Book Review: The Poison Jungle by Tui T. Sutherland (Wings of Fire #13)

 

Arc three is off to a pretty exciting start so far! So let's continue in this third book! Spoilers ahead!

Now that Sundew, Blue, Cricket and the rest are refugees after the attack by the LeafWings on the Hive, the group of dragons travels to the home of the remaining LeafWings: the Poison Jungle. Over here, Sundew has to deal with an arranged marriage, a secret relationship, her bossy mother, another section of the LeafWings Tribe and a possible way to find a cure for the mind-controlling of Queen Wasp. But then the young dragons make a discovery that goes far and beyond from what they expected.

I just loved this book. Like, pretty much everything about it. So far, I think Lost Continent might actually be slowly becoming my new favorite arc in this series. Not saying this with certainty quite yet, since it of course isn’t complete yet, but we’ll see! I really love these first four installments, however!

The characters are very good. They are well-written. Particularly Sundew, whose POV we get in this book, I enjoyed. Sundew has been my favorite character of this arc even back in The Lost Continent, and Tui certainly delivered well in this book which is all about our favorite angry LeafWing. Other characters we got introduced to in this book I really enjoyed were Willow, Sundew’s girlfriend, Hazel, the LeafWing princess and Mangrove, Sundew’s to-be husband.

Old characters also return, such as Cricket, Blue and Swordtail. They’re all still good, though they don’t go as much changes or development in this book. I also felt that Tsunami either has really matured, or is maybe a bit out of character in this book. She really doesn’t seem to have the same fiery personality as before in the scenes that she’s in.

I also thought the story was really interesting, with so many twists and turns I just didn’t see coming at all. Just when you think they’ve finally got the antidote against the mind-control plant, it turns out that there’s something far more sinister going on. There’s also plenty of action.

I noticed Sundew only referred to her mother Belladonna by her first name most of the time, which definitely is interesting. It really adds to the dynamic of how she sees her as a commander first and a parent second.

Finally, I wanted to comment on Willow’s and Sundew’s relationship. I just think these two are adorable together. It also helps that, instead of having these two fall in love in this book, we instead already have them in a relationship for a while. So we get to see what they’re like together, and they’re just so sweet. I love how they complement one another, Willow’s more pacifistic and calm attitude towards Sundew’s fire. Also, gay rights.

Overall, I think this is definitely one of the best Wings of Fire books there is, with some plot twists I don’t think anyone saw coming. Definitely check out the third arc of Wings of Fire after you’ve read the first and second, it’s absolutely worth it. 

Rating: 5/5