Review: Poison Study (Study #1) by Maria V. Snyder

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Title: Poison Study
Author: Maria V. Snyder
Publish Date: October 1st 2005

"Choose: A quick death…Or slow poison... About to be executed for murder, Yelena is offered an extraordinary reprieve. She'll eat the best meals, have rooms in the palace—and risk assassination by anyone trying to kill the Commander of Ixia.

And so Yelena chooses to become a food taster. But the chief of security, leaving nothing to chance, deliberately feeds her Butterfly's Dust—and only by appearing for her daily antidote will she delay an agonizing death from the poison.

As Yelena tries to escape her new dilemma, disasters keep mounting. Rebels plot to seize Ixia and Yelena develops magical powers she can't control. Her life is threatened again and choices must be made. But this time the outcomes aren't so clear"


This book has been on my want to read list for years. I don't know why it took me so long to read. I would always want to buy the series but then something new and shiney would catch my eye and this would be put to the back burner. Now I regret taking so long to read it!

StoryLine: The storyline here is incredible. Full of action, deceit, betrayal, and good ol' fashion fighting-for-your-life. There was never a dull moment, from when we pick up in a dungeon until the very last seen. There's always something happening, and everything had a point. Little things that you don't really notice or think about when they happen in one point in the book come back and work into plot twists and turns at other parts of the books.

The world building here is amazing, so complex and well developed and engrossing. From the history of the usurping, to the division of territories, the closed borders and bad blood between Ixia and Sitia, to the execution of magicians, everything is well thought out and engaged. There was no adding issues to the world for the sake of issues. All the world building was purposeful.

Characters: The characterization here was incredible! Our MC is a murderer and a criminal, and yet she is so much more and is a fulling strong, inspiring character that anyone can root for. And its not just her, the book is chock full of deep complex characters with lots of layers and I just loved them. There were a few purely evil characters, and even they were done well, I hated the villains without ever reaching over that line of finding them unbelievably hateable.

Parting Thoughts: I finished this book in one sitting, in a matter of hours. I couldn't put it down, and its definately worthy of all the hype!

5/5 Stars

Click the book's cover to go to it's Amazon page(Disclaimer: I am an Amazon Associate, meaning I earn a small percentage for the items bought through my links). Description from Goodreads.