The story begins with Camilla Vesely visiting Vesely Manor, the ancestral home of her father’s family. While the family’s goal was to be perceived as a moralistic, upstanding family, Camilla’s birth was a secret. She was the illegitimate child of James Vesely. Camilla’s mother was sent to one of the Magdalene asylums, while young Camilla was sent to Uncle Sebastian’s rural home in the Czech Republic. The public was told the Vesely-founded asylums were places of refuge for prostitutes, unmarried mothers, orphans and the sick. However, they were institutions of hard manual labor, where unforgiving nuns punished the residents for their sins. As an investigative reporter, Camilla exposed the truth and within months the asylums were closed. She and Vivian Xu became best friends during this process. Vivian Xu is now a nursing student. On her first day in the university hospital, she challenges the rigid Dr. Crenshaw and meets the handsome lab technician, Milo Dusan. Nathan Wilson’s fictional work, Arsenic for the Soul (Vivian Xu, Volume 2) evolves into a thrilling, adventurous tale.

The author includes many twists and turns in this spine-chilling novel that takes place in enigmatic Prague. The reader quickly becomes captivated by the intriguing characters, especially by a gigantic human-like beast that seems to only seek revenge. The mysteries continue to multiply, and sometimes it is difficult to discern who is good and who is evil. In Arsenic for the Soul (Vivian Xu, Volume 2), Nathan Wilson engages the reader from the first page to the last. This book is part of a series, and the reader will want to read all of them!

Arsenic for the Soul by Nathan Wilson is the second book in the Vivian Xu series, which centers on a young woman named Vivian, a medical student with a rough past that includes recreational drugs, a period of street walking in order to support herself, and being attacked by an infamous serial killer. Her friend, Camilla Vesely, a crime reporter for The Blaze, had worked tirelessly to expose the abuse and shut down Magdalene asylums where caretakers punished the women and forced them into manual labor; however, just because the asylums have been closed down and the women freed doesn’t mean that the trouble is over. A stalker, an umbilical cord of mysterious origins, and a sudden tuberculosis outbreak are only the beginning for Vivian and Camilla.

When it comes to uncovering the truth, Vivian and Camilla will stop at nothing. With rich descriptions of people and places, Wilson’s writing makes you feel as though you’re right alongside the two, especially in the most terrifying of time. That being said, Wilson truly shines when it comes to Vivian’s internal battle; he wonderfully demonstrates the difficulty that she faces in trying to move on from her past experiences and reconcile with the muddier actions of her past self. All of this lends itself to the high tension atmosphere of the hospital in which she works. Wilson builds the suspense and stacks the action in a way that you will find yourself turning the pages faster than you can read just so you can find out what happens. I absolutely loved this story.