(This is an archive story, please refer to byline for author name)
By Arita Qerimi
The book, The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner is about a female apothecary who secretly dispenses poisons to liberate women from the men who have wronged them - setting three lives across centuries on a dangerous collision course.
This book follows three women’s point of views. Nella, the apothecary owner, Eliza, a 12-year-old-girl [who are both set in 1791] and Caroline, a 30-year-old history buff. The overall concept of the book is so interesting, but the execution was just alright. The book starts off with Nella, the apothecary owner, waiting for another woman to arrive. Then it switches off to our present day character, Caroline, who has taken her anniversary trip alone after a problem in her marriage. This book started off slow, but then got somewhat interesting.
One thing I did not enjoy about this book was that each chapter was a different character’s point of view . When one character's story would get interesting, they would leave off on a cliffhanger and then switch to another character's story which would be boring, and it did this throughout the whole book. Because of this, it was hard to get through.
Another thing that I did not like was that the ending was not very good and unsatisfying. If you want to know more, read the book. Throughout the whole book, it felt like something else was missing. There were definitely some twists and turns, but nothing groundbreaking.
One thing I love about this book is the whole layout. It is a gorgeous cover and hardback. One of the first pages is a map pointing out each location in the book. Another cool thing about this book is that at the end, they actually have each “poison” and how they are made, along with a few cute little recipes that correlate with the book. One thing that might turn you away is if you do not like hardback books. They only currently have hardbacks, audio, and a kindle version. But paperback versions of this book come out sometime in February.
Overall, I gave this book a 3 out of 5. It was a good book but not amazing. There were definitely some forgettable moments.