Spellbinding, Poison Princess Review

In honor of the release of Dead of Winter in two days, I will post my reviews of Poison Princess and Endless Knight and hopefully I will update everyone with a review on Dead of Winter as close to it's release as possible!

I read this nearly a year ago and I'm still very impressed when I think about it.
It was very original and unique, well written, frustrating, engaging, and best of all I couldn't put it down!

What I Loved:
The originality. I have not read nor heard of a book like this one. In a world where vampires and fallen angels basically run the paranormal subgenre, it’s nice to finally get insight on something a little less well-known. 

I love a book that personifies Gods or other supernatural beings in humans, like Percy Jackson in example. This was a very original idea and I just can’t get over the fact that I never would have thought of this before!

Character development. FINALLY we’ve got some! Though their basic personality makeup was laid out at the beginning, Cole developed on it, didn’t stray too far from their predetermined marks and kept their personalities consistent, and best of all we see a growth without them having a random change of heart that changes their entire makeup.

Cole spared no detail. She really showed how these people coped with living in a post-apocalyptic crater and really thought through all of the possibilities and limits to these possibilities. Brilliant!

I am also a sucker for integrating foreign languages into books, like Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles for example, and though some of the times I was not sure how accurate the translations were, I still enjoyed the aspect!

What I Didn’t Like

The sex thing pretty much went like…

It was an awkward part of the book, though I’ll admit a very important angle when we talk post-apocalyptic stories. No one is ever ballsy enough to include sex in YA novels and Cole took it and ran it waaaaaaaaay over the line! It's funny though because I don't think most post-apocalyptic novels focus on the disadvantages to having sex in a post-apocalyptic world. The idea that, even if you find condoms, will they work and what if they fail? Good job, bringing a baby into the post-apocalyptic wasteland complete with zombies and homicidal teenagers in a Hunger Games-esque murder-spree.

Now, I will admit that for the first 100-150 pages I was very underwhelmed and not impressed. Luckily, I kept with it and I really do like this story a lot!

Sometimes Jackson and Evie get on my LAST nerve with their stubbornness, moodiness, and overall selfishness. In the respect of representing teenagers and how they would interact in a post-apocalyptic situation, however, Cole hit the nail right on the head.

There were actually quite a few points in this book that seemed to be overlooked by editors in the grammar department. That is always ridiculously frustrating for me, a grammar-path, to read a professionally published piece of writing and find typos, too many commas, not enough commas, or no space after commas!

Oh, and wow I literally just realized this… Evangeline is the Empress card (control of plants and greenery) and her last name is Greene.

Really? Name puns? Symbolism like with Selena that makes sense and I enjoy that but… puns…. Okay… I swear I’m done that’s my own personal pet peeve.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book, I give it a 4/5 and a PG-15 rating for sexual situations and disturbing imagery and symbolism.
<3
The Reviewer