Book Review: The Poison Diaries: Nightshade

Title: The Poison Diaries: Nightshade
Series: The Poison Diaries
Author: Maryrose Wood and the Dutchess of Northumberland
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 9780061802423

Book source: review copy from publisher

Nightshade is a direct continuation of The Poison Diaries, and I'm having a hard time figuring out how to review it without completely spoiling volume one.  The revelations at the end of volume one are so huge, so shocking, that even providing a synopsis of Nightshade is going to ruin things for you.  So let's do it this way.

If you haven't read The Poison Diaries, go do that now.  No really, I'll wait.  Trust me, it's worth your time.

And now that we're all on the same page (sorry, sorry, but the book puns, they write themselves), I can tell you that Nightshade is even more gothic and unsettling than The Poison Diaries.  Jessamine and Weed are placed in impossible situations, forced to make impossible choices, and must confront their own capacities for both good and evil (much like the plants which can both kill and cure...).  Nothing but the worst possible thing happens in this entire book.

And I loved it. 

I love it when authors are brave enough to push their beloved characters to the limits - when fictional people have to earn their happy endings, just like those in real life do.  I like being unsure of whether those happy endings will even happen.  And I loved that, while book one was about what brought Weed and Jessamine together, book two is about things that are keeping them apart.

For whatever reason, I found myself convinced that the setting was more historical than it actually is, meaning that the more modern details occasionally pulled me out of the story.  In addition, since both Weed and Jessamine's narratives are told in first person, it can take a couple of paragraphs to orient after a switch.  That said, I think these books would make terrific classroom reading.  They grapple with themes from classic literature, and Nightshade in particular (if you're inclined to read metaphorically), can be viewed as an exploration of the perils of addiction.

Eagerly awaiting volume three...


Previously:  The Poison Diaries
                    The Mysterious Howling
                    Interview with Maryrose Wood