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The Girl Drank Poison
A magic potion may spoil; its intended effects lost to time. The power of a potion, however, never fades. It contorts, deforms, and mutates, often leading to something monstrous. Thus tragedy befalls Zellin Percour, a young woman tricked into drinking an expired love potion. Now, transformed into an abomination, she's rampaging her way toward the town of Sleeping Bear, hellbent on finding the man who deceived her.
Horace is enjoying his quiet life. He loves his wife, his children, and his shop in Sleeping Bear. He's grateful that his violent past is buried deeper than the bodies left in his wake. But when a fool leads disaster to his door, he must revive his lethal talents or risk losing everything.
Griever wields a weapon of untold power. She's also only two feet tall. This makes her both the deadliest and most easily overlooked bounty hunter in the world. She's caught the scent of her hero, legendary pirate Lorenzo Blade, and is eager to discover if the man lives up to his myth. Her trail leads her to Sleeping Bear, where she's about to discover all manner of hell lying beneath the surface.
Horace is enjoying his quiet life. He loves his wife, his children, and his shop in Sleeping Bear. He's grateful that his violent past is buried deeper than the bodies left in his wake. But when a fool leads disaster to his door, he must revive his lethal talents or risk losing everything.
Griever wields a weapon of untold power. She's also only two feet tall. This makes her both the deadliest and most easily overlooked bounty hunter in the world. She's caught the scent of her hero, legendary pirate Lorenzo Blade, and is eager to discover if the man lives up to his myth. Her trail leads her to Sleeping Bear, where she's about to discover all manner of hell lying beneath the surface.
- GenresFantasy
138 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 14, 2020
6 people are currently reading
15 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
June 16, 2020
*This was one of my books for the #SPFBO6 which I read as part of my batch to find a finalist.* Unfortunately, this book didn't work well for me, and I was both baffled and confused by various choices made by the characters, their general roles, and what on earth the thought-process behind this book was.
The story here is centred on a girl who drinks an out of date love potion, unbeknownst to her, and turns into a monster. She's then on a rampage.
We also have a ferrelf (basically a magic ferret) who is planning to hunt down the monster-girl. They refer to themselves as 'we' in a way that really irritated me, so I instantly wasn't a fan of this character.
Finally we have Horace (shop owner) and Degre (the man who was dumb enough to keep and use an out of date love potion on an unsuspecting girl).
Honestly, the plot of this one is messy. It jumps around a lot from the characters to their pasts and their current plots. I often find multiple PoVs work very well for me, but in this case it was a struggle to enjoy any of the PoVs and I really didn't care for, or about, any of the characters except the 'monster' who barely gets a look in.
Overall, the pacing is choppy and brief in the parts which I would have liked to see more of, such as the development of characters and world. The magic is a fairly unexplained, both the potion and the magic powers of the world. The story feels like it doesn't really have too much of a destination in mind and it takes some odd twists to get to the ending, and it also felt unresolved to me as it finished rather abruptly.
I don't think that this book is the sort of book that will work for everyone, certainly it didn't for me, but I have heard from others that other books by this author are worth a try. Maybe this one was a little more experimental and that experiment didn't pay off with me, but it still could if anything I've described sounds more like your thing. I'd be curious from those who did enjoy this what exactly you enjoyed about it or what you took from it, as to me it was a tricky one to get through (despite being a quick read) thanks to the tangle of everything going on. 1.5*s from me which is 3/10 overall for #SPFBO. Sadly not one that worked for me personally.
The story here is centred on a girl who drinks an out of date love potion, unbeknownst to her, and turns into a monster. She's then on a rampage.
We also have a ferrelf (basically a magic ferret) who is planning to hunt down the monster-girl. They refer to themselves as 'we' in a way that really irritated me, so I instantly wasn't a fan of this character.
Finally we have Horace (shop owner) and Degre (the man who was dumb enough to keep and use an out of date love potion on an unsuspecting girl).
Honestly, the plot of this one is messy. It jumps around a lot from the characters to their pasts and their current plots. I often find multiple PoVs work very well for me, but in this case it was a struggle to enjoy any of the PoVs and I really didn't care for, or about, any of the characters except the 'monster' who barely gets a look in.
Overall, the pacing is choppy and brief in the parts which I would have liked to see more of, such as the development of characters and world. The magic is a fairly unexplained, both the potion and the magic powers of the world. The story feels like it doesn't really have too much of a destination in mind and it takes some odd twists to get to the ending, and it also felt unresolved to me as it finished rather abruptly.
I don't think that this book is the sort of book that will work for everyone, certainly it didn't for me, but I have heard from others that other books by this author are worth a try. Maybe this one was a little more experimental and that experiment didn't pay off with me, but it still could if anything I've described sounds more like your thing. I'd be curious from those who did enjoy this what exactly you enjoyed about it or what you took from it, as to me it was a tricky one to get through (despite being a quick read) thanks to the tangle of everything going on. 1.5*s from me which is 3/10 overall for #SPFBO. Sadly not one that worked for me personally.
October 24, 2020
In 'The Girl Drank Poison', Keith Blenman's world is populated with lunatics and caricatures drawn with such sympathy that one is tempted to regard them as ordinary people who happen to inhabit a surreal magical world.
His writing is extraordinary, in a way similar to that of Raymond St. Elmo (see, 'Letters from a Shipwreck in the Sea of Suns and Moons', also available on Amazon). That means it is also very intense, and therefore demanding for the reader. This is not necessarily a bad thing.
His creation of Griever the ferrelf is nothing less than brilliant. I must quote one sentence to give you something of an idea of the nature of ferrelves:
"On rare occasions, one ferrelf may be in possession of something another ferrelf wants, and while snatching is a regular practice among their kind, any dispute over an object is resolved with fighting and wrestling each other until the object in question is forgotten about entirely."
The story is extremely gory, gloriously disastrous, and a moral fable which indelibly underscores the folly of being stupid, and of being covetous. For those readers who appreciate a fantasy with both subtlety and depth, and have the stomach to wade through a literary work amid the deaths of hundreds, perhaps thousands of innocent bystanders, this is an amazing book, and, for you, I highly recommend it.
His writing is extraordinary, in a way similar to that of Raymond St. Elmo (see, 'Letters from a Shipwreck in the Sea of Suns and Moons', also available on Amazon). That means it is also very intense, and therefore demanding for the reader. This is not necessarily a bad thing.
His creation of Griever the ferrelf is nothing less than brilliant. I must quote one sentence to give you something of an idea of the nature of ferrelves:
"On rare occasions, one ferrelf may be in possession of something another ferrelf wants, and while snatching is a regular practice among their kind, any dispute over an object is resolved with fighting and wrestling each other until the object in question is forgotten about entirely."
The story is extremely gory, gloriously disastrous, and a moral fable which indelibly underscores the folly of being stupid, and of being covetous. For those readers who appreciate a fantasy with both subtlety and depth, and have the stomach to wade through a literary work amid the deaths of hundreds, perhaps thousands of innocent bystanders, this is an amazing book, and, for you, I highly recommend it.
October 1, 2020
A Unique & Highly Imaginative Fantasy
A bunk love potion, a reformed-ruffian shopkeeper, and ferret-like lady with a magical arm.
When an expired love potion turns a tavern girl into a raging monster, Horace—the poor sap who sold the shoddy potion—hires Griever, a ferrelf, to put down the beast.
I found this story delightful with a bent toward quirky classic fairytales.
A bunk love potion, a reformed-ruffian shopkeeper, and ferret-like lady with a magical arm.
When an expired love potion turns a tavern girl into a raging monster, Horace—the poor sap who sold the shoddy potion—hires Griever, a ferrelf, to put down the beast.
I found this story delightful with a bent toward quirky classic fairytales.
August 22, 2020
Okay, this is my first SPFBO 2020 read, and I mostly chose this book over so many worthy contenders because the cover and premise is so bizarre.
The plot is quite a breath of fresh air. A loser named Degre has the hots for an ordinary barmaid named Zelin and he does what any slick adulterer would do if given the chance: buy a love potion and make her love him. But just like in Harry Potter, forcing the love of other people inevitably backfires and it isn't due to the morality of gaining ill requested love be deceit... more like Degre left the potion to spoil and caused... well... unexpected results.
Harold is a middleman who sells good wares in a small village. He has made a good name for himself and doesn't want his seemingly perfect life to end. Unfortunately, he is greeted one day by a ferreelf. I have never heard of such a creature in fantasy lore before which in itself piqued my attention, and it seems like you combine the cuteness of ferrets with intelligence (and a tad bit too much ADHD) and the immortality of elves and you are presented with quite the strangest of heroes to save the day. Griever is the name of this character and she knows a hefty lot about Harold's previous life as a very (in)famous pirate. Much to his chagrin, she is not only super agile, her entire left arm has been replaced by magical salt crystals that can meld with all sorts of surfaces and change shape upon her will (sort of the like the superpower of Kevin from Ben 10). She gives him an offer that seems even ridiculous to the threatened Harold: she offers to defeat a monster that has been terrorizing a series of villages and he will pay her a single coin as a reward. More out of a wish to get rid of the pest than anything else, Harold eagerly accepts in the hopes Greiver gets herself killed along the way.
The story is definitely good and I like how the author grants us a few glimpses of a strange world where immortal wizards care more about listening to the moons than worldly affairs and bird beasts can kill even elves blessed with magic absurdly easily. Despite being the 3rd iteration of a series, I had no problems delving into this standalone story. Griever with her occasionally disorganized thought processes is a sturdy enough character in her own right to move the plot forward, whereas Harold plays the unwitting costar alongside a pitiable Degre who is literally dragged along.
As much as I enjoyed the backstory about Griever's past and how she obtained her arm, I feel like this was the weakest chapter in the book. It isn't that I considered it to be poorly written because learning more about ferreelf society is fascinating, I felt the chapter drew the focus too far away from the story at hand and affected the pacing too much to bypass. That chapter could very well have been the first chapter of the next book in the planned story "Reaper" and this book would have greatly benefitted from it.
Nonetheless, despite the issues I found with this book, I like the world building and would definitely look at other books of the series. 3 1/2 stars!
The plot is quite a breath of fresh air. A loser named Degre has the hots for an ordinary barmaid named Zelin and he does what any slick adulterer would do if given the chance: buy a love potion and make her love him. But just like in Harry Potter, forcing the love of other people inevitably backfires and it isn't due to the morality of gaining ill requested love be deceit... more like Degre left the potion to spoil and caused... well... unexpected results.
Harold is a middleman who sells good wares in a small village. He has made a good name for himself and doesn't want his seemingly perfect life to end. Unfortunately, he is greeted one day by a ferreelf. I have never heard of such a creature in fantasy lore before which in itself piqued my attention, and it seems like you combine the cuteness of ferrets with intelligence (and a tad bit too much ADHD) and the immortality of elves and you are presented with quite the strangest of heroes to save the day. Griever is the name of this character and she knows a hefty lot about Harold's previous life as a very (in)famous pirate. Much to his chagrin, she is not only super agile, her entire left arm has been replaced by magical salt crystals that can meld with all sorts of surfaces and change shape upon her will (sort of the like the superpower of Kevin from Ben 10). She gives him an offer that seems even ridiculous to the threatened Harold: she offers to defeat a monster that has been terrorizing a series of villages and he will pay her a single coin as a reward. More out of a wish to get rid of the pest than anything else, Harold eagerly accepts in the hopes Greiver gets herself killed along the way.
The story is definitely good and I like how the author grants us a few glimpses of a strange world where immortal wizards care more about listening to the moons than worldly affairs and bird beasts can kill even elves blessed with magic absurdly easily. Despite being the 3rd iteration of a series, I had no problems delving into this standalone story. Griever with her occasionally disorganized thought processes is a sturdy enough character in her own right to move the plot forward, whereas Harold plays the unwitting costar alongside a pitiable Degre who is literally dragged along.
As much as I enjoyed the backstory about Griever's past and how she obtained her arm, I feel like this was the weakest chapter in the book. It isn't that I considered it to be poorly written because learning more about ferreelf society is fascinating, I felt the chapter drew the focus too far away from the story at hand and affected the pacing too much to bypass. That chapter could very well have been the first chapter of the next book in the planned story "Reaper" and this book would have greatly benefitted from it.
Nonetheless, despite the issues I found with this book, I like the world building and would definitely look at other books of the series. 3 1/2 stars!
August 24, 2020
I was a big fan of this book. The dark, macabre humor fit nicely into a story that, had it taken itself more seriously, would have easily fit into the grim dark sub-genre. The author does an excellent job of jumping perspectives and time frames to reveal story aspects in pieces instead of just going chronologically from A to B. It made for nice “Aha” moments that you normally wouldn’t get in a book this short. Not only that, but I absolutely must have more ferrelf in my life. The race and culture is ridiculously cute and fun, plus Blenman does a top notch job really nailing down the stunted attention span that an sentient ferret would have.
I have plenty of specific parts and quips that I love in this work, but don’t want to bring to avoid spoilers. But you want a quick, fun fantasy story that gives you a few new spins on fantasy, I highly recommend this book.
I have plenty of specific parts and quips that I love in this work, but don’t want to bring to avoid spoilers. But you want a quick, fun fantasy story that gives you a few new spins on fantasy, I highly recommend this book.
December 28, 2020
Fantasy fans will love this.
I delved into this one because of my first experience reading a fantasy novel. But I must confess that although this is a short read I struggled at the beginning but endured to the end after several sittings. This, of course, has nothing to do with the quality of the book but more so that on this occasion I ventured way outside of my comfort zone.
The book is well-written with non-stop adventure and the character development is good. I actually found myself laughing a few times because of the humour and antics of the characters, especially Griever. But I couldn’t let myself go.
This is one for ardent fans of fantasy. Not my kind of book.
I delved into this one because of my first experience reading a fantasy novel. But I must confess that although this is a short read I struggled at the beginning but endured to the end after several sittings. This, of course, has nothing to do with the quality of the book but more so that on this occasion I ventured way outside of my comfort zone.
The book is well-written with non-stop adventure and the character development is good. I actually found myself laughing a few times because of the humour and antics of the characters, especially Griever. But I couldn’t let myself go.
This is one for ardent fans of fantasy. Not my kind of book.
May 15, 2020
It has dark humor, fantasy, action, and an undercurrent of social commentary that is well balanced and presented through masterful technique to an audience that the author assumes has some level of sophistication.
It is my favorite of all Blenman's work (Yes, I have read all of it and all of it is worth your time!)
It has the echoes of Gaiman's dark parables, Pratchett's wit and the engrossing action of Scott Lynch.
It is the second novel in The Vecris Series, taking place ages after the events of Necromantica (and the prelude novella, Whisper) but they can be read in any order.
It is my favorite of all Blenman's work (Yes, I have read all of it and all of it is worth your time!)
It has the echoes of Gaiman's dark parables, Pratchett's wit and the engrossing action of Scott Lynch.
It is the second novel in The Vecris Series, taking place ages after the events of Necromantica (and the prelude novella, Whisper) but they can be read in any order.
October 23, 2020
A fun, funny fantasy with plenty of monsters, mayhem and magic
Well-written, well-paced and well-plotted, this was a pleasure to read. A long-retired and legendary pirate is dragged out of his peaceful existence by a rampaging monster he is partly responsible for creating. With the problematic help of a deranged but powerfully magical talking ferret he has to figure out how to stop an apparently unstoppable beast.
Set against the backdrop of an intricately created world, engaging characters, a wry sense of humor and loads of action make this an enjoyable read.
Well-written, well-paced and well-plotted, this was a pleasure to read. A long-retired and legendary pirate is dragged out of his peaceful existence by a rampaging monster he is partly responsible for creating. With the problematic help of a deranged but powerfully magical talking ferret he has to figure out how to stop an apparently unstoppable beast.
Set against the backdrop of an intricately created world, engaging characters, a wry sense of humor and loads of action make this an enjoyable read.
September 19, 2020
This was a bizarre book. Yes do a lot I don’t understand. The humor kind of fell flat for me. Selena drinks a love potion given to her by bagger and turns into a beast. I still don’t understand why she turned back into a woman.
February 7, 2021
This book is not something that I would normally read and enjoy, but the author’s prose and world building was unique and intriguing. I especially liked Griever, the Ferrelf, who added a bit of lightness and humor to the otherwise dark story.
May 3, 2020
This was fun! RTC
June 25, 2020
A fun summer read! Good world-building and interesting magic. I want a Dark Salt.
September 29, 2020
A bit different for sure.
Different can be a good thing. I wasn't sure I would get into this set of books but I'm glad I did. Enjoyable reading time!
Different can be a good thing. I wasn't sure I would get into this set of books but I'm glad I did. Enjoyable reading time!
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews