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Summary
Summary
In this stunning debut, legends collide with reality when a boy is swept into the magical, dangerous world of a girl filled with poison.
Everyone knows the legends about the cursed girl--Isabel, the one the senoras whisper about. They say she has green skin and grass for hair, and she feeds on the poisonous plants that fill her family's Caribbean island garden. Some say she can grant wishes; some say her touch can kill.
Seventeen-year-old Lucas lives on the mainland most of the year but spends summers with his hotel-developer father in Puerto Rico. He's grown up hearing stories about the cursed girl, and he wants to believe in Isabel and her magic. When letters from Isabel begin mysteriously appearing in his room the same day his new girlfriend disappears, Lucas turns to Isabel for answers--and finds himself lured into her strange and enchanted world. But time is running out for the girl filled with poison, and the more entangled Lucas becomes with Isabel, the less certain he is of escaping with his own life.
A Fierce and Subtle Poison beautifully blends magical realism with a page-turning mystery and a dark, starcrossed romance--all delivered in lush, urgent prose.
"A breathtaking story in which myths come to frightening life and buried wishes might actually come true. This is a hypnotic debut by a remarkable talent." --Nova Ren Suma, author of The Walls Around Us and Imaginary Girls
Author Notes
Samantha Mabry is the author of A Fierce and Subtle Poison; All the Wind in the World , which was longlisted for a National Book Award; and Tigers, Not Daughters . In addition to writing, Samantha teaches college-level composition at Southern Methodist University and is the mother of an energetic young son. Samantha and her family divide their time between Dallas and Mineral Wells, Texas. Visit her online at samanthamabry.com.
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 7 Up-In Puerto Rico, teenage girls are disappearing, their dead bodies washing up on the beach. Rich American teen Lucas is often left on his own by his busy father and hangs out in Old San Juan, drinking beer with his buddies and looking for good times with girls. When Lucas meets Isabelle, the isolated daughter of a strange botanist, he learns that she suffers from a condition that's dangerous to others. When Celia, the younger sister of the latest murder victim, goes missing, Isabelle reveals details of her father's troubling experiments, and, despite her fragile condition, she teams up with Lucas to find Celia. Narrator Graham Hamilton has the perfect degree of ironic teen tone when needed and keeps the action at the right pace. What looks like a typical spoiled-teen story weaves elements of mystery, witchcraft, fantasy, and a bit of romance. This novel will lure teen readers who enjoy any of these genres. VERDICT Dark but gripping, this is a likely choice for young adult collections in public and school libraries. ["A complex text best used in book clubs or classrooms where teens can discuss the dominant monocultural readings of the book, as well as the tourist perspectives of Puerto Rico": SLJ 3/16 review of the Algonquin book.]--Barbara Wysocki, formerly at Cora J. Belden Library, Rocky Hill, CT © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Inspired by Hawthorne's "Rappaccini's Daughter," debut author Mabry blends magical realism with mystery in the story of Lucas Knight, the 17-year-old son of a hotel developer spending his summers in San Juan. Instead of thinking about college, Lucas spends his time with friends Ruben, Rico, and Carlos, enjoying the nightlife despite tales of curses and ghosts, and the disappearances of several young girls in town. When a scribbled wish that Ruben's cousin Marisol leaves at a cursed house is returned to Lucas, he investigates, meeting and falling for an occupant of the house, Isabel Ford, whose touch is poisonous. Lucas becomes a suspect after Marisol's body washes up on the shore and her younger sister goes missing. With the police on Lucas's heels and Isabel's poison slowly killing her, the two race to put a stop to the disappearances and end the curse. Mabry smoothly joins dreamy, fever-induced scenes with the lore of "la ciguapa," a beautiful creature that leads men to insanity or death with a kiss, and her atmospheric ending guarantees goose bumps. Ages 12-up. Agent: Claire Anderson-Wheeler, Regal Hoffman & Associates. (Apr.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
Teenage playboy Lucas spends the summers in his real-estate developer father's luxe hotel in Puerto Rico. When girls start disappearing from the island and Lucas's latest hookup ends up dead, he becomes entangled with a creepy botanist and his daughter and is a suspect in the island's foul play. The story, with elements of magical realism, is satisfyingly moody, lyrical, and mysterious. (c) Copyright 2016. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Lucas is a rich, blond gringo in Puerto Rico, but he actually believes the old island tales about the secretive shut-in who lives down the street from his family's luxury hotel. Since he was a little boy, 17-year-old Lucas Knight has spent his summers at his real estate tycoon father's premier resorta renovated conventin Old San Juan. Despite his wealth, Luke can't escape his own brand of bad luck. His mother (an "island girl" herself) left the family when he was 7; his hotel room is reportedly where a heartsick novice once killed herself; and two days after hooking up with Marisolhis local best friend's beautiful cousinhe finds her dead body washed up on the beach, making the authorities think he's an ideal suspect. Things take a turn from mystery to magical realism when the girl from the "cursed" house on Calle SolIsabel, who's rumored to be so full of poison she's greenturns out to be real, and she's simultaneously dying and deadly. If Luke wants to know what happened to Marisol, he must trust this strange and sheltered girl. The author steeps her debut novel in compelling Caribbean folklore and a lush, evocative setting. The pacing, however, is occasionally uneven, and the plot often creates more questions than it answers. Fans of open-ended, atmospheric stories will enjoy the chilling suspense. (Fiction. 13-17) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Lucas spends his summers in Puerto Rico with his dad, who is a reviled American developer building resorts all over the island. Lucas dislikes his father, too, preferring to lose himself in the stories told by the local señoras, especially the one about the cursed house occupied by a poisonous, wish-granting witch. When girls start going missing later washing up on the beach, covered in blistery rashes Lucas never dreams that the cursed house could be related. But when he hops over the garden wall of the house on a whim and meets Isabel, the cloistered, ill girl who lives there, he learns there's more truth to the old stories than he could have imagined. While a few relationships and plot points seem a bit flimsy, debut author Mabry cultivates a rich setting, offering lush descriptions of the island, its stories, and the sharp divide between the old world and the incoming new one, characterized by swift modernization and the careless destruction of history. Perfect for fans of Carlos Ruiz Zafón's atmospheric Marina (2014).--Hunter, Sarah Copyright 2016 Booklist