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.

Venus Stoneheart is a witcher who brews love potions, in a world that mistrusts witches & their potions and that’s all you’re getting as no spoilers here!

This story is fun, well paced, steeped in magic and intrigue. It’s a strong debut novel and I hope to see more from Bethany Baptise

The Poisons We Drink is a YA urban fantasy that has an interesting premise and real, messy characters.

It centres around Venus - a young woman who brews love potions - in a world where Witchers first became public knowledge at the turn of the millennium and have faced prejudice and discrimination ever since.

I loved Venus as a character. She wasn't always a likeable character, but she was always an understandable one - even at her angriest and messiest, when she was making mistakes, I still understood why she felt that way and did what she did. This is not always an easy thing to pull off but Baptise manages it and leaves me rooting for Venus throughout.

I also found this magic system and world to be really interesting, in particular what Baptise did with the concept of love potions. Yes, they can make someone fall in love with you as expected, but they can also be used for all the many different types of love, such as familial love or to make someone fall in love with an idea. Baptise also leans hard into the 'magic always has a price' concept with her potions (the recoil of which can kill a brewer) and this really added to the stakes of Venus' decisions.

I've seen that this book was originally intended as a duology but had to be edited into a standalone and though Baptise has done a good job cutting it down (which must have been a difficult task) and it does works as a standalone, I can't help but think it may have suffered slightly because of this. There are times when it feels like it was jumping around between scenes at an odd pace or racing through things, and I would have liked to have spent more time letting the characters breathe, seeing more of their relationships and their world. There's also a lot of backstory and a large cast of characters that can be a little hard to keep straight and I feel this could have been improved by being able to spend more time on them.

Overall though, this was still a great story that had me hooked throughout and made me love the characters, even at their worst.

"Has history taught us nothing? Old worlds must be burnt for new worlds to rise. You cannot want a revolution and fear its fire. Everything must burn."

A wonderful debut with complex diverse characters, great world building rooted in reality and a fresh magic system makes this a contemporary fantasy to lose yourself in.

One of the best things about this book is the vivid voice of the author which resonates throughout, the use of their emotions, their own experiences makes the read even more realistic. The real life connections about racism, bigotry, political power, classism and the fight for rights is handled with nuance and depth.

The characters are equally as dynamic, Venus is a great, well crafted main character who is struggling to navigate a society rife with discrimination, prejudice and political turmoil. She's is strong, loyal and battling her inner demons. Her inner struggle against her dark sentient magic and the weight of familial responsibilities adds another layer of realism to the narrative and enriches the story.

Thank you NetGalley for the eARC

An interesting urban fantasy book, with strong African American lead characters.

This was a good read, albeit a bit long-winded and slow in some places. The characters were quite complex, and sometimes, due to age and immaturity, seemed to make rash decisions.

The concept was good of being a brewer of magical potions and there being a negative effect. However, there didn't seem to be too much of an effect on other types of magic, which seems a bit harsh on the poor brewers.

I really liked the familiars, but they did seem very underutilised as a resource in a lot of ways by the main character, in particular. I feel like many answers could have been had if Venus had asked her familiar to show her more things like Clarissa did.

Definitely recommend.

Set in a world not too dissimilar to our own Venus Stoneheart is a witcher who brews love potions, in a world that mistrusts witches & their potions.

This is a stunning YA debut, this novel is fun, authentic & well paced, steeped in magic & political intrigue. If you like fantasy, well developed & diverse characters, unique magic systems or just a damn good read, this is definitely worth your time. I’ll be looking for more from Bethany Baptiste in the future.

What a brilliant debut novel! The Poisons We Drink is definitely a page-turner, filled with plot twists and intriguing characters.

The Poisons We Drink follows potion-brewer Venus and her loved ones, while they face tragic events, difficult assignments and complicated relationships. The story is set in America in 2023 and that decision makes it feel all the more actual. It has so many parallels to today's world, while still being set in a beautifully-built new reality.

I particularly loved discovering more and more details about the magic system and the Witchers society, with unexpected developments and novel takes on potion-brewing. The details of the effects of magic on each character, the way each witcher chooses specialties, the use of magical bonding in a variety of ways, the way familiars are waved into the story... I was so intrigued to find out more page after page.

The last 200 pages are especially full of surprises and I could barely put the book down! The ending was satisfyingly unexpected, which added to what was already a very enjoyable read.

I definitely recommend The Poisons We Drink to anyone who loves novel magic systems, plot twists, layered family dynamics and dark urban fantasy stories. Can't wait for this novel to be released to get a physical copy for my bookshelf!

Thank you NetGalley and Sourcebooks UK for giving me the chance to read this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I am a sucker for a story about witches, and this one was a really good one!

Venus Stoneheart is a witch, living in a version of the US where witches and humans are divided by hatred and prejudice. She is also a brewer of love potions, a trade which just so happens to be illegal.

The potions Venus brews are ethically iffy, to say the least, but I liked that the story was very upfront about the fact that sometimes people are forced to make less than desirable choices in order to survive, but that it doesn’t necessarily make them bad people.

I thought the little excerpts from Witcherpedia and other places at the beginning of the chapters were a fantastic way to world build. Very early on I felt like I had a clear picture of what this world was like and how it operated.

There is some spicy stuff in this book but, given the story feels very much aimed at the older end of YA, I personally felt like this was handled in an age-appropriate way.

Venus is a very damaged and angry young woman but she is also compassionate and loyal and she loves those around her deeply. She made stupid, and sometimes terrible, decisions and still remained incredibly likeable.

Definitely recommend you to read this book, the magic system is so unique that I struggle to draw comparisons to anything else I’ve read recently.

The story is heavily steeped in deep lore, originality and magical elements, which truly show the author’s creativity and charm. I wish we could have seen more of these aspects, like make-dos, magical artefacts and other character’s gifts, earlier on as they were really captivating. Chapters began with excerpts of articles, books, letters etc, which reminded me of Fourth Wing and really helped to flesh out your understanding as a reader.

The world Bethany Baptiste weaves is rich in black culture, history and sociological commentary, the parallels between the plight of witchers in her society and POC in our own is enlightening and thought provoking. Especially so with the rights movement and the ample blood spilled and lives lost on the road to freedom. The representation for realistic and true to life ethnicities, cultures, genders and sexualities was refreshing, particularly within a fantasy book.

It did take a while for me to get immersed into the book, I would say around at 50% things took a turn and I finished the rest in one sitting.

Thank you Sourcebooks for providing this ARC for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

In a world which is characterized by an uneasy coexistence of sorts between humans and those with magical powers, known as witchers, Venus Stoneheart belongs in the latter category. But more concerned with ensuring the survival of her family than with the wider power plays underway, Venus brews and trades in love potions, despite the considerable challenges and personal costs of doing so.

Until a bullet takes her mother's life and everything changes for Venus. She must decide whether looking after her volatile younger sister Janus is enough for to her to contend with, or whether she will take up the offer (with strings, of course) made by the head of her coven, which will give her the opportunity to see revenge on her mother's killer.

The only problem is, in order to do so, Venus must trade in the already dangerous occupation of making the forbidden love potions for the even more dangerous task of brewing toxic libations that will enslave those who imbibe them - in this case, the target group consisting of politicians in DC...

This is an imaginative story featuring unusually nuanced world building. The drama and danger involved in Venus's forbidden activities, and the ratcheting up that results from her desire for revenge, keep the story moving forward, and hold the reader's interest in the process.

The magical system can feel a little unnecessarily complex at times, with its detailed and rigid rules. There are also some graphic descriptions in the story. But the family dynamics are very well conveyed, and the characters are interesting. Recommended for fantasy book lovers. It gets 3.5 stars.