Disappointing...

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After reading an excerpt of The Poison Season by Mara Rutherford, I was intrigued. I particularly liked the idea of a sentient forest and a poisonous lake tying into a magic system. Sadly, I found the book to be a bit disappointing.

My main complaint is that the novel was extremely slow. While it did pick up a little towards the end, even the climax of the plot was not very compelling. Likewise, it was only 390 pages, but it felt like it was about 1,000.

Furthermore, I felt let down by the developments throughout the novel. The idea of a malicious, sentient forest was so interesting, and I was really excited about that, but I think that concept was very under-developed and didn’t add much to the story. Similarly, the poisonous lake was again fascinating, but I think the author should have spent more time focusing on these two aspects of the novel to add depth and mystery.

I will say that the characters were complex. Leelo’s relationships with different characters in the novel were dynamic and diverse. I thought Rutherford did a great job of adding a lot of complicated family dynamics, and the friendships in the novel were multi-dimensional as well.

Overall, I think plenty of people will enjoy The Poison Season, it just wasn’t the right book for me.