Book Review: Poison Study (Study #1)

 

Poison Study

Maria V. Snyder

Overall: 3/5

Plot and themes: 2/5

Characters: 3/5

Writing style: 2/5

Attention-grabbing: 4/5

Poison Study is the first book in the Study series/Chronicles of Ixia. Yelena is on death row, awaiting the noose for a murder which she feels completely justified for. Right at her final hour she's offered a different solution; become the poison tester for the Commander. This would give her an extended lifespan and leave her survival up to the perfection of her own skills. This works well for her until her past catches up to her and she rallies herself to save others from a similar violence.

I read it about eight or ten years ago and was really invested in the series, while I still enjoyed this read and think that anyone who's doing a reread who liked it originally would still like it but would see quite a few problems with the story. For one thing, it's obviously written as more of a YA story but deals with sexual assault in a way that kind of minimizes the trauma and significance of that. It definitely feels like a debut novel with the weak developed of a kingdom supposedly based on the equality of all individuals but allowing its most susceptible members to be consistently abused and then punished for standing up for themselves. 

I'm a fan of Valek and Yelena out of pure loyalty from my 13 year old self at this point. I had somehow blotted the fact that she's 19 and a victim of severe traumas and he's 33 in a position of ultimate power out of my head. It's not the worst example of this kind of thing that I've ever seen in YA, but it's a little questionable especially considering how he trains her through the first seventy percent of the book. Again, I'm still a fan and I recognize that this isn't the best but also you know it is what it is. 

I did appreciate the conclusion to an extent because I think there was a lot of consistency with the separate characterizations. The Commander remains a genocidal maniac, Valek remains loyal to that, and Yelena continues to defend herself and those around her. There were some flaws with it but I still think it was nicely tied up. I don't know if I'm recommending this series at this point but I'm definitely loving it for the nostalgia.