The Elixir - Lindsay Galvin - ★★★★

AUTHOR: Lindsay Galvin

ILLUSTRATOR: Kristina Kister

GENRE: Middle-Grade Historical Fantasy.

PUBLICATION DATE: June 5, 2025.

RATING: 4 stars.

In a Nutshell: A middle-grade historical fantasy taking partial inspiration from real-life events. The fantasy is intriguing, but the history is quite disturbing. Loved the blend of reality and imagination, but would recommend this only to children who can handle dark tales (with a bittersweet ending.)

Plot Preview:

1655. Grantham, England. Ann Storer has a secret talent that only her late grandmother knew about: she can make special tinctures based on the colours she can see when she touches a person. She uses her skills to dispense tinctures at her family apothecary shop. When a young genius named Isaac Newton moves into their spare room as a boarder, the two end up creating a special elixir with seemingly unparalleled healing powers. But with the witch hunt and the plague at the doorstep, Ann needs to be careful about displaying her abilities, even though she doesn’t agree with Newton about the elixir.

The story comes to us in Ann’s first-person perspective.

Bookish Yays:

⚗️ An unusual middle-grade historical fantasy in terms of content as well as emotional intensity.

⚗️ Ann as the lead – brave, clever, courageous. Loved her personality and her narration!

⚗️ The focus on how traditional apothecaries worked. Might make kids look at medicines and medical practitioners with respect. (And hopefully, also create a curiosity about legitimate non-allopathic healing techniques that are still practised in several cultures.)

⚗️ Ann’s synaesthesia, though this word isn't explicitly mentioned in the book. Her ability to see colours was actually integrated consistently into the plot instead of just being a superfluous plot device.

⚗️ The Isaac Newton connection. The author’s note at the start reveals the factual basis for Newton’s days as a boarder in Grantham. The book also includes some of his actual scientific experiments and studies.

⚗️ The fantastical content, from the colours to the magical elixir and its effects. Turns a typical historical story into a memorable one.

⚗️ The fast-paced storytelling that covers quite a lot within just 120 pages.

⚗️ The historical feel, with a highlight on the superstitions of the era and the blatant gender discrimination. (My favourite part was how Newton never had to worry about being taken for a witch despite his working with similar potions.) This is probably among the few MG novels to include two troubling historical events: the plague and the witch hunts. A good learning opportunity here.

⚗️ The vocabulary – mostly simple enough, but also doesn’t shy away from some beautiful long-forgotten words such as tinctures and apothecary.

⚗️ The Barrington Stoke factor, with the special dyslexia-friendly font, Hi-Lo approach (lowering the reading age while keeping the content tween-friendly), and the high-interest plot. Always a win!

Bookish Mixed Bags:

🧪 A few disturbing scenes, which is to be expected given the main events in the plot: the plague, witch hunts, and also some personal challenges in Ann’s family. Some scenes might be a bit too traumatising for sensitive readers. The fantastical parts help alleviate the traumatic scenes to some extent.

🧪 The ending. I didn’t see it coming. It was realistic but also bittersweet. I don’t know if I really liked it, but I also don’t know how else the story could have ended. 🤔

⚗️ The B&W illustrations. In almost all cases, they supplement the story well. But I wish one particularly disturbing scene hadn’t been chosen for illustration.

All in all, this is a one-of-a-kind book for this age group. I am not sure if it would be a good option to sensitive little ones as some scenes are quite troubling, but it does offer a true glimpse of what actually happened in those days. Perhaps it would be better read in classroom settings to offset the shock with group discussion.

This is my first book by this author, and given her historical forte, I’d love to give more of her works a try.

Definitely recommended to middle-graders, as long as they are okay with reading somewhat upsetting scenes in historical stories.

My thanks to Barrington Stoke for providing the DRC of “The Elixir” via NetGalley. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.