Poison [Paperback]

Poison is another brilliant book by Chris Wooding. If you liked The Haunting of Alaizabel Cray, then you'll love this. I couldn't put it down until the very end. It has an original storyline and is fast-paced and exciting. Even if you haven't read any of Wooding's other books, you'll probably like this if you liked books by Philip Pullman, William Nicholson or Garth Nix.

I have read the haunting of alaizabel cray and i hated it. I bought this believing i would most probably hate it was well. But no! The story is well thought out and quiet freaky in parts (especially at the spider-lady's castle). Poison (the main character) does win your sympathy and The Phaerie lord Aelthar is a charcater rather reminiscent of Jareth (Labyrinth) which i definetly like. This book is well worth the £4.49 or wwhatever it costs and. It is a dark, gothic tale as you can imagine it being when having a leading lady named Poison. Five stars, definetley!!!

-------WARNING------SPOILERS AS ALWAYS-----------

Poison, as the name suggests, is a story, penned by Chris Wooding of the Haunting of Alaizabel Cray fame, following the trials and tribulations of the protagonist of the same name; a young teenage girl known as Poison. The book charts Poison's progress through increasingly murky waters; from her own dreary swamptown Gull to the harsh and sinister Wide World beyond its confines. Compelled by the theft of her sister, little Azalea, taken by malign "phaeries" while a voracious and evil changeling is left in its stead, a furious Poison sets out to gain an audience with the King of Phaeries, intending that she get her sister back at all costs. And so the adventure begins.
Poison is a solid book; well-plotted (every chapter revealing another hurdle to be overcome by our stoic heroine), filled with likeable characters that you can easily empathise with, and the phaeries are just derisive enough as to be worthy of doing what that author says, namely driving the human race to the most inhospitable parts of all the land, and keeping them there. Wooding concocts scenes outlandish and grisly enough to give younger readers a scare; for example, the contrast between Peppercorn's naivety and the sheer balefulness of the Bone Witch, both denizens of the same macabre dwelling, are put to great use. There are, however, some pitfalls.
This book, despite claims to the contrary, really is a phaerie tale, albeit one of a darker and more intelligent stock than those spelt with a plain "f". Fleet - the wise counsel and mentor, Bram - the stalwart muscle, Peppercorn - the innocent being in the midst of all the evil, Anderson - the extremely clever cat, and the Phaerie Lord himself - an archetypal capricious, powerful phaerie with the hatred for humans to match. All of these are stereotypical characters, come across time and time again, a fact even Poison seems to marvel at through the course of the story. This is meant to be a kind of irony, I suppose, for those who see it, but Wooding rather seems to rely on you to be chuckling along as he does it again and again, and it all becomes rather tiresome towards the close.
Also, the idea presented within the novel, that Poison's, indeed, all of the characters stories are written by a single human and collected in massive libraries guarded by people in cowls, is simply put rather strange. Considering the first half of the story was your basic quest/journey to get stolen/lost object/person/magic back, throwing in a not bad, but exceedingly abstract idea about stories within stories makes for a rather weird ending. Poison's ability to be the only one to see that they are trapped, also, and the others sheer inability to be able to process it, is also vaguely annoying. Poison, is also at times perhaps TOO stoic, making her challenges seem easy by comparison, like when she was entering the spider lair, but no-one was afraid of the spiders within. What? Compare this to Ron puking into the Pumpkin Patch after his and Harry's encounter with Aragog, and it all seems a little detached, no?
That being said, Poison, despite the clichés and errant plot, is an excellent step for young readers who are tired of the typical "fairy" tale. It's never boring, or a tax to read, it presents interesting questions about fate and destiny, and is just dark enough to satisfy those too old for Goosebumps, and who long for something for more depth than they have to offer. Reader, say hello to Poison.