The Poisoned King is the second book in a middle grade fantasy adventure by Katherine Rundell. Released 11th Sept 2025 by Penguin Random House on their Children's imprint, it's 304 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout.
This is a very well written fantasy adventure for middle grade/tween readers. It's full of a huge range of classic creatures and two young protagonists whose cross-realms worlds' ("real" world and "fantasy" world) continued existence depend on their cooperation and success. There are scary antagonists and several high stakes conflicts. It's part of a 5 book story arc, but each adventure is self contained.
The incidental art by Ashley Mackenzie is beautifully rendered and fluid and suits the narrative very well.
Much of this book is darker than the average middle grade lit, and there are some genuinely traumatic scenes including deaths of characters and creatures. The two main protagonists spend a fair amount of the book running from a murderer.
The book hype compares the writing to Pullman, and that's quite apt. It's genuinely dark in places, but always lyrical. It's probably not appropriate for the younger end of the middle grade reader audience, or for more sensitive kids. There are valuable takeaways and it's entertaining and engaging for all ages.
Four and a half stars. It would be a good choice for public or home library.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
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