Morgan F's Reviews > The Poison Diaries

Sixteen-year-old Jessamine lives with her father, an apothecary, in an abandoned church she calls "the cottage". Her father's obsession is a forbidden garden where he keeps deadly and poisonous plants from around the world. Jessamine lives a boring life- taking care of her father and the plants, writing in her journal, doing household chores. Until a stranger shows up at her home with a present for her father. The present is Weed, a strange and introverted boy, whom with Jessamine builds a friendship, and later, a romance. Weed has a secret, though: plants communicate with him, and he is especially wary of the Poison Garden. But when Jessamine falls inexplicably ill, its up to Weed to unlock the secret of the dangerous garden in order to save her life.

When I first started this book, I thought it was going to be good. The premise was unique and the writing was lovely. I really liked Jessamine's journal and how her voice fit the time period. Quickly, though, I got sick of it. The writing soon became (pardon the pun) too flowery, and the beginning was incredibly boring. No conflict was introduced until nearly 50 pages in.

And once Weed was introduced, it was too late. I already had a sour taste in my mouth. Jessamine proved herself to be a weak character. All she did was cook, clean, and then become unconcious. I thought we had gotten past the whole Disney Princess concept. I guess not. And Weed and Jessamine's romance was incredibly awkward. I kept wincing and getting embarrassed for them. Weed would have been interesting if his ability wasn't so silly. He talks to plants, or more correctly, plants talk to him. I kept getting these absurd mental images of flowers with lips, and too soon I was past the point of taking this book seriously.

And the ending was pretty horrible. Once Jessamine got deadly ill, she couldn't very well write in her journal, could she? So Weed had to pick it up. From there, things got even weirder. It would shift between Weed's POV (which was eerily similar to Jessamine's), and these weird tripped out visions which Jessamine had of a Plant Prince or something. It was quite difficult to follow. And of course it ended openly because we can't have a stand-alone now, can we?

*sighs* There are just some books that don't need to be written.