The Lost Apothecary

An engaging mystery with feminist commentary awaits readers of Sarah Penner’s debut The Lost Apothecary. Alternating between three narrators, Penner intertwines historical and current themes of women’s power. In London’s 1791, Nella is an apothecary who has dedicated her life to aiding women. Sometimes with remedies and other times with deadly poisons. Scorned in her younger years, she has transformed the shop she inherited from her mother into a clandestine provider of extreme solutions. Her creations are designed to rid women of the ill-behaved men in their lives, permanently. One day, an unusual new customer appears at her doorstep. Eliza has been sent by her mistress to obtain a concoction to help her husband meet an early show more demise. Curious about how and why Nella provides her services, Eliza ends up becoming a reluctant friend and de facto apprentice to Nella. The accompanying story line takes place in present-day London. Caroline is pondering her life’s choices after a deep betrayal. She travels solo on a trip to England that was meant to be an anniversary celebration. Her fateful discovery of an artifact connected to the old apothecary reignites her passion for history. With the aid of current day resources and a well-versed librarian, Caroline keeps digging to determine the provenance of her find. As Caroline builds on her investigation, the reader is privy to the events from 230 years ago and accompanies her on the voyage from that standpoint as well. The Lost Apothecary demonstrates how far women have come in terms of opportunities, but also portrays the ways in which we limit ourselves. This is a wonderful novel from a promising new author who already has fans asking for more.

Thanks to the author, Park Row Publishers and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an unbiased review. show less

Two stars because I finished it; one star taken away due to cataclysmic disappointment.

This could have been so good, even with the dual timelines. I wanted vengeful and vicious women, obviously powerless in 1790's London, but powerful after all, by way of the killer apothecary.

I did not get what I wanted. At all.

What I did get was a plot with so many unbelievable/laughable elements that at certain points I was highlighting nearly everything I read. It got rather unmanageable. Here are some of the best/worst:

A main character who gave up everything she'd ever wanted to do in life, in a literal instant, to marry her college sweetheart and work as a clerk on her family's farm. I did not know they had clerks on farms but that is entirely show more beside the point.

Another main character who installs a secret room in her apothecary shop, and then moves the whole enterprise to said secret room. Why couldn't the regular apothecary business still go on out front, and the poisoning in the back? Sort of like a mullet.

A self-professed devotee of British literature, Victorian literature in particular, has never heard of mudlarking. She also holds a degree in British history.

In London, the MC's boyfriend becomes very ill and calls her, saying he thinks he needs to go to a hospital. He says, "I tried dialing 911, but it's not going through." In London. As if that weren't bad enough, the MC then rushes out of a coffee shop and runs all the way back to their hotel room to help the boyfriend herself, rather than ask the person she's having coffee with, or I don't know anyone at all how a person might go about getting emergency medical care in London, and then doing that thing.

A maid makes a damning wax impression of an apothecary vial. Her mistress says: "If she had any smarts, she would have stolen the jar itself to give to the police, but I suppose she was scared someone might walk in and catch her stuffing it into her gown." Whereas I suppose making a wax impression is the more expedient route.

The apothecary leaves her carefully recorded list of killers behind, in the apothecary, where any officer of the law could easily find it. Instead it remains there untouched for over 200 years. Better yet, she left it (instead of burning it, throwing it into the river, etc) because she refused to "erase" these women. "History might dismiss these women, but I would not." Who cares, I guess, if they are hanged for murder? As long as they are not forgotten. Really.

The present-day MC enters an unlocked building and looks around. She later hopes to "avoid admitting to the worst wrongdoing of all, which was that I'd breached a precious historical site."

The "risk-averse" boyfriend of the MC drinks toxic eucalyptus oil on purpose, as a way to encourage the MC to forgive and forget his cheating.

At the end of the book the MC throws the vial that started the whole thing back into the river. Apparently she wants to keep it her own precious secret. Even though she plans to write a dissertation about the whole thing.

On the bright side I am now inspired to write my own version of what this should have been. show less

⚠️ WARNING: I am not a professional book reviewer, I just enjoy recording my thoughts about books as a read them. My review contains spoilers and bad language, so read at your own risk. I am in no way attacking the author, just the characters within the book (shout out to the author because she also lives in Florida 🐊)

Now, I chose this book from Book of the Month because it had a really cool cover and Apothecaries are interesting. Plus I really like media set in the UK. However, this book did my fucking head in. Don't get me wrong, it was well written and quite interesting, but one of the main characters, Nella, made me want to game end myself. I don't hate this character, I just want to... slap her around. A lot. At first, I show more thought this was going to be a feminist pushing book which is just... ick. But I'm not disappointed by the ending at all.

When I first started this book, I was fucking HEATED man. I thought it was total bullshit that Nella was perfectly fine murdering men just because she was betrayed by one but she's firmly against the murder of men. I thought she was so fucking stupid. When a man cheats, he's not fully to blame. The woman he cheats with is also to blame. Now, sometimes the woman may not know that he has a partner, but more often than not, the woman knows and just doesn't care. This "we help women, we don't harm them" bullshit is completely laughable. So, it's perfectly fine for women to be total douchebags and murderers but it's not okay for men to be douchebags and cheaters? This book was on the verge of killing me, I swear.

《Every woman has faced a man's wickedness to some degress.》

Ex-fucking-cuse me, bitch. What about the wickedness of women?? They are not innocent, not even back then in the 1800s. Sure, they may hide it way better than men do, but they are just as capable of wickedness, against both men AND women. Seriously, how is turning women into murderers "helping" them, anyway 🙄 I get that she was seriously hurt but her moral compass is seriously fucking screwy.

Now, you may be thinking something along these lines: "well, women didn't have rights back then. They were treated like property and worse than dogs." And you're totally right, I understand that. I also understand that, while it sucks how shitty they were treated back then, it's highly unlikely that they were all innocent creatures without sin. This is a fact, one that Nella clearly does not understand. And this bitch is really out here passing on her shitty beliefs to a 12 YEAR OLD GIRL. Bruh 😑 I feel for her, I really fucking do. Not only was she lied to and betrayed, but she lost the baby that she wanted so terribly. However, you can't take sides like this.

Male or female, both are human beings and humans are weak, selfish, and cruel. As a woman, I know that we can be just as fucking cruel as men, sometimes more so. We just hide it better and most people refuse to believe that women are capable of such cruelty and violence, especially against a man which is just 🙄💅 No. You cannot tell me that, even back then, that every single woman in existence was kind and never betrayed or hurt anyone. Am I too invested in this? Maybe. Am I sorry? Fuck no.

《A husband to love, children to feed, all the things I would never have for myself.》

I mean, maybe you could have it if you'd stop wallowing in self-loathing, hatred, and murder, Nella.

《Was it not my own fault for bringing the girl into this shop of poisons in the first place?》

YES. YES IT FUCKING IS YOUR FAULT. You deadass taught a 12 year old girl how to get away with murder and you saw NOTHING wrong with this I - 😑

《Why did we go to such lengths to protect the fragile minds of children?》

Bruh, what fucking lengths?? You mean teaching her poisons to kill men? Giving her a poison knowing she would give it to a man? Teaching her that murder is perfectly acceptable as long as it ain't a woman? Oh yeah, great lengths, my girl. Great fucking lengths.

I... am speechless. I can't believe Eliza jumped I dhsksgsjgs I knew Nella would probably do that but ELIZA WHY 😭 I almost started crying at this. Almost, but I held it back because I am an adult.... technically. Also, I JUST FUCKING REALIZED - the vial that Caroline found is the vial that Eliza was fucking holding when she jumped oh my god I'm a detective ya'll 🕵️‍♂️

Okay so, when Caroline found James on the bathroom floor, the thought crossed my mind that maybe, just MAYBE, he had ingested it on purpose because let's be real, who is dumb enough to drink eucalyptus oil unless you're a child? But then I was like, nah nah nah, he wouldn't be that manipulative, hey? AND THEN -

《James, did you ingest the oil on purpose?》

Oh my GAWD. This man is a psychopath.

《Healing by way of vengeance. But no such thing existed; it never had. Hurting others had only injured me further.》

Can we get a round if applause 👏 for this character development? I was so fucking scared there would be none, bro. It's a shame all it took was the death of countless men and the suicide of a 12 year old little girl but better late than never, I guess? 🤷‍♂️

........hold up a damn minute...... SHE FUCKING SURVIVED?! Bitch HOW? I - I don't think I care I'm just happy she got to live a full life 😭🤌

Overall, this book wasn't bad. I mean, I seriously struggled with Nella in the beginning to the point that I took a break and took ages to finally return to the damn thing, but I'm thankful that she had a really good character development. It came late as hell and at a serious price, but... it happened! Finally, I will leave you with this:

《The hardest truths never rest on the surface. They must be dredged up, held to the light and rinsed clean.》

Oh right, forgot about Caroline oop. I'm glad she didn't get back together with James and I'm glad she also didn't murder him (my jaw dropped when they accused her though.) She also grew and became a better person. Good on you, Caroline ✌ show less

"I swear and promise before god, author and creator of all things...Never to teach ungrateful persons or fools the secrets and mysteries of the trade...Never to divulge the secrets confided to me...Never to administer poisons...To disavow and shun as a pestilence the scandalous and pernicious practices of quacks, empirics and alchemists...And to keep no stale or bad drug in my shop. May god continue to bless me so long as I continue to obey these things!" -- Ancient Apothecary's Oath

"I mean that you can be anything you want in London."

"You are not searching for a thing so much as you are searching for an inconsistency of things, or an absence."

What a great surprise The Lost Apothecary ended up being. Not only was the cover beautiful, show more but the story inside was wonderful as well. Three points of view, two set in the same time period and the third much later. However the symbolism and storyline regularly knit through each other. Plus there was a map at the beginning and books with maps are always extra special. :-) Had me wanting to open an apothecary! show less

The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner tells the story of three women: Nella and Eliza who live in London in the late 18th century and Caroline, a 21st century American who finds herself in London alone on her 10th anniversary. In their own ways, each woman takes control of her life away from men. Nella is the apothecary--the title plays on the word as both a location and a person--who turns from being a healer to a killer after her own tragedy. Eliza apprentices herself even as Nella tries to send her away. And, as she tries to find her way forward after a betrayal, Caroline discovers their stories after unearthing a bottle in the Thames during a mudlarking expedition.

Penner lets the women speak for themselves, intertwining their stories. show more The story moves quickly but delves deeply into the lives of these women. Nella, especially, is a complex soul, doing what she knows is wrong even as we understand her motives. My RLBG all loved it and I'll be discussing it with another group in Pennsylvania next month. show less

“Beneath the ink strokes of my register hid betrayal, anguish…and dark secrets.”

This book was phenomenal. I feel like I fell in love from the first page. The characters were so well rounded, and though they were different, they all had a common thread binding them. Nella is probably my favorite because she's created a way to empower the women of her time in a world that gives them no power at all. I think her backstory was possibly my favorite. Eliza was an okay character for me I just felt like chaos followed her. Caroline was something special to my history nerd heart. I mean who wouldn't want to stumble on such an amazing discovery as the one she made.

I loved watching the story unfold across the two timelines with the show more present often providing a tidbit that had you on the edge of your seat for Nella and Eliza again. This book was the mother of surprise twists. I mean like edge of your seat twists. I found it so hard to put down because it was engaging and intriguing. The writing style is amazing. I think it's one of those books that manages to cross multiple genres in such a beautiful way. I highly recommend this book. show less

I promised to myself I'd read just one chapter or two and ended up eating the whole thing way into the night.

The (mis)adventures of two unlikely friends in the past help a woman in the present to rediscover herself and what she stands for.

The Lost Apothecary is a love letter to women standing for women, no matter the time line. Many a time did I find myself rejoicing over the characters' relationships with each other. To say this was a moving experience would be an understatement.

Also? F*ck you, James.