The League of Lady Poisoners

POV: 3rd person
keywords/phrases: women, poison
tropes: n/a
spice: 0🔥
language: 0 🤬

read this if… you enjoy an interesting look into both historical true (or maybe not so true) crime and the uniqueness of women’s pathways to crime.

the good

• The art is amazing! The author is an artist who has also done covers for several books, as well.
• The pieces on the Lady Poisoners were interesting and well-researched.
• The author touched on the role of institutionalized misogyny in many of the Lady Poisoners’ stories.
• The author didn’t shy away from tough subjects like misogyny and racism.

the bad

• No notes.

This was an unexpectedly beautiful book. The author wrote and illustrated it with beautiful art that really amped up the reading experience. The author is thorough in her research, even including a bit of a botanical/poison guide within the book. Also noted is that the Lady Poisoners she covered are mainly white women, as she couldn’t find the records to create a more diverse collection.

As someone who, in college, delved into the study of the differences between men and women and their pathways to crime, this book spoke to me. Poison has long been pigeon-holed as a woman’s weapon, but is that really accurate? And how did poisoning become such a prevalent weapon throughout history? These are questions this book tackles.

I appreciated that the author did not hesitate to point out that many stereotypical assumptions have become “facts,” both in poison as a woman’s weapon and in some of the more famous stories of Lady Poisoners. In truth, there are many variables that have affected the way women have been portrayed as murderous poisoners. Factors like restricted gender roles, social constraints and oppression, misogyny, race, and historical bias play a big part of it, and the author goes into detail about just this subject.

The book is organized into chapters, each one based upon possible motives for murder. The profiles of the various women are enlightening. For many of them, the stories we know may not be the truth for these women. For many of the so-called poisonings, alternative explanations are also explored, which was fascinating.

And it has to be said, the author did not try to glamorize the Lady Poisoners, nor excuse them. It is very clear that while institutionalized misogyny could play a role in poison crimes, it is not the explanation for all.