What a powerful debut YA novel! Kudos to Bethany Baptiste for building such an interesting world of witchers. You really feel for Venus and all the trauma and heartbreak she has endured. The idea of potions made for specific wants and desires was quite unique. I really enjoyed this and really hope she writes more in the future.

I have mixed feelings about this one. The premise was wonderful, but sometimes the storyline was really slow moving. I like how complicated the characters were, but I would’ve liked a little bit more world building as to how the Witchers came out of the shadows. I sometimes got lost in the magical terms, and Baptiste explained many of them, but some explanations still left me confused. The deviants left me wanting to know more, especially Presley’s. But once the story got moving it became fast-paced and I had a hard time putting it down. As I said mixed bag, there were parts. I really really enjoyed and parts that left me wanting more. But I would read another book by the author. I would be interested in what other stories she has to tell.

* I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.*

The author’s note at the very beginning tells you exactly what you’re going to get out of this book. I really enjoyed the characters who were complex and not perfect, but real. I could read a series of this story because I enjoyed it so much and I think there’s more for Venus to tell.

A dark and tense fantasy about a world divided! This intense story takes place in DC where humans are struggling to live in harmony with witches. One family in particular has a history of brewing and activism that has set them apart among the rest. This story is full of family secrets, revenge seeking politics, tempting fate, and divided conquest. Each time I picked up the story I was sucked in!! It was fast paced, unexpectedly gory, and heartfelt. I’m so excited I’m here to witness Bethany’s debut!

As soon as I read the forward note, I thought I was going to love this book.

The parallels of the black experience in America to the way Witchers are treated in their universe ate very clearly written.

I also found it interesting how she wrote Venus as someone who wanted to live with their head down and not make waves, not rock the boat and wrote Janus as the vocal passionate one who wanted to fight the injustice and felt nigh invulnerable. It was great commentary regarding how people feel and have felt in this country.

I agree with other reviewers on my irritation with Janus (somewhat appropriately named) but I also thought back to when I was a teenager and was so righteously sure and passionate about what I saw as wrong doings in the world. Although, I still can’t forgive her for her actions after the big incident happened and she saw and felt the consequences and still acted recklessly and gave the FMC a hard time and did what she did after that.

I love that the author wrote this with her heart- all the pain and rage and love and hope and anger and sadness that comes from the life she and other BIPOC have experienced. This ARC did have some errors and things that I hope got cleaned up before the final release but I would love to see more from her and would love to see a prequel from this universe.

The best way I can think to describe this book is: interesting plot, subpar execution. Did I hate or even dislike this book? No! But it just didn't live up to the excitement I had for it.

The pros: GORGEOUS COVER! Interesting premise - "witchers" are folks with magic and in the public eye and there are humans who want them eradicated (very reminiscent of today's society); each witcher has different magical abilities.

The average parts: the world building - nothing crazy, since it's based in modern day America, but just with different technology and witches that have magic running around. Exposition was fine and I don't think I was ever too confused. The majority of the characters were fine too.

The things I didn't love: JANICE. This is once again not to say I hate her because she is a young teenage girl, and more times than not, they are not thinking about the needs of others over their own wants. But there were SO many moments where she made me so mad that I wanted to put down the book. It seemed like every life or death issue stemmed from something Janice had decided to do by running off and not telling anybody. The book would have been over in 100 pages if she hadn't been around.

Overall, this book was just very average to me - a very solid 3 stars. Enjoyable, and I think I'll remember certain plot points, but nothing that will stick around in my brain for too long. Give it a go if you're interested!

This cover does not lie - a beautiful and harsh look at life, inclusion and how to create an even playing field. At times, I got lost between all the characters.
Baptiste does an amazing job illustrating the distortion between us and them, us vs. them. Attempts at working together have stalled - and now the High Witcher is doing what she feels she must. Sacrificing her people for the greater good. Venus isn't up for it - fighting to protect her younger sister and social justice without sacrificing her morals.

This book to me to on quite an adventure. I loved the storyline and the characters although a few of them were annoying (but I believe that was the point). The only things I had trouble with at first was Percy and their pronouns. I was so confused as to who they were but I eventually realized it was a pronoun thing and the story’s pacing seemed a tad too slow for my liking. Overall, I would recommend this book. I read along as I listened to the audiobook, both courtesy of NetGalley.

"Has history taught us nothing? Old worlds must burn for new worlds to rise. You cannot want a revolution and fear its fire. Everything must burn." - Malik Jenkins, WASP Founder.
There were parts of this story I found fascinating, and I enjoyed the author's themes on racism, politics, and family through magic. The blood, sweat, and tears that a brewer must put into their work was intriguing. I would have enjoyed a deeper dive into some of the details behind the magic, the blood tethers, the familiars, etc. There was a lot of potential with this story and many of the side plots. Unfortunately, it failed to pull them all together. 2.5 stars.

AMAZING! I DONT TYPICALLY READ FANTASY or lots of YA but this was one that would make ME change my mind totally!!!I I loved this book it was something different and interesting! I WAS A STUNNING YA FANTASY. The world building was amazing!

This was a really rough read for me. Especially since this was one of my most anticipated reads of 2024. There are things about this book that I thought were absolutely phenomenal! I loved that there was a spectrum of love when it came to brewing potions. I loved that Venus was truly a “morally grey” character, and that it was family above everything. The complexity of the magic system and how witches brew their potions. The different powers that each witch possessed, and how the brewers couldn’t delve into each other’s respective practices.

Annnddd I think that’s where my love for this book dies.

I found myself being frustrated with the pacing, the plot, and the characters.

The pacing of this book truly threw me off. It was terribly staggering, and sometimes just slow. I felt like plot lines linger for what longer than they need to. The so called “gotcha” or the big revelations that happened just fell so flat for me, that as I was reading I had to keep verbally saying “huh” “what” “why did that happen” because the lead up, and dialogue before had just didn’t build up like how it was supposed to. I almost DNF’d at 60% because I kept have to rereading and going back thinking I was missing things. I don’t really want to spoil anything, so I’m just gonna leave it at that.

When it came to the characters I truly did not like Venus OVERALL. Yes, I did appreciate some parts of her character and personality BUT her as whole was just infuriated my soul. At some parts it felt like she was combative to just be combative. Like holy crap girl you are staggering your own progress in your own ordeal. And then it just kept happening over and over and over again. Like… at some point in even morally grey characters have to have some kind of growth in their demeanor in order to get to that next step right?

I didn’t rate this any lower because I feel like I did enjoy a lot of parts when it came to reading this BUT I didn’t have a good experience overall especially with this being such a highly anticipated book for me.

While I liked the concept which I thought was very good and original, I didn’t care as much about the characters. I liked Venus, I sympathized with her and her struggle but I didn’t click with her either. I had moments but in the end, I kind of didn’t care about her. I thought she would go down the path of rage and she didn’t which I’m a little disappointed about. The other characters were pretty much the same in the way I felt towards them, especially the sister whom I thought to be a little immature and reckless but she’s a teenager so I’ll let it pass. What stood out to me was the world and how the author is really trying to say something with it which I think is what fantasy ought to do. The witchers were a super cool take on your typical witch and the overall machinery of the world was very fun. 3 stars

I'm having a bit of a hard time articulating my thoughts on this book. I went into the book thinking that I was going to love it, but unfortunately I found it boring and really needed to push myself through it. I thought the book had a lot of potential, but could have ultimately used more heavy rounds of editing to get it to the well-polished finished product.

What I enjoyed:

I liked the overall premise of the book. A fantasy novel that takes on the very real themes of racism, classism, mental illness, and political corruption is important and interesting. I loved the way that Baptiste articulated the trauma that comes from racism and the real physical and emotional responses that come as consequences of that trauma. I think that it is moving and necessary and incredibly emotional.

My drawbacks/criticisms:

The writing was slow and choppy for me. I really had to push myself to keep reading because I just couldn't get invested. The narrator kept telling you instead of showing you emotions and developments, which made it difficult for me to fully encompass the characters and make an emotional connection to them. I wanted more depth to them. Let me into their thoughts and feelings more wholly so that I can feel what they do. Give me more information about their relationships to each other so that their arguments and feelings make more sense. As it stands, there were too many shallow relationships to characters which prevented me from caring about what was happening to them.

There were quite a few plot holes that I noticed throughout the story. I won't lay them all out here to avoid spoilers, and they're things that I could look past for the sake of the story, but they were definitely there and pretty obvious. To go along with that, there seemed to be a lot of instances where things happened very conveniently. I realize that this is fiction and that the author can make whatever she wants to happen, happen, but it's more believable if the magic and details are built up early on in the story and then come into play later. Instead it was more instances of "oh no, this went wrong, but don't worry, we can do this thing that we haven't told you at all about yet that solves this issue perfectly." That happened multiple times.

I'm not trying to write an overly negative review, because the book wasn't bad. It has a lot of potential and I think that Baptiste will only grow as an author given the opportunity to hone her writing. I think (and hope) that a lot of people will enjoy this book, it just was not for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Poisons We Drink by Bethany Baptiste is a fresh new voice in YA fantasy that I'm glad I read. The world is alluring and the use of potions was very smart and interesting.

Thanks to Sourcebooks Fire, Netgalley and Colored Pages Book Tours for the e-ARC!

The magic system was original and fascinating, especially when we learned about the MC’s speciality: brewing potions. I loved how the author explored Venus’ family dynamics, her complicated relationship with her mother and the love she has for her sister and cousin. I also enjoyed how she handled the themes (racism, corruption, police brutality), and weaved them through the political intrigue.

I am not the biggest fan of the writing as there was a lot of telling not showing and a few instances of info dumping. I loved the magic system, but it remained vague on a few aspects (e.g.: the deviations) that should’ve been clearer to grasp the worldbuilding better. The pacing set the story efficiently, but it became uneven when it got to the thrilling parts because of the amount of subplots, and the ending was a little abrupt.

I. LOVED. this. book. It had incredible world building, a unique magic system, and a delicious layer of dirty politics. My only complaint is that it had to end. I would love more books from this world and I can’t wait to read more from Bethany Baptiste!!

I highly recommend this one for fans of YA fantasy and anyone who loves the mutant registration arc of X-Men!

Thank you so much to Sourcebooks Fire and NetGalley for this ARC. All opinions are my own.

YA fantasy and mystery with a morally gray, BIPOC MC. I loved this book! The main character, Venus, was fierce, protective, and found her strength. And the world was interesting, angry, corrupt, and reflective. I definitely recommend this one!

I really wanted to love this book. A modern fantasy set in DC and full of political intrigue and morally grey deeds? Sign me up. Or so I thought. I had the hardest time with the Poisons We Drink. I'm not sure why. It felt impossible for me to connect with this book. Reading it felt out of body and not in a good way; just in a lucid dream kind of way. The plot moved so slowly, and when something that should have been immense happened, it felt impactless. The danger of brewing felt without stakes due to the single POV structure.

The characters fell into two categories: meh and intensely annoying.
Most characters were inoffensive like Venus and Bram.
Janus really ground my gears. I know she's meant to be young and impulsive but she felt, to me, intensely stupid, selfish, and not worth investing my time in. How many times do I have to read her say or do something whack before the apologies stop cutting it?

Venus' deviation It was so corny and one note. I really wished she had just named it rather than overusing the italics.

There is probably something interesting to say about the use of love potions at the cost of free will. But alas.
I'm not entirely sure that witchers vs. humans works as a metaphor for real-world racism if that was the intention.

And with one final nitpick I end this review: The constant detailed descriptions of Venus' outfits drove me up a wall.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with this ARC. This review contains my honest thoughts and opinions.

Truth be told I picked up this book after I heard about the controversy surrounding the author, and I wanted to support them in their writing. I really enjoyed the concept of the book this idea of magic and different people taking different roles within the magic and her mom being Someone that maybe didn’t know how to be a mom or was being the mom the best way she could. And while the story was interesting, I just thought it was way too long. I don’t quite understand this trend of why books being 400 pages along, there’s not a lot of kids that want to read that, especially reluctant readers. So While I did like the concept of the book, I just thought it was way too long

Really enjoyed this exploration of race, politics, revenge, and family, all told through a frame of magic. So much of this story focuses on the balance between what we owe to ourselves versus our family. Very thought provoking and moving frame with exceptional character development.