Review: The Poison Study

Title: Poison Study

Author: Maria V. Snyder
Publisher: Mira
Published: March 1st 2007
Series: Chronicles of Ixia #1
How I Served It: Paperback
How I Got It: Purchased (YA Fest in Easton PA, April 2014)

"Choose: A quick death…Or slow poison...

About to be executed for murder, Yelena is offered an extraordinary reprieve. She'll eat the best meals, have rooms in the palace—and risk assassination by anyone trying to kill the Commander of Ixia.

And so Yelena chooses to become a food taster. But the chief of security, leaving nothing to chance, deliberately feeds her Butterfly's Dust—and only by appearing for her daily antidote will she delay an agonizing death from the poison.

As Yelena tries to escape her new dilemma, disasters keep mounting. Rebels plot to seize Ixia and Yelena develops magical powers she can't control. Her life is threatened again and choices must be made. But this time the outcomes aren't so clear..." -- Goodreads

This series has been on my 'To Read' shelf for basically forever, so when I heard the author was going to be at the YA Fest in Easton PA I was pretty pumped.  It's not exactly an easy book to find (in print I mean, I know Amazon has a great bundle deal on the kindle), and I dig having my books signed.  So I bought my copy of The Poison Study when my (totally awesome) creative writing professor brought me to the fest and then put it in my book box which is where it sat through Finals and Senior Week and Graduation and the first half of summer.  It became 'that book I was going to read next' for months.  Kind of like Dreams of Gods and Monsters (Laini Taylor, I swear I'm going to read it eventually...).  I don't know why I had such issues cracking the spine.  I live for medieval-y assassin books - the third books in the His Fair Assassins and Throne of Glass series are legit my most longed for reads of 2014.  Poison Study should have been something I was super excited to crack open... but I basically had to force myself to sit down and read it.

I'm glad I did.  Poison Study isn't perfect.  It has flaws and plot holes and left me confused or rolling my eyes at parts, but overall I really enjoyed it.  I'm not super familiar with Snyder but I get the feeling that this is one of her earliest novels and it's clear that she's very talented, if not polished.  It's a big novel to try and explain so I'm going to break my opinions down and focus on the facets that I, well, have opinions about.  Set the oven timer...

Spoilers Start Here!

The Plot

Okay, so I thought the plot had a million miles of potential.  She's a misunderstood girl who, yeah, really did kill the man she's accused of killing, but he totally deserved it.  She has an undiscovered past and lineage that could get her killed in some many different ways.  And she's a food-taster for an overlord who, if the plot led me right, in addition to being a super awesome leader, has a lot of his own secrets.  And, extra bonus points, the overlord's right-hand man is also super dreamy.  

Do I think this novel fully met it's awesome potential?  No.  But would I recommend it to anyone who thinks this sounds like a really cool story idea?  Definitely.  The political intrigue went over my head at times (my fault for skimming some of the more government-y parts to get to the more relationship-y parts) but it all felt really sound during a quick re-read.  I could see the motivation of the main characters clearly and none of them felt forced.  All of the underhandedness worked.  I felt like everyone was pulling something over on someone else.  Brazell's puppet magician was tricking Brazell, Brazell was basically drugging the Commander, Valek was legitimately always lying to someone, Yelena had her secrets...

The BAMF Heroine - Yelena

The story of Yelena overcoming her challenges, both external and internal, is one of the best parts of the novel.  Yeah, some of the motivation of the minor characters' can be a little questionable at times, and I feel like some of them are really quick to trust a known murderer, but overall it all makes sense and the pacing for the front end of the novel is excellent.  Yelena's choices, from agreeing to be a food taster, to deciding to learn self defense, to subconciously aligning herself with the Commander, all felt really real.  Like things that a real person would do, not just a book character.  She was so well drawn that even her stupid decisions made sense to me.  I understood all of her rationalizations.

Her progression felt honest, though sometimes her dialogue was a little messy.  I was never really clear as to what social strata she really belonged to/wanted to be considered a part of.  She uses different forms of diction with different side characters and I couldn't tell if that was a conscious choice to make her seem more adaptable or a trap that Snyder fell into.  While we're thinking about the minor characters though, I found her friendships super endearing.  The Power Twins, who teach her how to fight, were actually my favorite.  And I loved how it was fully possible for her to be friends with them and train with them without any romance being implied or instigated.  I'm so sick of novels where men and women can't be friends/help each other without someone having a crush at some point.

The Hunk/The Relationship - Valek

Speaking of crushes... Snyder did a really admirable job in the front end of this novel with the slow relationship build-up.  At the very start I wasn't sure if Valek was going to be the villain or the love interest (admittedly I thought he'd have to be one of the two), but she managed to build their relationship without making me feel like she was hitting me on the head with it.  I did find the ending a little fast; I thought there definitely could have been a few more 'almost' moments between them before the big cell moment.  I'm a little worried that their relationship will be one of those where the best moments were the ones that occurred before they got a clue... but I guess we'll see.

As a character Valek was really well cut.  I like how he's loyal to a fault to the Commander but at the same time knows that the world his master has created is far from perfect and is willing to spin things to make it work for his own morals.  He did feel almost too perfect at times, almost a male Mary Sue in how he was unbeatable and super smart and hot... but when he reveals his back-story to Yelena it all makes a lot more sense.  Plus his character isn't perfect.  When I said loyal to a fault I really meant that this loyalty is also a fault that I seriously think will cause an issue for him and Yelena eventually. 

The Final Noodle: Four Spoons Up

The world Snyder is creating is so dynamic and layered that I feel like I won't be able to leave a final comment on how I feel about any of it until I've read all of the books.  That said, Poison Study makes me desperate to read Magic Study.  It definitely will not sit on my shelf for months...  The plot of Poison Study reminds me very much of the His Fair Assassins books, but with magic and, ironically, significantly less poison and murder.  I would recommend it to any lovers of fantasy.