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A review by amloiandy
Poison Kiss by Ana Mardoll
3.0
This book is ok. The writing is solid, even if does use a few more adverbs and cliches than strictly necessary. The characters are interesting, although not as developed as I like. This book is a highly metaphorical fantasy, and I do admit that fantasy isn't my thing. I picked this book up because I loved loved loved Mardoll's Twilight deconstructions. Ultimately, this book edges away slightly from fantasy and nestles up to mythology, which worked really well for me.
I love the King Arthur mythos. And the mythos allusions were my favourite part of this book. The playful dramatic irony of the High King faery dying as part of his quest to get Clarent back is delightful.
I feel like I should also love the diversity of the cast here. Mardoll creates a space where the stigmas attached to variance in race, gender, sexual orientation, neurotypicality and age don't exist. It's almost utopic. It's also quite effacing. The importance of those identities and experiences is undermined when they're rendered irrelevant. And I get that it relates to the fact that the altereds had their memories erased. But it was still kind of strange to me. I would have rather seen more emphasis on rediscovering former identities. I found some of the characters difficult to visualize because the details of their appearance/manner/age were so politically correctly sparse.
I'm sorry to say that I couldn't stand Rose. All of her self-esteem issues: the self-pity and the self-doubt and the constant need to have everyone around her remind her that she's not a bad person. Make it stop! I'm not saying she should have been some sort of mary sue who had all her shit figured out. I get how representations of mental illness and PTSD are important. But maybe there's some sort of happy medium?
Also. I liked the emphasis on consent throughout. I would even go so far as to say consent is theme of this book. I like how it was raised explicitly. I like how Mardoll demonstrated its relevance in all contexts, not just sexual ones. Everything single thing that happens in this story from how the faeries treat their "servants" in the first chapter to Clarent finding a place to stay in the last chapter is about consent. It's neat.
I love the King Arthur mythos. And the mythos allusions were my favourite part of this book. The playful dramatic irony of the High King faery dying as part of his quest to get Clarent back is delightful.
I feel like I should also love the diversity of the cast here. Mardoll creates a space where the stigmas attached to variance in race, gender, sexual orientation, neurotypicality and age don't exist. It's almost utopic. It's also quite effacing. The importance of those identities and experiences is undermined when they're rendered irrelevant. And I get that it relates to the fact that the altereds had their memories erased. But it was still kind of strange to me. I would have rather seen more emphasis on rediscovering former identities. I found some of the characters difficult to visualize because the details of their appearance/manner/age were so politically correctly sparse.
I'm sorry to say that I couldn't stand Rose. All of her self-esteem issues: the self-pity and the self-doubt and the constant need to have everyone around her remind her that she's not a bad person. Make it stop! I'm not saying she should have been some sort of mary sue who had all her shit figured out. I get how representations of mental illness and PTSD are important. But maybe there's some sort of happy medium?
Also. I liked the emphasis on consent throughout. I would even go so far as to say consent is theme of this book. I like how it was raised explicitly. I like how Mardoll demonstrated its relevance in all contexts, not just sexual ones. Everything single thing that happens in this story from how the faeries treat their "servants" in the first chapter to Clarent finding a place to stay in the last chapter is about consent. It's neat.