Book Review: The Poison Eaters by Holly Black

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Original Review Published: July 26, 2016 on Goodreads.


As the title reveals, the stories in this volume are meant to be chilling. Several of them are horror tales, such as "The Coldest Girl in Coldtown" and the eponymous "Poison Eaters", but others are more about "strange happenings" like "Paper Cuts Scissors" which is about a library where characters from novels come to life and intermingle. That one was probably my favourite because what long time reader doesn't wonder about meeting beloved fictional characters?

On a less positive note, I feel like the stories could have been arranged better and a few of them cut from the book. For instance, "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" and "A Reversal of Fortune" have a different tone than the other stories. The Wolf one is short and painfully predictable in its tiny plot. The one about fortune I think is trying to be humorous as it scares and that doesn't really work for me. Scattered throughout these tales are a few that I think might be part of a larger series or something, like "Going Ironside" or "The Night Market". I left them feeling like I was missing something.

Overall, I enjoyed the book, but with the yo-yo of quality and subject matter, I would be compelled to read the next one if the one I just finished was really good only to be let down by the next.

 

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