The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner Review

Hi ForeverBookers,

How are you all today? I hope you’re well.

I’ve just finished reading The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner and I loved it. It was very captivating to read. It’s not my usual genre, a mystery/thriller, so I’m surprised that I did love it so much! Also it’s not part of a series, and I normally tend to enjoy those more because you’re with the characters for longer. That’s not to say I didn’t love the characters here, because I did. It just wrapped up well. 

The Lost Apothecary centres around three women, Nella, Caroline and Eliza. Nella is the apothecary, “a person who prepared and sold medicines and drugs” in history, according to Google. She is the character we follow first.  Then there’s Caroline, an American, who goes on a break from her marriage to England. And finally there’s Eliza, a young girl that becomes an apprentice like figure to Nella. The cast of characters is very small, which I liked. It’s interesting just looking into the lives of specific characters, rather than having lots to pinpoint over the course of a novel, I find, as you can more one on one time with them. Nella is an older character, which I don’t normally bond to, but I really did in this instance, maybe that’s because it’s just for one book, I don’t know. In fact none of the main characters are of the age I typically read about. 

These girls go on an adventure together, even though the story is set in two different timelines. How do their stories cross over? You’ll have to read to find out!

5 Stars! 

I read The Lost Apothecary for a few readathons. They were: 

* Reading Rivalry - “Go Against The Norm” - “The Lost Apothecary” fits here because we don’t have apothecaries anymore, at least not ones that create poisons so that’s not “the norm.”

* A buddyread for Reading Rivalry - I read “The Lost Apothecary” with a friend I met on facebook. It would be good if we could read other books together too!

* Popsugar Reading Challenge 2020 - I read “The Lost Apothecary” for the prompt of “A book that’s set in multiple countries,” because it’s partially set in America, although not very much of it, only a few pages.

“The Lost Apothecary” has distressing themes, such as murder, and the loss of a baby and the subsequent loss motherhood.

Spoilers Below

We follow three different women, as mentioned above. One is from the 21st century, Caroline and the other two, Nella and Eliza are from the 1700’s. Nella and Eliza’s stories interweave together. Caroline’s perspective while separate from the other two tries to discover the secrets of the old apothecary and her shop. 

“She would come at daybreak — the woman whose letter I held in my hands, the woman whose name I did not yet know.

I knew neither her name, nor where she lived. I did not know her rank in society nor the dark things of which she dreamed when night fell. She could be a victim of a transgressor. A new wife or a vengeful widow. A nursemaid or a courtesan.

But despite all that I did not know, I understood this: the woman knew exactly who she wanted dead.”

The book starts with Nella, who we’re not sure is good or evil at the beginning. The above quote paints her as someone who’s not sure, someone who needs clarification. Nella is the apothecary. She’s the person who makes medicines to see women well. This book had a very female centric focus, which I really liked. We only see men as bad people in this book (apart from two), and they’re not super significant characters. They’re only on the sidelines, one at the beginning in the present storyline, and one in the middle and kind of at the end in the past storyline. 

By page 12 of “The Lost Apothecary” we know that Nella’s shop is indeed  a facade for her poisons. “I drew my attention to my calfskin register on the table in front of me. My precious register was a record of life and death, an inventory of the many women who sought poisons from here, the darkest of apothecary shops.” This is significant because the whole book revolves around this apothecary shop. The present storyline, which I’ll now come onto is focused around Caroline, an American that comes to London to escape her marriage problems, who tries with help from Gaynor, a library researcher, and later friend to find answers about the apothecary. She’s a history graduate with a keen interest in the lives of ordinary people throughout history. She had a dream of becoming a historian when she was younger, before she met James.

“...But the possibility of the apothecary’s existence, the mystery of it, drew me deeper. The youthful, adventurous Caroline had begun to come alive again. I thought of my unused history degree, my diploma shoved away in a desk drawer. As a student, I’d been fascinated by the lives of ordinary people, those whose names weren’t acknowledged and recorded in text books. And now, I’d stumbled on the mystery of one of those nameless, forgotten people — and a woman, no less.”

Caroline wants to find answers to this mystery...who was the apothecary? What was she doing in the 1700’s? How did she meet her demise? 

Then there’s Eliza. She’s a twelve or thirteen year old. We’re never actually told her age. Nella just guesses. “Was it some mistake? This was no woman at all; it was a mere girl, not more than twelve or thirteen, dressed in a gray woolen gown with a threadbare navy cloak draped over her shoulders. Had she come to the wrong place? Perhaps she was one of those little thieves who was not fooled by my storage room, and she sought something to steal.”

Eliza is really the character that sets off the events in the past storyline in “The Lost Apothecary.” She comes to Nella asking for a poison to kill her master, Mr Amwell, who is a creep and preys on her. Nella isn’t sure whether or not she should be helping her to begin with but develops a close, almost motherly bond to her. Nella lost a baby when she was younger and was so desperate to become a mother, however by the time the book takes place in the historical setting it’s too late and her time has gone. “My eyes, once bright green like my mother’s, now held little life within them. My cheeks, too, once flushed with vitality, were now sallow and sunken. I had the appearance of a ghost, my older than my forty-one years of age.” Also, Caroline is desperate to be a mother too, so The Lost Apothecary has a theme of motherhood not being met. This is one way in which Nella and Caroline are alike, they both want to be mothers. One in the past timeline, and one in the present timeline.

Eliza, Nella’s apprentice, starts her periods in The Lost Apothecary. I liked this as in most books, whether they’re YA or adult, periods are just glossed over or not even mentioned. “My eyes settled on the blood-stained cushion upon which we’d been sitting, and all around us, the shadows of the candlelight danced closer, taunting me. Mr Amwell hiding in every one of them.” Eliza thinks she’s bleeding as penance for Mr. Amwell’s death.   She doesn’t know what’s happening until Nella explains near the end of the novel, “It is a passage, child. Into maturity,” is what Nella tells Eliza.

Nella’s mother is mentioned as above, but she’s not a vital character. She set up the apothecary as a place where women would come to buy medicines to get better if they were unwell. It’s since her death that Nella has been making poisons to kill men, because of how she learnt Frederick, her once love, was having affairs with other women.

“I expected a proposal. He had promised it to me. Alas, he was a fantastic actor and liar, and I soon learned I was not the only recipient of his affection.” This describes how Nella was betrayed by Frederick. This is why she kills him because he was unfaithful to her.

I said above that “The Lost Apothecary” is a very female centric book. As well as having no male perspective throughout, Nella only kills men because of Frederick. She won’t make potions to kill women. That’s maybe until Lady Clarence comes to her shop, asking for a poison to kill her husband’s mistress. Nella refuses at first, to let this happen. She’s adamant that she’ll only ever create poisons for men to ingest as a punishment but when Lady Clarence threatens to tell the authorities of Nella’s business, she doesn’t really have much of a choice but to make this poison. Will she make it? Who will die from it if she does? You’ll need to read to find out...

We follow both Nella and Eliza until one of them meets an unfortunate end. Which one dies? Or do they BOTH die? And does Caroline get her happiness? You’ll again need to read to find out...

I’ll mention here, that while “The Lost Apothecary” doesn’t have a male POV, it does have Caroline’s husband, James. I didn’t like him, although I’m sure we’re not meant to like him, as we’re informed he cheats on Caroline before the book starts. He later lies to her too, so isn’t very trustworthy.

Overall then, I loved this book! The intrigue was perhaps the thing that kept me so invested. The plot while quite simple also had surprises littered throughout. I really enjoyed reading Caroline’s parts as she was trying to work out just WHAT had happened at the Apothecary. Does she ever find out? You’ll need to read to find out for yourself!

At the end of the book there are recipes for some of the potions, the non harmful ones brought up in the book! This makes me feel involved as reader because I can replicate some part of the book, or try to!

Stand by for my next review, coming soon...