powerful person of their community was at their house, she shook in fear...

But for me, it was the discrepancies. The language was typical YA, one that Black teens could use, if my experience isn't way too far off. I wasn't bothered neither by the swearing (have people heard how teenagers talk these days? lmao) or by sex scene (which wasn't reeeeeally on page and it didn't get into specifics). Both Venus and Janus had the personalities of teenagers, but the themes of the story and their actions weren't about teenagers. Sure, it's fantasy, but how would a teen be responsible for paying for her sister's tuition when there's a living, working uncle as their guardian? I'm sorry but I just couldn't stop thinking about that while I read the book. There was a lot of such things about the sisters that didn't make sense to me.

The worldbuilding was very intriguing. Witchers who brew potions and have different disciplines meaning a brewer could only brew one type of potions is so cool! But I was so confused. It felt like we went back and forth with some information being repeated and some information being said once and then forgotten. There were lots of things I was confused about, and as I struggled to understand how the magic system worked and how their society worked, at the same time, I struggled to keep up with the many characters we kept meeting. It was information overload for me, and I was left confused and frustrated-mainly because I wanted to understand but couldn't keep up with it all. Just understanding who Venus' father was and who Janus' father was was a struggle, and the actual explanation came around 30%....

What I did like was how the author reflected today's society and handled themes such as oppression, discrimination, racism, political control, extortion, mental illness, and family issues. I think it was done really well, and it made me want to like and understand the book even more.

Overall, The Poisons We Drink is a thrilling YA fantasy that could resonate with many Black teens and inspire them. People are entitled to their opinions, and while it wasn't for me, we shouldn't forget the target audience, and that's Black teens, and I believe they could enjoy this book.

I wasn’t sure this is a ya book - great story totally different to my normal read - liked the fact that witches and humans were separated , underlying story of having to bring up younger sister but it was for me a little too grown up to be ya that aside well done 👍🏻

**60% DNF (counting towards my reading goal because I got past 50%)
***Thanks to net galley for providing me an arc of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Sad to say this is my first DNF of the year 😔

I see myself enjoying this book later on, and maybe I'm just not in the mood to read it, and in 2024, I'm not forcing myself to read something that I'm not really enjoying.

While reading this book I didn't really ever understand what was going on, I think it might have been the writing style, it felt a little clunky to me. I also didn't really connect to the characters.

However, the story line was interesting, and I thought that the representation was pretty good, and the way she wrote discrimination, was also nice to see.

Honestly I don't really have too much to say about this book, I have all but forgotten all that I read of it.

I think that you should give this book a go, It seems that majority of people liked this book, but I was in the minority that just.. didn't.

Thank you to the author and publisher for 5he opportunity to read this ARC, via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The Poisons We Drink is a fantastic read, I found it a refreshing twist on magic. For me, I struggled a bit to keep up with the character POV changes but, it is gripping read. I hope there’s a sequel,

Thank you to NetGalley for providing an advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

I was super excited to read this ARC as I'm always on the hunt for diverse fantasy and the premise of this book sounded exactly like the kind of story I would want/do read. An urban fantasy with diverse characters and gritty social-political commentary on real-world issues, plus, a stunning cover - what's not to love! Unfortunately, I didn't love it... at all.

To start, The Posions We Drink is marketed as YA which, in my opinion, is not the correct readership. I get that the YA label is an easier sell, but this book should have been a New Adult. The characters are not facing the kind of issues typical of a YA, the FMC is an established character whose main issue is dealing with providing financially for her family and protecting them whilst navigating political and criminal organizations in a world that is weighted with metaphors of real-life systems of oppression. I'm not saying YA readers can't read this material, I just don't see how that's the target audience. There is also frequent swearing, graphic violence, and sexual content - nothing egregious (I've read far worse) but, again, arguably not appropriate to be aimed at YA readers.

Secondly, the writing itself reads as very amateur. I understand this is a debut and an ARC, both of which could be contributing to the problem, but there is a number of copyedit issues. Such as: typos and awkward phrasing and repetitive prose. Beyond the opening chapter, which was very good, the rest of the book read like an early draft.

Thirdly, the storytelling is rough. The pacing is all over the place with long bouts of needless dialogue and interiority then back-to-back action interrupted by more clunky descriptions and dialogue. The book was just non-stop irregular pacing. Character development was also next to nothing, the FMC (and supporting cast) barely changed over the course of the entire book, despite the surplus of external circumstances that could have easily pushed character growth. The plot itself was also very predictable, even with the erratic story beats. I ended up checking the page count to see how much I had left to get through instead of hoping it wouldn't end.

Lastly, the worldbuilding... Ouch. The worldbuilding in the story had SO much potential and yet, it was so badly executed. Every chapter started with an excerpt from an article or a potion or the like outlining some aspect of the worldbuilding and magic system instead of having that information organically being fed to the reader through the story itself. This resulted in me literally skimmed and retaining none of that information whatsoever. Additionally, within the story, the worldbuilding isn't woven in but wedged into scenes via long-winded and clunky explanations. Honestly, the worldbuilding was the biggest disappointment because I really wanted this cool concept of a magic system/worldbuilding mirroring real-world social-political issues and discrimination to work.

Overall, The Posions We Drink, was a huge miss for me. It had all the pieces to make a great diverse fantasy but unfortunately the execution really failed to bring this original and fresh idea to life.a

"This was the life of a brewer. To be broken and put back together".

After a long time I read a book about witches. It was so amazing and stunning. This book is so starters friendly for anyone who would like to read a 🧙‍♀️ themed book for the first time. Every new term or potion explained in details was definitely a plus point.

🤺 (action): 5/5
🔮(witchcraft): 3/5
🔎(mystery/plots): 5/5
🔥 (spice): 1/5
😂 (humour): 3/5

This book is set in world of witches and humans, where humans try to politically undermine the witches out of the communities. The story revolves around this girl venus who is a love potion brewer with a curse type of ability/power called "It" . The brewing of potions is basically the business of her family. Each has their different abilities. The business is mainly ruled by her mother. The story gets captive when suddenly her mother gets murdered.

I enjoyed everything about this book. Each aspect and theme where perfectly balanced. The characters were all perfect, my favorite is definitely 'It".

Thank you so much netgalley for this amazing book.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this eARC of 'The Poisons We Drink' by Bethany Baptiste.

'The Poisons We Drink' by Bethany Baptiste has such a cute cover I knew I had to read this and thank goodness I did. I really enjoyed the writing style and I felt like it resembled some of my favourite YA books in that sense. But the characters and the plot? To me, that's what makes this book a stunner. However, I do feel like the ending of this story was a bit of a let down but that didn't ruin the overall book for me.

Witches have been revealed to the world, but despite their power face a human population who hates and fears them. Venus is using her magic to support her family, brewing love potions that come at a cost. The world building here is intense, and I was gripped by the detailed magic system. Overall this is quite an intense book, but not in a bad way - I devoured it cover to cover.

I received a copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review

The Poisons We Drink is a dark, action packed queer magical realism book and a great time.

Venus is a young witch brewing illegal love potions in contemporary Washington DC, trying to just carve out a living and stay out of trouble. This is a lot easier said than done as increasingly political and physical discrimation against magickind threatens her and her family's safety.

She ends up drawn into a plot by the grand witcher to make some key politicians fall in love with the idea of not passing a new registration act which will make life even harder for Venus and her community. However, in a city of violence and deceit, carrying out her mission is far easier said than done.

I was never bored in this book. Action rolled into action and I fiercely cared about Venus and her family who read to me as authentic and loving.

I was sometimes a bit lost though. The glossary (at the end in my e-arc) would have been more helpful at the start to keep track of the magic system. There wasn't the usual plot device of a character who is new to the world to have things explained through which meant that I didn't manage to learn everything securely enough to be sure of what was happening throughout.

However, I did really enjoy this book overall. I especially loved the queer representation and the gorgeous messy family at the heart of the story. If you're looking for a fresh dark fantasy, this might be the book for you!

I was really excited to receive this ARC because the premise sounded really interesting. However, for me the execution was just okay.

Throughout the book there were several examples of times where the author repeated whole sentences/words/phrases, in a way that stalled the flow of the text and resulted in clunky prose. As a result, I found myself focusing more on the writing than the story itself which is a shame.

I think a lot of people will enjoy this book but it just wasn’t for me. An okay read where I didn’t fully connect with the characters.