Review: Poison Princess by Kresley Cole (The Arcana Chronicles #1)

onyxdarkling
May 16, 2014
2 min read

Poison Princess follows the story of Evangeline "Evie" Greene, who lives in present-day Louisiana with her mother on the family cane farm. She lives a charmed life a rich, talented girl with the perfect boyfriend and model friends. However, Evie also suffers from terrifying hallucinations, which she draws out in a secret journal. Her mother found the drawings and sent her to a institute for troubled children. Now Evie is home, and after months of peace, the visions are back. To make matters worse, a group of kids from the wrong side of town have transferred to Evie's school and on of them, Jack, seems determined to torment her.

After an apocalyptic event destroys her old life, survival becomes a struggle for Evie. She then learns that she is one of the Major Arcana - a group of kids with incredible powers linked to tarot cards. Evie has entered a deadly game with the other arcana. In order to win, she must destroy the twenty-one cards that play the game with her and win immortality. To do this she must work in an uneasy alliance with devious Selena, underestimated Matt, sarcastic Finn, and tough, hardened Jack.

I have never read fantasy that had much to do with tarot cards, let alone tarot cards and the apocalypse combined. A very unique and refreshing read. The author is extremely creative and there are plenty of plot twists that will keep readers on their toes. However, I didn't like the mixed signals the characters kept giving one another, and I feel like the story went to fast. Evie was also very conflicted about several major issues, and kept changing her mind about them, which was very frustrating. Overall, four out of five stars.