The Kinder Poison is a fun, fast-moving YA fantasy novel about a normal girl looking for one moment to feel special, and it backfires in just about every way possible. A big celebration is planned as three heirs to the throne prepare to race each other to earn the right to their father's crown, but all Zahru wants is to experience the celebration. Because her magic isn't special enough, she and her friend Hen hatch a plot to sneak her in. Except it goes fantastically wrong and Zahru ends up in the middle of three siblings, each with their own motivations, and her destined for sacrifice when one of the three is declared a winner. Mae definitely does some things right with this story. In many ways she makes Zahru the decider of her own destiny, without making her an over-the-top, fearless heroine. She makes her a perfectly normal girl who listens to her heart, and who cares about others. She also doesn't cast a true villain, instead creating characters that are conflicted or misunderstood which can lead them to make poor or regrettable choices. These things make the characters more real and relatable. The magic makes for a pretty, interesting world too. The biggest thing lacking to me in the story was as much as the characters were enjoyable, I didn't quite feel that emotional pull that elevates a story to the next level for me or the truly magical storytelling that actually makes me feel like I'm a part of the story myself.