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A Fierce and Subtle Poison
A Fierce and Subtle Poison
A Fierce and Subtle Poison
Audiobook6 hours

A Fierce and Subtle Poison

Written by Samantha Mabry

Narrated by Graham Hamilton

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

3/5

()

About this audiobook

In this stunning debut, legends collide with reality when a boy is swept into the magical, dangerous world of a girl filled with poison. Everyone knows the legends about the cursed girl--Isabel, the one the senoras whisper about. They say she has green skin and grass for hair, and she feeds on the poisonous plants that fill her family's Caribbean island garden. Some say she can grant wishes; some say her touch can kill. Seventeen-year-old Lucas lives on the mainland most of the year but spends summers with his hotel-developer father in Puerto Rico. He's grown up hearing stories about the cursed girl, and he wants to believe in Isabel and her magic. When letters from Isabel begin mysteriously appearing in his room the same day his new girlfriend disappears, Lucas turns to Isabel for answers--and finds himself lured into her strange and enchanted world. But time is running out for the girl filled with poison, and the more entangled Lucas becomes with Isabel, the less certain he is of escaping with his own life. A Fierce and Subtle Poison beautifully blends magical realism with a page-turning mystery and a dark, starcrossed romance--all delivered in lush, urgent prose. "A breathtaking story in which myths come to frightening life and buried wishes might actually come true. This is a hypnotic debut by a remarkable talent." -Nova Ren Suma, author of The Walls Around Us and Imaginary Girls
LanguageEnglish
Release dateApr 12, 2016
ISBN9781501919183
A Fierce and Subtle Poison

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Reviews for A Fierce and Subtle Poison

Rating: 3.1016948542372877 out of 5 stars
3/5

59 ratings13 reviews

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  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    fiction (set in modern Puerto Rico). A magical story that is alright once it gets going, but I think it would've been better with some editing--like a fairytale that improves with each practiced retelling. I'm not sure I'd have classed this as "teen fic" but that is what the library's spine label says--the main characters are teens, and some of the chapters are quick and suspenseful (with cliff-hanger endings) but other chapters drag when Lucas goes on his little detours (now I'm going to talk to my friends for a while, now I'm going to talk to my dad, now I'm going to go on a date with some random girl I'll never see again, now I'm going to go navel gaze even though my brain is largely empty of thoughts, now I'm going to absorb some of the local flavors of the island I live on) that might serve a purpose if Lucas actually progressed as a character (he doesn't really).
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Magical realism is not my genre. Mabry's prose is mostly lovely, and I felt her sultry, hurricane-torn Puerto Rico with all my senses. I think this is probably a Good Book. But I read with Middle School Brain most of the time, and my students mostly don't appreciate magical realism, either -- this is going to be too literary for almost any of them. The murder mystery doesn't pick up steam until way too far into the book, the magic is too subtle and unsubstantiated... there are probably older readers for this, so I think I will send it on to the high school.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I liked the book. I found it to be a quick read that really engages you from the start. I especially liked the rendering of the setting and hurricanes. The descriptions of the plants and of the mosquito infestation were so effective I felt itchy!If you've heard of it, I'm quite certain that this novel is meant to be a retelling of Hawthorne's short story "Rappaccini's Daughter." Once I figured that out -- about the time we meet Isabel for the first time -- I was reading the novel looking to see if the author did anything unusual or modern with the plotline. (It doesn't.)I'm not sure what to make of Lucas. It seems a little unusual to tell an anti-colonialism story from the perspective of the colonialist, and he only grapples with it a little bit. But then I wondered if this was because this is clearly aimed at teenagers and maybe this would be their first introduction to the idea of colonialism.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Seventeen-year-old Lucas Knight is the son of a rich developer and spends every summer at a hotel his father owns in San Juan, Puerto Rico. There, he grew up hearing stories about a house at the end of a certain street. It's said to be cursed. It's also said that a witch lives there, someone with the power to grant wishes, or to poison people, or both. And when Luke enters the house and meets a young woman there, he learns that at least some of the things they say about it are true. Meanwhile, girls keep vanishing from San Juan and only to be found drowned on the shore.I liked this one. It hooked me in very effectively right from the beginning. The magical elements are strange and interesting, and the writing is good, lacking the slightly stilted or superficial feel that YA writing sometimes seems to have. The Puerto Rican setting is used to very good effect, too.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I finished this audiobook but I was not very impressed with it. The overall plot was very slow-going and the main character was not very likable - he really got on my nerves actually. The plot follows a young boy during the summer months, he is living with his dad in Puerto Rico and pretty much has free reign to do anything because his dad is traveling. The boy, Lucas, gets involved with a young girl and a string of murders/appearances and finds himself the main suspect in the investigation. Now, normally I would feel sorry for any teen in this situation - wrong place, wrong time, but Lucas meddles through the whole thing even after being accused, you would think at that point he would straighten up and ask for help not dig the hole deeper. But that is what he does. He is also felt very arrogant and he seemed very un-emotional. While his is upset about the murders he also moves on from them very quickly...it was strange.I guess I just felt no real connection with him so it took what felt like forever to get through listening to this audiobook. The plot was interesting but very slow moving, there is a lot of information about the cursed girl and all that before it got into the real tale about her/ why she is important and how it all fits but it was done in a way that made the narrative drag on. I was just not feeling this one, it wasn't what I expected based on the synopsis, this one was not for me.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Lucas, considered an outsider in San Juan, has been getting tangled up in the lore of the island. He’s a half Puerto Rican, half American. He is disliked by the locals, and even more so by the police captain. Yet, he keeps getting drawn back into the island and the stories that make up her history. He meets Isabelle, half myth herself and very dangerous, and together they right a terrible wrong and quell the gods’ storms that have been brought upon the island. The tone is mysterious, like most magical realism titles. Pacing is steady, with few “storms” that make the plot push through.Initially, it was hard to me to get into the audiobook. I had been listening to it during morning commutes, and eventually tucked it away. I brought it back out, and then I got more into the story once the mythology of the island started to pour out of the narrative. I like magical realism, and this story is full of those elements -- old tales and half broken stories that have been passed down by word of mouth, fantastical elements like a girl with leaves for hair and green skin, and a good man who was driven to bad things by love. I had a hard time trying to understand Isabelle’s and Lucas’s character at times. It seemed like a retelling of a fairy tale but darker. But I enjoyed the mixture of the island’s lore and mythology combined with the Lucas’s point of view. It wasn’t a story about Isabelle, or Marisol, or even Lucas; it was a story about the island - how tales are forgotten and remembered, and how magic keeps them alive. It was a very enchanting tale, but it was full of clichés regarding the dichotomy of white versus native culture; these brought the story down a few notches, in my opinion. I would have appreciated an elaboration of this theme within the story (more detail regarding the complexities, not just stating that ‘everyone hated my dad because he was an outsider’, etc.), and think young adult readers would be able to as well.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    This audiobook didn't really work for me. I really wanted to like. I tried really hard to enjoy it...but it just was not for me. I was really excited about this book from the start since the summary sounds really good and that title. Too bad that it didn't live up to my expectations. I actually thought about just stopping this one a couple of times but I had to spend a couple of days in the car so I pushed myself to continue. I really should have went with my first instinct.I had a hard time connecting with the story at any level. I went in think that this was be a really unique and interesting piece. A story set in Puerto Rico with a girl filled with poison had all of the makings of a book that would be really exciting. It held my attention for the first part of the story as everything was being set into place but as the story moved forward, I found that I was losing interest. The mystery of the story just didn't feel as exciting as it really should have.I didn't care for any of the characters. Lucas was a rich boy who was more than a little spoiled. Things seemed to go his way no matter what. Isabel just seemed strange to me. I didn't feel bad for her even though she had lived an isolated life. I really just couldn't get myself to feel anything for any of the characters. I have to say that I am kind of on the fence regarding the narration. Graham Hamilton will not be making my favorite narrators list for this performance but I don't think that his narration took away from the story. I would have liked to hear a bit more emotion in his voice as he read the story but I thought he did a decent job. I would be willing to listen to this narrator on another work in the future.I am not going to be recommending this book to others. The characters and plot just really fell flat for me. It was a really imaginative idea that just didn't seem to work out in the end. I received a review copy of this book from Recorded Books via LibraryThing Early Reviewers program for the purpose of providing an honest review.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    A Fierce and Subtle Poison by Samantha Mabry is an interesting variation on the poisonous maiden story, in this case Hawthorne's short story Rappaccini's Daughter. I found the writing to be good but I was uncomfortable with some representations (some of the ways in which the bigotry of Lucas' father is shown crosses, for me, into being potentially offensive rather than just illustrative). I listened to the audio version and the narrator, Graham Hamilton, did a good job. I wasn't as carried away by his narration as I think I might have been had I read the book but I wasn't distracted by it either. I think what I am trying to say is that I feel the writing was stronger than the narration.The magical realism elements are by far the story's strongest positives. Mabry's descriptions are wonderful at establishing just the right atmosphere. In particular she creates different moods for different locations, which seems obvious but many writers who can write beautifully forget to shift tone when moving from, say, a magical place to a non-magical place and especially to an anti-magical place. I would recommend this to those interested in folklore and myths, not just Caribbean but any since the poisoned maiden is said to have originated in India. While it would certainly be an enjoyable read for teens I think it would be ideally suited to open discussion on bigotry, entitlement and other such issues raised in the story.Reviewed from a copy made available through Goodreads First Reads.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I listened to the audio book version of this story, and I think that may have been part of the reason I just couldn't get into it. The narration didn't engage me much, and I found my mind drifting often.I did enjoy the magical realism and tone of description, but otherwise, the writing seemed to fall flat. I wasn't invested in the characters all that much.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I listened to this book in audio and liked the narrator, Graham Hamilton. I liked the descriptions of the island, people and myths and did like listening to the story. But I do like stories to have a resolution and this is one of those stories that has a lot of magical mystery to the story and does not really have a resolution.So the main character went thru all this stuff and really ended up back at the same point. That is just not satisfying for me.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    I received a free copy of this audiobook for review through LibraryThing's Early Reviewer's Program.I tried reading it. I tried listening to it. The narrator sounded like he wasn't interested in the story either, which didn't help matters along. So I went back to reading it and discovered I had no vested interest in the narrator. Maybe it's just me. The main character was pretentious, arrogant, and spoiled. He was also vain, pompous, and hedonistic. And those were just his good qualities.DNF.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I requested this book as an ARC and was so excited to receive it. I'm a huge fan of magical realism and I started it just a few days after it came in the mail.I couldn't put the book down. I read it all in one day, and never felt like I was muddling through or forcing myself to keep going. I would consider this an excellent introduction to magical realism - for those who aren't sure they want to dive face-first into a GGM, Murakami, or Allende, this would be a great trial. The book itself isn't short, but it moves quickly and is an "easy" read, grabbing you and keeping you interested from the very beginning. It doesn't delve into the political issues that you find with some of the other authors, and so it focuses entirely on plot, mystery, a little bit of crime, and some magic. It's a perfect mix for younger readers to get them started.The *only* complaint I have about this book is that I felt the relationships - not necessarily the characters themselves - needed to be fleshed out a bit more. I would have gladly read about the relationship between Lucas and his friends/Marisol for 50 more pages so that I felt there was an actual reason that Lucas would be so haunted by this girl's disappearance. Lucas himself is not a deep character, and therefore his total obsession with finding a girl he...uhh...'hangs out with' twice seems a little unfounded - especially because he moves from girl to girl so quickly. Including Marisol.Despite this, I find myself still picking up the book and going back to some of the passages even days after I've finished. I give this author a huge amount of credit for creating such a beautiful and compelling story that can still be read in a day. Most books that I finish that quickly I forget about within days of putting it down. However with this one, I've found I haven't been able to start another book yet, since I'm still not quite over this one!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    All I can say is "wow"! I was intrigued but a little dubious at first about this book but wanted to give it a shot. I am glad that I did because it turned out to be a very original and lyrical story that is different from anything I have read before. I had assumed it would be a fantasy novel with magic galore but it is much more than that. There is the sense of fables and myths but also a murder mystery. I like the fact that the main protagonist is male and also that the book takes place in Puerto Rico about which I knew next to nothing. Young girls are disappearing and it is up to seventeen year old Lucas to find out how the legend of a cursed girl with green skin and grass for hair fits into the mystery.I received a copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley (thank you so much!) for free in exchange for an honest review.