Review: The Evolution of Ivy: Poison

The Evolution of Ivy: Poison by Lauren Campbell
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I’m going to be honest by saying my feelings towards this one are super mixed. A part of me really enjoyed this book and yet another part of me didn’t care much at all. A part of me thought it was all kinds of crazy whereas another part of me thought the book failed to deliver the punch I had been hoping it would. It’s such a paradoxical read, for me, thus my three star rating is a very limited reflection of the book. I know many will love it, there were also be those who won’t like it at all, but I’m stuck somewhere between the two and I have no idea how I truly feel.

When things were moving, I was really enjoying this book. There are many elements to the story, many things that leave you questioning where things are going, and I was always interested in what would come next. However, I feel as though there were many points where the story wasn’t moving at the rate it should have been. We’d often get caught up in elements of the story, and usually these were things that didn’t interest me much.

You see the story promised all kinds of darkness. I was promised a revenge story. However, I felt as though I was simply reading a story of makeovers and attempts at recreating oneself. I know this is a large part of the story, I know it plays in with the elements of revenge and slipping in unnoticed, and yet I felt as though it overshadowed the good stuff. I grew bored of waiting for our main character to do something amazing, something mind-blowingly evil. She had many nasty thoughts, she was constantly contemplating doing things, and yet she never seemed to act upon them. Not in the way I had wanted.

I think this plays in with the fact I never came to like any of the characters. I understand that we’re not supposed to like anyone – in the favourite fashion since Gone Girl, nobody here is a ‘good’ character – yet I wanted to feel something other than indifference towards someone. Even when we find out what had happened to result in the revenge mission, I failed to feel any deep complex emotions. I gave a nod of my head, thought ‘okay then’, and continued on. Had I felt something, even the tiniest of things, I would have probably enjoyed it a lot more.

I feel as though a lot of what happened in this book is in fact build up for what is to come. Unfortunately, it failed to grip me in the consistent manner that will leave me picking up the next book.

Thus, whilst it had some moments where I was pulled into the story, as a whole it didn’t do enough to have me coming back for round two.

I’m sure many will enjoy this – sadly, it didn’t quite live up to my expectations.

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