A review by paintedgiraffe
A Fierce and Subtle Poison by Samantha Mabry

3.0

Conflicted. The author is clearly talented and I love the way she describes all five senses. HOWEVER, like others have said, the culture is woefully unexplored, seen though the eyes of a spoiled white boy who's the son of a land developer. On the one hand, okay, I appreciate the "outsider's" perspective. But gah, he never got into the plot or truly cared about the characters. His relationship with Isabel I read more as a mere obsession than actual compassion. I don't regret reading this, as a story set in Puerto Rico is always a gem. (Underrepresented cultures ftw!) Even slopshod together, I did get a positive feeling of the beautiful country. This was sort of a miss on account of the main character being irritating, but I'll read another work by this author.