Reviewed by girlinthepages on
French historical fantasy seems to be a new trend happening this year in YA and I am ALL about it. France has so much rich history (both great and terrible), so much grandeur surrounding it that it's a setting ripe for drama and storytelling and An Affair of Poisons delivers on both. Set during the reign of the infamous Sun King, the story focuses on a secret society determined to bring down the monarchy and rule "for the people." As with most political revolutions, all does not go as planned.
The story centers on two main characters who are on opposite sides of the spectrum of the political turmoil in Paris- Mirabelle, the daughter of the rule of the Shadow Society, and Josse, a bastard son of King Louis. When Mirabelle realizes her mother's intentions are not so pure and focused on helping the poor and sick after all and Josse realizes he's the only hope of getting his siblings to safety and establishing his brother on the throne, they must form an unlikely alliance to battle the Shadow Society and reclaim Paris.
Though a little improbable, I admit I really got caught up in the story while reading! It was fascinating to learn about Mirabelle's training in alchemy and to see how she could take elements that were seemingly so ordinary individually and transform them into things that could either heal or kill so quickly. I admired how her skills were won through years upon years of practice, hard work, and training by her father, rather than her being a "special snowflake" type character. Though I didn't feel super connected emotionally with the characters (or the romance- I feel like this story didn't need to be a romance), I did enjoy the cast of children and teens who were doing their best to try to survive a situation when all of the adults around them were either dead or had betrayed them, from the dauphin to the Josse's tiny half sisters who were surprising little survivors as they hid in the sewers with their siblings. It was also fascinating to see the relationship dynamics between all of the royal children, especially when it came to how they were viewed/treated by their father the king (his legitimate children vs. his illegitimate children by his "official" mistress vs. a true bastard like Josse). The complex family dynamics were interesting to read about and added a depth to the story.
I also feel like I learned a lot about France through this story that I didn't know (which is always a plus for me when reading historical fiction or fantasy). Most of the media I've seen regarding France of the past has focused on the French Revolution onwards, so it was interesting to read about a setting prior to then that was inspired by a less well-known conflict. Also, who knew the Lourve was a palace before it was a museum??? (Not I, sadly, but perhaps that is what I get from taking Spanish instead of French in school).
Though this story definitely falls firmly in the "historical fantasy" realm, I think it's so cool (and wild!) that it's inspired on real events! According to the author's note at the end of the book, there was a Secret Society led by a powerful female that did lead to an attempted poisoning of the king and political unrest in France. Thorley took the idea and ran with it, incorporating the magical elements and creating the main characters, but the foundations are all rooted in history (which just goes to show that sometimes truth can be way, way stranger than fiction).
Overall: An Affair of Poisons is a solid historical fiction/fantasy book that adds a magical spin on real French history that hasn't been overused before. Though I didn't feel emotionally invested in the characters or romance and the story had some odd pacing and time jumps, I had a lot of fun reading about this alternative version of the Sun King's reign and overall enjoyed my reading experience.This review was originally posted on Girl in the Pages
Reading updates
- Started reading
- 4 February, 2019: Finished reading
- 4 February, 2019: Reviewed