If you were given the choice between a quick death or slowly dying of poison, which one would you choose? It’s the choice Yelena faces on a daily basis in the book, “Poison Study,” by Maria V. Snyder.

On the day she is suppose to be sentenced to death, Yelena is given that choice of dying or living. The catch is that she will become the new food taster for Commander Ambrose of Ixia. But Valek, the chief of security, has made sure that Yelena won’t do something stupid by giving her a poison called Butterfly’s Dust, which requires a daily antidote if she wants to live.

In addition, Yelena is being haunted by the ghost of her past and threatened by people who really want her dead. With one struggle after the next, being poisoned starts to become the only normal thing in Yelena’s life.

Snyder’s 2005 book threw a curve ball at me that I did not see coming. Although the subject of life and death is a pretty heavy topic to touch upon, I figured this book would be a little more fun and light hearted like most young adult novels.

It starts off dark and doesn’t really get any brighter, even when the love story part come into play. The main characters’ development is interesting to watch because it doesn’t all happen at once like it does in some of the other books.

I applauded Yelena and everything she had to go through, but my favorite character had to be Valek. There was something about the way he acted through out the story that made him a great character. At first I hated him, but just like with Yelena, the more I read the more I felt something for him and liked him.

All the characters follow that same pattern, you don’t really like them at first but then something happens that changes your perspective. There are even moments where the opposite is true for some characters.

Even though it was a story wrapped in tragedy, magic, and a lot of other themes that you wouldn’t think about connecting to everyday life, “Poison Study” felt very human to me.

The things that Yelena has to put up with through the course of the story are things that shouldn’t have to happen to anyone. She is a strong willed character when you really put her into perspective and I cannot wait to see where the story is going in the other books.