The Lost Apothecary Review | Poison, Betrayal & Fall Reading

[00:00:00]Step into the inner circle. I'm Melody Alpha Nay, and here we read between the lines. I'm so excited to share what I found, and that is pumpkin spice creamer in July. And yeah, it's extremely hot outside, but in my house, it's fall reading season. It has officially kicked off. The coffee is ready, the mood is set, and The Last Apothecary by Sarah Penner is in full effect. I finished this book actually last fall, and I love it. It's historical fiction, mystery, poison, secrecy, betrayal, women who are trying to gain control of their life.

[00:00:40]But what stayed with me on this one is the psychology behind their choices. The story moves between two timelines.

[00:00:49]In the 18th century London, we meet Nella, an apothecary, and she secretly provides poison to women who have been betrayed or harmed by men in their lives. She keeps a hidden register of the women who come to see her, and then she follows strict rules about how the poison can be used. Then we meet Eliza, a young girl who enters the shop and changes the direction of both of their lives. Then also we go to the present day and we meet Caroline, and she travels to London after experiencing betrayal in her own marriage. With her, she discovers the old apothecary bottle, and then small objects that lead her to the mystery of the women that's connected to it. And really what begins as curiosity becomes personal. So I love the way the two timelines worked together.

[00:01:42]These two women, well, three women, they're separated by centuries, but they're all dealing with trust, disappointment, identity, and the realization that the life that they imagined may no longer be the life that they're living. And that felt so real because we know that betrayal doesn't change the way you see another person.

[00:02:03]It can change the way you see your own judgment. So, you start asking, "What did you miss?

[00:02:11]What did you ignore?

[00:02:13]Whether or not you really even knew that other person?"

[00:02:17]And sometimes, whether you still even know yourself. And that is where Caroline's story worked really, really well for me. It's in her search for the apothecary that becomes more than just solving an old mystery. It gives her reason to reconnect with the past part of herself that existed even before the marriage. She had interests, she had plans, she had ambition of her own life.

[00:02:41]And then somewhere along the way, she stopped listening to them.

[00:02:46]I think a lot of the readers will actually recognize that feeling, even if their circumstances are actually quite different. It's the moment that you realize that you have spent so long living around someone else's needs or expectations that you no longer are sure like what it is that you even want. And Nella explores betrayal from such a much darker place. She believes that she's offering women protection and justice when no one else will help them.

[00:03:16]And then, there is a part of her that feels understandable.

[00:03:21]But she's carrying her own unresolved pain in every choice that she makes. And that's what made her so interesting.

[00:03:30]She's not like a simple hero or a simple villain. She's intelligent. She's disciplined. She also has hurt and she's convinced that what she's doing actually serves a purpose. But pain can shape the way that a person sees everyone around them. At first, it's something that happened to her.

[00:03:51]But then, it becomes what you expect and how you expect people to behave. It becomes the reason you trust no one. And eventually, it can become how you justify your choices that might have been considered unthinkable. And see, that's the question that kept me back reading Nella's story. I kept thinking, is she responding to the woman standing in front of her or is she still responding to that person who hurt her years earlier? She believes she's helping them, but every woman who comes to her also becomes connected to her own unfinished pain. And Eliza, she brings something different into that world.

[00:04:36]She's young, she's curious, she's capable of seeing possibilities where Nella, she sees danger. Nella has already decided what people are capable of. And Eliza, she's still learning.

[00:04:49]Yet, their relationship gives the story its emotional center because they are looking at the same world but from different places. This book also really had me thinking about agency. So like, who has the power? And then who loses it? And then, what happens when someone believes that the systems around them will never offer the protection or justice? The women who enter the apothecary, they're not arriving because poison was like their first choice.

[00:05:24]They arrive after the feeling of being trapped, dismissed, or abandoned. And that doesn't automatically make their decisions right. I get that. But it does ask us to consider what happened before those decisions. How long did someone feel powerless? And how many times were they ignored?

[00:05:46]I mean, what happens when anger has nowhere safe to go? And if justice feels unavailable, what might a person then create in its place? And I appreciate that the book allows those questions to remain uncomfortable. It doesn't give you a simple answer.

[00:06:04]It really lets you let the women be complicated. They have their own fears, their own motives, blind spots, and they're trying to survive.

[00:06:15]I loved the atmosphere, the hidden shop, the old glass bottles, the narrow London streets, and the secret register that gave the book almost a dark gothic feeling without making it too difficult to read. And the apothecary itself, that felt like an extension of Nella. It was closed off.

[00:06:36]It was carefully controlled. It was filled with substances that could heal or harm, depending on who used them and why. And the present-day mystery, that gave the past way too exposing in Caroline's life. And that's what I wanted from that dual timeline story.

[00:06:56]The present should not only explain the past, the past should also reveal something about the present. And Caroline, she begins by searching for the history behind an old bottle. But she's also searching for permission to look honestly at her own life. And that is what gave the story so much more depth than I ever expected. This book, it made me think about betrayal, silence, anger, memory, and what women pass down to one another.

[00:07:28]It also made me think about the difference between revenge and restoration.

[00:07:34]I mean, can punishment ever return what was taken?

[00:07:38]And then, how do you reclaim your life without allowing the person who hurt you keep shaping who you're becoming.

[00:07:46]All right, no spoilers, but I loved this book. It was atmospheric, it was easy to get pulled into, and thoughtful enough that I kept thinking about it even after I finished it.

[00:07:58]I would recommend this to readers who enjoy historical fiction, dual timelines, quiet suspense, female-centered stories, and characters whose choices are not easily divided into right and wrong.

[00:08:12]And yeah, pumpkin spice in July, it may be early, but The Last Apothecary made me feel so complete, and it's so appropriate. So, inner circle, what did this story reveal to you? And if you like this book, and if you want to continue to go to Beyond the Plot, subscribe, follow, turn on your notifications so you don't miss the next time it was time to step into the inner circle.

[00:08:42]>> [music] >> Oh.

[00:08:46]Oh.