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Everyone knows the legends about the cursed girl--Isabel, the one the señoras whisper about. They say she has green skin and grass for hair, and she feeds on the poisonous plants that fill her family’s Caribbean island garden. Some say she can grant wishes; some say her touch can kill.

Seventeen-year-old Lucas lives on the mainland most of the year but spends summers with his hotel-developer father in Puerto Rico. He’s grown up hearing stories about the cursed girl, and he wants to believe in Isabel and her magic. When letters from Isabel begin mysteriously appearing in his room the same day his new girlfriend disappears, Lucas turns to Isabel for answers--and finds himself lured into her strange and enchanted world. But time is running out for the girl filled with poison, and the more entangled Lucas becomes with Isabel, the less certain he is of escaping with his own life. 



✱ Pages: 288 (hardcover)
✱ Publication date: 12 April 2016
✱ Provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review


A YA début that features magical realism? Sold.

The Setting


Maybe my favourite thing about this book: the setting was lovely. Reading this book kind of feels like being transported to Puerto Rico. It's rather wonderful, really. The descriptions are lush, and give a really nice picture of what life is like for our characters. The writing is enjoyable and works for this story really well.


The Characters


This is where my opinions get a bit mixed. Isabel - the girl filled with poison - is an enigma. I like those. She kept me reading - I had to find out more about her. She is interesting, and her circumstances just make you wonder, make you want to know everything. But the protagonist, Lucas... I guess I didn't find him all that likeable? Which is fair enough, and actually might just mean that he's quite a realistic portrayal of a teenage boy. I just couldn't quite bring myself to care about him. Potentially because he sometimes seems like he doesn't care about things.


The Mystery and the Plot


Isabel may be the first mystery in the story, but there is also another pretty important one: girls are disappearing. This storyline works well enough to drive the plot, but overall it ended up being a bit confusing. I wanted something slightly more from the plot because there was so much potential in the premise of the cursed girl. On the other hand the magical realism is a cool part of the story.

Overall, I'm glad to have read A Fierce and Subtle Poison but I'd be lying if I said I didn't have a few problems with it.

An interesting feat of magical realism with a pretty intriguing plot, wonderful descriptions, and characters that will keep you turning the pages to find out what happens to them (even if you're not overly fond of Lucas).
Have you read A Fierce and Subtle Poison? Do you enjoy magical realism?

Why Do You Read?

When I set out to write this post, I thought this topic would be pretty simple. Why do you read? Turns out... Well, it's not. Maybe it shouldn't be so surprising? What do you think?


The Origins of Little Reader Annika

{This is basically the superhero origin story here, I guess?}


Long, long ago I lived in a pretty chaotic household when I was a kid - reading just so happened to be something I could do when the kids (as in, my younger sisters) were asleep or busy with homework, and it was something I could do for me. Pretty much the only thing. I was that quiet, shy girl who never spoke in class so it seems I was fated for this bookish life, maybe?


Starting Uni

{Finding myself? Cliché subheadings abound today, guys...}

You know how it's supposed to be so intense and everything's new and wonderful and stressful when you start university? Because of all that (and because I was still recuperating from a long-time health condition) I didn't really think about reading too much. I just did reading for my course - articles and textbooks.

And then I slowly realised that I was really unhappy. And it wasn't because I didn't like my course. It was just that I wasn't reading at all, and I didn't have any time for myself because I felt the pressure to go out at night and spend time with people I didn't really care about [BFF - if you're reading this, I totally didn't hate spending time with you. Maybe because we basically never went clubbing. I love you.]

So I got back to reading. Old favourites, like Maugham's the Razor's Edge, Pride and Prejudice. All the fun stuff. It was like, getting a part of my identity back? Trying on an old jumper and seeing it fit just as well as it always did, and that actually it was even more comfortable than it was a few years back. That kind of feeling. 


Why Do I Keep Reading?

{Learn from your mistakes...Or at least try to}

I'm really good at making the same mistakes again and again ad infinitum. [I am the queen of finishing assignments an hour before the deadline. It's the worst habit ever] but I've kept from breaking my habit of reading. I don't think a week goes by where I don't read at least a book or two. The thing is, it keeps me happy. It makes me believe in humanity, and morality, and kindness and an assortment of other wonderful things (like dragons!). 

Reading helps me process things that go on in my over-active mind, and lets me seem like a relatively normal person on the outside. It keeps me sane. Pretty important things, really.

 
That's enough of me rambling on and on. Tell me about you! What made you a reader, and why do you keep going? What's the best thing about reading for you?
The Sunday Post is a weekly meme for sharing our news, and plans for the next week, hosted by the wonderful Kimba @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer.

Hello my lovely internet narwhals!

We're finally getting some sun and it feels like summer! On top of that, I just got a ticket home so I'm heading there on Wednesday. You could say I'm pretty excited :)
I'm pretty busy doing my dissertation research now. I've got a meeting again tomorrow (yay!) to go over my bibliography and chapter outline and then I'll be treating my dissertation as a 9-5 job, basically. Is there a better way to spend a summer?

✦ April Top 5 YA Recommendations + ARC challenge updates
I recap ARC April and start up on the May Clean Sweep Challenge
✦ Bookish Confessions: I love YA (too much?)
A discussion post - you're welcome to join in!
✦ Conversations: Reasons to blog
A bit GIF heavy...
✦ BookBuddyAThon TBR!
My TBR for the next week.
✦ The Fourline Trilogy by Pam Brondos
Pretty awesome fantasy trilogy about a student who goes through a portal into another world.
✦ Wolf by Wolf by Ryan Graudin
Alternate history where Hitler is still alive in the 1950's.

  


Basically, I got a massive amount of approvals for ARCs in two days and so... yay.
  
  

And I got a few things for my kindle...
  


✦ Review of  A Fierce and Subtle Poison
✦ (Finally) a post about the end of Camp NaNoWriMo
✦ A Bookish Confessions post!

How was your week? Did anything good happen? Let me know!

The BookBuddyAThon is a pretty relaxed Readathon from 7-13 May, where you find a buddy to take part with.
Check the details for #BookBuddyAthon Readathon, and the booktube channels of Elena @ Elena Loves Books and Sam @ Cold Tea and Crumbs who have put the event together.

So starting today, I'm taking part in this event with the brilliant Ely! You should check Ely and Michelle's blog @ Tea & Titles!


So anyway, I'm ready and excited!

There are five challenges - here are my picks for the next week:

[Covers link to Goodreads]
  
 

1) Choose three books and get your buddy to pick one from them for you to read. Ely picked Rainbow Rowell's Fangirl for me. I'm so excited to read it!

2) Buddy read a book with your buddy. Am I Normal Yet? by Holly Bourne.

3) Read a book with your buddy's favourite colour on. Ely's favourite colour is purple, so I'm reading Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo.

4) Read a book that's title starts with the first letter of your buddy's name (or at least appears in the title if not possible). Every Day by David Levithan. I've been wanting to read this one for ages!

5) Read a book that you want to... just because. Probably Julia Vanishes by Catherine Egan, because I have way too many ARCs I need to read.

Are you taking part in BookBuddyAThon? If not, what are you reading at the moment? Are there any other interesting events going on?


Conversations is a brilliant, new fortnightly meme by Geraldine @ Corralling Books and Joan @ Fiddler Blue. Check the details and get involved!
The theme for May is Blogging Habits, and the topic for this week is:
✱ What pushed you to start blogging and why do you continue to blog?


Hello lovelies! It's the weekend! Are you as happy about it as I am?

Today's topic for Conversations is one of my favourites. I've talked about my love of the blogging community before, but today the focus is a bit different. Although the community may be one of the main reasons I continue to blog, it's not why I started blogging originally ( - okay, it actually is, in part).
But let me throw some other reasons at you, okay?

We All Need Hobbies

Right? It took me forever to realise it, but over the last three years or so, I've slowly given up all the things I used to love - and started focusing on my studies instead. It was making me seriously unhappy. So I started book blogging. I can talk books, meet wonderful people, and talk some more about books. Perfect!

Being a Grad Student is Wonderful(ly Stressful)

I'm always stressed out, especially now that I only have four months left to finish my MSc. I didn't fully anticipate how stressful it really would be, but here we are.
Luckily, I have this wonderful community of book bloggers who wish me well, and are amazingly supportive!

All Weirdos Need Other Weirdos

I'm so weird. Most of you have probably realised this too by now. When I meet someone else who's a little odd too? It's a party, basically.

Things I like (that make me weird [according to normal people])

  • skeletons (like, real ones)
  • being in a bone lab alone (it's really nice and calm),
  • angry feminist rants,
  • angry rants about how awful people are (title: I Hate People),
  • talking to dogs like they're people,
  • spending entire days talking to cats,
  • pretending I know what the letters IT stand for,
  • rapping along to anything from Hamilton,
  • singing random lines from the Book of Mormon *at* people and making them uncomfortable,
  • ugly-crying because something happened in a book,
  • randomly bursting into song (I have a musical tune for any occasion),

Right. Too much ammunition for the BFF...

I'm Actually a Hermit/Vampire/Anti-Social Superhero

Sometimes I don't want to see people for days on end. It's nice to have a way to still talk to people about your interests despite being stuck home.

To Conclude: Being Social Yet Anti-Social is the Best


What about you? What pushed you to start blogging? Why do you continue? Let me know in the comments!