Small Town, Plenty of Secrets

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A big thanks to NetGalley and Inkyard Press for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Imagine taking the elusive setting of Small Favors by Erin A Craig and mixing it with the 'enemies to lovers/I'm going to kill you' narrative of To Kill a Kingdom by Alexandra Christo, and boom you have The Poison Season. Plus or minus a few bees and a killer siren. With a hefty dose of practically anything in this world will kill you.

The Poison Season by Mara Rutherford is a YA fantasy novel that follows the life Leelo as she goes about her normal life on the island of Endla. The place of literal nightmares as its guarded by a bloodthirsty forest and a poisonous lake. Ah, such a lovely sounding vacation spot. Everything is normal for Leelo, until a mysterious boy by the name Jaren washes ashore after nearly drowning. Then stuff really starts to get weird, in not the good way.

Now, this technically isn't my first Mara Rutherford book, as I had once tried and utterly gave up on both Crown of Coral and Pearl and Luminous. But, if things are written like The Poison Season, hopefully this one won't be the last. With this novel, Rutherford had a way of drawing out the drama, with a subtly slow burn way. Which was both satisfying, and highly annoying because I wanted the book to end much faster than it did. After all, it was going to be complex and mind bending in a not so good way.

Overall, I would recommend this to anyone looking for a good book to chuck at a wall at will.