A review by cellular_cosmogony
Yellow Jessamine by Caitlin Starling

3.0

Trigger Warnings: drugs, poison, stalking, death, violence, misogyny

Ever since I read The Luminous Dead I've been interested in Caitlin Starling's books, so I was quite excited when I realised the audiobook for Yellow Jessamine was available on Storytel.

The book has an amazing premise, but I ended up feeling quite lukewarm about it. It might have been due to the narrator - her voice and reading seemed good at first, but her narration style felt increasingly stuck up and dull the more I listened to it.
Evelyn's character was quite intriguing, probably the thing I liked the most in this story. She is a queer woman who has risen to power in a soiety where women don't have a lot of agency and is ready to do anything to maintain her social standing. Her relationship with her servant Violetta was one of the best parts of the novella.
However the book felt kind of underdeveloped overall -
SpoilerFor example the reveal at the end was poorly set up and disappoiting
(implied spoilers for the ending), the worldbuilding was barely there, and the side characters were quite flat.

I'd love to read more dark queer books like Yellow Jessamine in the future, but I fear this one wasn't for me.