Reviews

The Poison Song by Jen Williams

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cossty's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

nightshade_novels's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

I put off reading this book as I was slightly disappointed with The Bitter Twins after loving The Ninth Rain. But I'm happy to say that this one was much better than the second book and I was keen to see how the story ended, and read it much faster than I expected. The book was pretty well paced, although the foreshadowing at the end of the early chapters had me stressed out.

Like a lot of people I spent the majority of this book being really annoyed by Hest and all of her bad decisions. In fact there were quite a few characters that made poorly thought out decisions in this book, but I guess that makes them more realistic. There were points where Tor was driving me mad.

I saw a lot of people that were really upset by a certain character's death, but it just didn't move me. I think because after a certain character died in book two, I was not expecting everyone to make it out of book three alive, so it wasn't a surprise.

I'm pretty sure I spotted an Avatar the last airbender Easter egg, but haven't been able to confirm it.

I enjoyed learning more about the Jure'lia and especially the queen. Williams is still adding so much to the world building in this book and I really enjoyed that. One thing that was added in this book was She who Laughs, but I felt she was a bit random and not utilised properly. It felt like the whole trip to the desert was a bit unnecessary.

Straight after having finished the book I was unsure if I'd ever want to reread the trilogy, but having sat with the story for a while I think I would like to reread them some day and see what else I can pick up on throughout the story, knowing everything that gets revealed.

seriuzbiznus's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

sarah_zillas's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful lighthearted reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

the_midwest_library's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

This is my favorite installment in the trilogy. I felt like the pacing was excellent, the character development was well executed and balanced well with the focus on the other geographical areas within this world for parts of this book. I have little complaints, I really enjoyed this and overall thought the trilogy was quite unique and a funky mix of sci-fi and fantasy.

deszra's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

The Poison Song, compared to The Bitter Twins, is better paced by MILES, dare i say the pacing is even perfect? The way everything came together to tie in at the end was impeccably done and i teared up at the end over characters i didn’t even think i was that attached to.
The one thing that is keeping this from being 5 stars is…probably a spoiler…

Spoiler

i think the romance by noon and tor never felt real to me, it felt more like lust than the intense love that their scenes in TPS were trying to push and it got to the point where i kinda just tuned out the audiobook when they were tg

Spoiler

. granted this could just also be an effect of me being in a very anti-romance mood

Spoiler

but i didn’t feel this way about aldasair and bern or vintage and chenlo sooo…

Spoiler

. also tor in general really got on my last nerves and i would’ve liked to have more scenes with keerun (sp?) knocking some sense into him. but all in all, i think jen williams has become a new favorite author of mine bc her world building and character building and leaving breadcrumbs that all come full circle in the end are immaculate.