review: lies like poison by chelsea pitcher

Lies Like Poison by Chelsea Pitcher
Publication Date: November 10, 2020
Rating: 4 stars

Summary:

Poppy, Lily, and Belladonna would do anything to protect their best friend, Raven. So when they discovered he was suffering abuse at the hands of his stepmother, they came up with a lethal plan: petals of poppy, belladonna, and lily in her evening tea so she’d never be able to hurt Raven again. But someone got cold feet, the plot faded to a secret of the past, and the group fell apart.

Three years later, on the eve of Raven’s seventeenth birthday, his stepmother turns up dead. But it’s only belladonna found in her tea, and it’s only Belladonna who’s carted off to jail. Desperate for help, Belle reaches out to her estranged friends to prove her innocence. They answer the call, but no one is prepared for what comes next.

Lies Like Poison is a contemporary dark fairy tale that deals with many complex themes such as transgender / LGBTQ+ representation, murder, grief and abuse and handles them beautifully with intriguing characters and stunning writing. Honestly Chelsea Pitcher's writing in this book reminds me of Francesca Lia Block and Alice Hoffman and I am 100% for it. Pitcher's writing is lyrical and haunting yet also packs a punch.

Having four main characters and being able to give them such distinct personalities and stories can be tricky and often times one of the characters will fall by the wayside, yet that doesn't happen here. All characters are given ample time to tell their individual stories and still come together to finish the mystery. It's rare when I can't figure out who the murderer is in a story pretty quickly but Lies Like Poison did manage to keep me guessing until right before the reveal. 

I won't say Lies Like Poison is a perfect read. I did have a little trouble following who was narrating at times but could quickly figure it out after a moment. Unreliable narrators can be pretty tricky to follow in general and there's more than one here. There are also moments that are definitely hard to read, especially during flashbacks to abusive moments and situations, but they are vital to the story. But I will say that I loved this book. I absolutely devoured it. I'm pretty sure I read it within 3 hours and definitely lost sleep before work the next day so that I could finish it. I would absolutely recommend it to anyone who loves a good mystery and enjoys Young Adult reads or to anyone who is a fan of fairy tales, especially twisted ones.

A huge thank you goes out to NetGalley, Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing and Margaret K. McElderry Books for giving me an advance copy to read in exchange for an honest review.

xx Melissa