It is a highly metafictional novel which follows the adventures of a young (sixteen-year-old) female protagonist named Poison as she attempts to rescue her sister from the Phaerie Realm.

I spent most of my time writing this novel worrying about whether anyone would 'get' it, or whether it would sound like some degenerate A-Level student's philosophical rant when it was all finished instead of the story it was supposed to be, but I think it all worked out fine in the end.

"[1]Poison is the story of a rebellious human teenager living in the swamp town of Gull with her father, stepmother, and her baby sister Azalea.

Her only friend in Gull is the old traveler, Fleet, who tells her tales of the old wars and phaeries and maintains that Poison has some of the “Old Blood” in her.

Once in Shieldtown, Poison encounters a young woman heading back to Gull and asks her to relay a message to her parents.

Once there, Poison strikes a deal with Aelthar the phaerie Lord that he will return Azalea to her if she obtains a dagger for him.

Upon learning that the Hierophant has created all that the world is and every person in it, Poison tries to fight her role in the story by doing nothing and stagnating the plot line.

Poison discovers that he, by way of the Scarecrow, the phaerie creature who replaces children with changelings, has been breeding phaerie-human hybrids, as humans are the only species with imaginations and therefore best suited to become Hierophant.

Poison realizes that the girl she sent back to Gull with word of her journey was, in fact, her rapidly aged sister.

In a panic and desperate for survival, the Hierophant's widow Lady Pariasa kills Scriddle by stabbing him through the neck, screaming that she wants to live.

Poison's original name was Foxglove, but she renamed herself in her coming-of-age ceremony to spite her step-mother Snapdragon, who once called her such.

Aelthar: The Phaerie King, who views humans as amusing animals with an extreme sense of self-importance, sets Poison on a quest to the Spider Queen, Lady Asinastra.

Lancashire Children's Book of the Year 2004[2] Dracula Society The Children of the Night Award 2003[3] American Library Association Top Ten Best Books for Young Adults 2006[4] Carnegie Medal 2004[5] This fantasy, set in various realms—human (lowest in the pecking order), phaerie and arachnid—utilises many fantasy and folkloric tropes in original and often amusing ways.

[7] "Wooding’s serpentine plotting and lush, imaginative writing have something to offer" - Booklist[8] “Wooding again weaves a dark tale just beyond what readers might expect... fans of fairy tales with a dark side will shiver a freeze with fear" - VOYA.