OMG, that was so good!!! I fell in love with the books in the first few pages, and I had to go back to the beginning and notes everything in the notes app to be sure I was following EVERY lead and remembering every character correctly! It was so well written, the world building was great and each character was complex and nuanced, I LOVED IT!! The only negative thing I could say about this book was that it wasn’t long enough! But then, I could’ve read thousands and thousands of pages of that book, so that’s on me hihi!! Oh and also, I love how one of the character used the pronouns they/them and it wasn’t a big deal at all! Everyone just went with it, it wasn’t in the spotlight or anything, I loved it!

If you’re searching a book with a black girl with magic, a great critic of the world and of racism, a good story that’ll make you laugh, cry and reflect, The Poisons We Drink is the perfect book for you!

****THIS IS A NETGALLEY ARC REVIEW****

YALL NEED TO GET THIS BOOK NOWWWWW

I don’t think I’ve fallen this in love with a book in a long time. This book is literally a gift to 2024. Not only did we actually get an enjoyable main character, we got a fully fleshed out group of side characters, an interesting plot, non repetitive high stakes, legitimate consequences to magic use, and a magical system with laws that actually make sense and didn’t leave me with questions. Thank you God 😭 And thank you Bethany Baptiste. Your work is incredible.

Not only is Venus THAT GIRL, but she’s someone to root for. She knows the world around her and she knows the stakes of doing what she does. I loved reading how much love and care she has for her family, from her tightly knit relationship with her sister to her tentative bond with her mother. I loved seeing her grapple with the monster inside of her, and how willing she is to make sure that those around her are safe even if it means she’s not. She is the epitome of an older sister, but she’s also a hustler, a fighter, and someone who, given the opportunity, will go after her own desires. It’s giving antihero, and Imma support it.

Each and every character in this book, as I said above, is fully fleshed out, and it’s one hell of a breath of fresh air. Even the smallest characters are of some sort of importance, and even the ones you think don’t mean anything aren’t just a one-off scene. They come back, or their presence holds some importance over the story, and they move and push it along in important ways. The details are immaculate and will have you hooked all the way through.

The magic having legitimately harsh consequences was wild. Good, because other magical consequences aren’t something that has me fazed, but still wild. The physical toll that comes from its use isn’t something to play with, and to me, that added a lot more depth to the story and definitively heightened the stakes.

Now, onto the rules for magic use and the world building— FLAWLESS. FUCKING FLAWLESS. At least to me, anyway. I never felt left with questions, I loved the little blurbs before each chapter, and I loved how natural the exposition of the world and how it worked was. Everything was seamlessly woven together in a way where I felt part of the world and further lost in my reading. I particularly enjoyed how the laws in this world and this America reflected our own and our history. It made it more realistic, and made me sit back and think, “Yeah, no, if we had magic this is exactly how these mfs would act.”

The writing style was amazing and very descriptive. The mystery aspect actually wasn’t as guessable as I believed it was at the beginning of the story, and while the book didn’t end too too open ended, I’m praying that the final chapter is a nod to the hope that there will be a sequel. In fact, give me an entire series.

Currently, this book is sitting as one of my top favorites of all time. I feel like it sets the bar for the other releases coming out this year, and if the author decides to release anything else in this world or about these characters, I will be reading as soon as I get the chance.

First and foremost, thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for providing me with and eARC for an honest review. My honest review is that this is an incredible debut novel that constantly makes you consider how far you'd go for the ones you love. Venus asks herself this question constantly, and with the twists and turns of the novel, it seems that the answer is always changing.

I loved the world that Bethany Baptiste built for these characters to inhabit. Mixing fantasy and modern day elements isn't necessarily new, but this case is one of the best examples I have seen in a long time with this concept. The way that this also works incredibly well to provide a new layer to themes of racism, poverty, and the false promise of the American dream makes the world of witchers and humans feel extremely grounded.

On top of the world itself, Baptiste's characters are well crafted, believable, and make you want to continue reading to see how their relationships develop. Venus and her family all feel as though you peer into a dynamic that is natural and has already existed. That is where much of my praise for the characters comes from. Unfortunately, I do think some of the development for characters like Presley, Nisha, and Matrika was a bit lacking at times, but did work well to serve as a part of Venus's story and honestly just made me want to read stories with other characters from this world as the main character.

Overall, I think this is already up for contention for my book of the year!

This was such a fun read! Everything was high stakes and one of the things I appreciated the most was that these witches were not witches in name only. They came to F things up and I thoroughly enjoyed that.

If you believe that magic should have consequences, The Poisons We Drink delivers. The magic system feels unique and fresh with witchers having different callings and then an entirely separate classification of potion brewing. While I loved the concept of it, I definitely found myself struggling to follow along with some of its complexities and keep track of all of the rules.

Venus and her relationship with the deviation It that lived within her made for a fascinating main character. Venus has a tense relationship with her mother, feeling like she’ll never be good enough to earn her mother’s approval. Which means when her mother dies she’s not only trying to figure out why while keeping her sister safe, she’s also trying to prove herself.

Overall, this was an interesting story and I’m glad I read it. I definitely was not the target audience, but I can see people who are that audience loving it. Thank you to Sourcebooks and NetGalley for the ARC, all thoughts are my own. 3.5 stars

Could not get onto thr book, it was a very hard read. But I child see the potential in it and the premise sounded great. Will try at another time to read.

In a world where humans seek to harm and limit the freedoms of witchers, Venus helps to support her family by brewing illegal love potions. After her mother is murdered, the Grand Witcher offers Venus the chance to get vengeance on her mother’s killer. Little does Venus know, the offer is bait that leads her to enter into a blood oath with the Grand Witcher. She must do as commanded and not tell anyone.

In an effort to shut down the registration act which would require witchers to have all their information publicly shared, the Grand Witcher forces Venus to make potions that will make the senators do what they’re told and sway the vote. While it’s good for the Witcher community to have the registration act pass, brewing the potions could potentially kill Venus. Unfortunately, she has no choice and she’s willing to do whatever it takes to protect her sister Janus.

Later, she suspects the “vengeance” she got wasn’t on the person who actually killed her mother, so she seeks to find the true culprit and get her revenge.

I love a Black girl revenge story! Throw in fantasy elements and I’m even more excited.

The story arc is interesting, but I don’t think it needed to be 480 pages. Several times I found myself wanting to skip parts. I think there was just too much going on. There’s a lot of side characters who have their own backstories that play into the plot. Plus, having to learn and understand the magic system. It was just a lot of ideas, details, and characters. Too much in my opinion.

Not bad, but I didn’t love it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for the advanced eARC.

Thank you to Netgalley and Sourcebooks Fire for providing me this ARC for review!

When I read the summary of The Poisons We Drink, I was excited because I'm from the DMV, so what's not to love? Witches, power, potions, and politics. As it turns out, this book was not what I was expecting at all - while the overarching political plot is there, to me it was a bit overshadowed by all of the family secrets and betrayal that frequently became revealed throughout the story. It's very fast-paced in my opinion, with a new piece of drama or something going off the rails as soon as you start to get invested in a plot point - bam! We've moved on.

My favorite character ended up being Presley because they were written in such a clever way. Initially, I was a little annoyed that I couldn't categorize them in SOME way (my mind was making a movie and it was glitching, figuratively speaking) - Baptiste intentionally lacks descriptions of Presley that would reveal their "traditional" gender - but then it clicked for me. Isn't that the point? They're non-binary and there are behaviors or physical descriptions that could lean either way, leaving it up to the reader to visualize them based on their own interpretations, which I thought was pretty dope. Tyrell was also a lighthearted, fun, and valuable addition.

The original plot came back together nicely at the end of the book, but overall, I didn't connect to it as much as I would have liked because the side drama and power struggle became such a focal point. And yes, this book has profanity and violence, but I would still very much consider it YA. Older YA, but YA. Either way, it will certainly keep you on your toes and teach you a few potions.

3.5 rounded up. What I enjoyed: the VIBE. It really showed the experience of living in a racist world in a visceral way. The plot was interesting and twisty. What I didn't like: the writing style. The disjointed sentences really made this difficult to read, and I think kind of ruined the emotional impact of some of the things that happened. It read as very melodramatic rugby from the get-go, and things like a fight with her mother were treated with the same level of drama as a character being killed. I liked the diverse character set

Wow! This book was INCREDIBLE! Thank you SO MUCH SourceBook  Fire for the ARC. Usually I don't really go for urban fantasy but this story was amazing! The political intrigue was *chef's kiss*. Venus's untangling of the web around her? Her beautiful relationships with her loved ones? Incredibly written, deeply complex, and stunning. The magic system was so unique and fresh! It made sense and it felt natural! The Poisons We Drink was heartfelt, intense, and I was frantically trying to untangle the web along with Venus. I was so pleased with myself when I worked a few things out before they were revealed, it felt like completing a puzzle!  But there were other things that complete caught me off guard too so I was always guessing! The analog of our society for people of color to their society for Witchers was heart-breakingly realistic and obviously very personal for the author, which added an even more genuine layer of emotion. Also bisexual MC with a nonbinary love interest? Hell yes! This book was a 10 out of 10! Go and pre-order it RIGHT NOW!

The cover of this book was absolutely stunning and drew me in before I even read the blurb, which sounded like such a unique take on witchcraft.

I adore witchy books, especially ones which move from the traditional lore based witchcraft and move into new realms of possibilities for witchcraft creating new magic systems. This had so much potential to be a book that I loved.

Unfortunately I DNFd this book at 25% as the writing was not for me. The short, disjointed sentences interrupted the flow of the story so much that I wasn’t able to stay engaged, it was hugely frustrating to read. There was also a lot of language use that didn’t make sense to me “hoping his words would sand down hers” as an example. I’m certain this writing will be a wonderfully fresh approach for many to enjoy, but I wasn’t able to myself.

One element I enjoyed was Venus’ family and the way that they interacted with one another. It felt so realistic and made for some interesting conversations. Exploring their connections with one another and how they expressed these connections was enjoyable.

Perhaps the most disappointing element of this story was the idea of consent within the potion making and forced ingestion. I felt hugely uncomfortable that this wasn’t considered.

I found many questions popping up within this magic system, and can only assume that they would be answered if I was to continue. Things like, why is Tessa brewing potions which take such a huge toll on her, what motivation could explain the desire to continue? How does she afford super expensive third tier potion every single day just to keep her sentient magic from destroying her?

Hopefully many people enjoy this uniquely written witchy story more than I did.

Thank you to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for the ARC, I’m sad that it wasn’t the book for me.

Woah...there was so much going on in this and it was tied together so beautifully by the MC. I do have some pacing issues with the middle but it was definitely worth it to push through.

See the link below for my honest review. It has already been posted to Good Reads. Thank you for this opportunity to read this title :)

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

This was an insanely good debut. The world building was intricate (but executed in just the right way so that the reader could figure out what was happening without having an info dump) and kept me intrigued (even if it did take me a few chapters to get the hang of it/the terms used). I loved Venus as a main character and really connected with the way Baptiste wrote Venus' relationship with Janus. It felt like a very real sibling relationship, which is sometimes hard to accurately portray in books. I also loved the nonbinary rep in this book! I'd be interested in seeing how the world further expands and am hoping for the chance to revisit Venus and her world with a new story in the future.

The Poisons We Drink is a very fresh and fun premise, with a fun MC, but it ended up feeling very mid to me. For how long this book is, I finished it and felt like nothing really happened. The first third or so is slow, and I struggled to maintain interest.

I knew from the first pages this book would be rough for me. The opening scene includes meeting half a dozen characters who talk about what’s going on in the world, which is one of my biggest book pet peeves. I don’t know these characters, I don’t know what they’re talking about… and the conversations feel unnatural, like they are saying things and info dumping world building details just for the reader. It would have been much better to jump right into the action, but instead we sit around talking about things, then go experience the things, then come back home and talk about it some more… that makes it very hard to feel grounded in the story. And for how much talking there is, I still didn’t fully understand the potions and magic system.

Although I didn’t particularly enjoy this, I anticipate it will find a large audience of fans. Venus is a snarky, brave, and ruthless MC who I think many readers will find themselves in. Stylistically, The Poisons We Drink is a big miss. So much literal telling (the constant dialogue) instead of showing, but this seems to be the trend more and more in contemporary fantasy. While the magic and fantasy elements of the story are lacking, the characters and character development are strong.

Born into a family of witches, each member has their own powers and abilities. But there is one Grand Witcher who wants it all and is willing to pit humans and Witcher’s’ against one another at any cost, even if it kills them all.

This is an absolute powerhouse of contemporary urban fantasy. The clear parallels to current systems and general society through magic make it immediately relatable. The book weaves great social commentary into the plot of the story. As with most fantasy, the beginning of the story is spent trying to figure out the world and orient the reader to the situation; but once it is all established, the book it a great twist.

I think this book pulls to the older side of YA, but includes a lot of really engrossing themes to support critical thinking and encourage readers to really consider the world that thy live in. There is nothing about this book that I can specifically point to that I disliked. It kept me really engaged and interested in what was going to happen next.

3 star reviews are the hardest for me to write. Did I love this book? No. Did I hate this book? No. It took a minute for me to get into it but I am glad I pushed through. it. I liked the world building but I was having trouble understanding the magic system. I just couldn't wrap my head around the rules and why Venus paid a different price. So I think between that and the pacing it took me out of it some.

4.5 stars...thank you NetGalley and publishers for this ARC. I really enjoyed this book. The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars was some grammatical errors which I'm sure will be fixed by the time the book is released. I laughed, I cried, I wanted to punch some people in the face. This book was close to home, though it was California for me when all the hate came to the surface for those targeted by the right wings antics. The author had a very creative way of showing that devide but through magic and humans. This book was political, magical, thrilling and it was kinda gross in parts and funny in others. I definitely recommend this book when it comes out to my fellow SFF readers or even someone looking for something out of their normal genre.

The Poisons We Drink is a rage-filled, visceral story of revenge and grief, and already a favorite read of mine.

Our main character, Venus, is a witcher, illegally making potions to support her family, and along with complicated family dynamics, there is also danger everywhere, especially when tragedy strikes.

I loved the political and social commentary that is embedded within the story, and the journey Venus must navigate - this is an uncomfortable read at times. It should be. Because Black kids in our world don’t need to be doing anything illegal to be the victims of police brutality and a corrupt system.

Venus is rightfully filled with anger, and her desire to make things right may end up leading her down a path she didn’t quite mean to follow. The potential for controlling those in the highest seats of power is there, as is the possibility of completely derailing everything she means to set right.

Thanks to Bethany Baptiste and netgalley for allowing me to preview this book.