The Poison Jungle (book)
(This is the page for the book titled "The Poison Jungle." You may be looking for the location instead.)
The Poison Jungle is the thirteenth book in the New York Times bestselling series Wings of Fire and the third book in the third arc. The protagonist is Sundew.[1] It was officially published in the USA on July 30th, 2019. The book cover was released on January 31st, 2019.
The Poison Jungle is preceded by The Hive Queen and will be followed by The Dangerous Gift.
Summary
Some secrets are deadly.
It's no secret that Sundew wants to destroy the HiveWings. It's her life's mission to exact revenge on the tribe that tried to wipe out the LeafWings and ripped every tree from the surface of Pantala.
Every tree, that is, except the wild and dangerous Poison Jungle, where the surviving LeafWings have been hiding since the war. Hiding, plotting, and waiting for a dragon like Sundew, who is uniquely qualified to bring down the Hives.
There are dark secrets in the jungle, though — some that Sundew is keeping, and some that she's only just beginning to discover. And now that a new war is upon them, Sundew and her friends must unearth the oldest secret in the jungle — even if what they find has the power to destroy them all.
Quote on back
"It's easier when you grow up knowing what to avoid," Sundew said. "Nowadays we only lose a few dragons a year to the carnivorous plants."
"The what now?" Swordtail said. "CARNIVOROUS WHATS?"
"Yeah, you will probably get eaten," Sundew said with a shrug.
"Do we have to go to the place with certain death?" Blue asked.
"Yes, because it's my home," Sundew said. "And also the only place you'll be safe."
Dedication
To Hazel
Plot
Prologue
The prologue was set before the Burning of Bloodworm Hive and showed the dragons who had planned it: Bryony, Hemlock, Pokeweed, and Grayling behind one of Bloodworm Hive's greenhouses in the middle of the night moments before burning it. They talked about the fates of the SilkWings, worrying about them, but ultimately decided to go ahead with burning Bloodworm Hive.
Part One: Roots and Sprouts
Part One begins as Sundew, Blue, Cricket, Swordtail, and Bumblebee arrive at the Snarling River, the border between the rest of the continent and the Poison Jungle. As they enter the dangerous forest, Sundew warns the others to be extremely careful, but after leaning down to smell a flower Swordtail is immediately eaten by a venus dragon-trap. Panicked, Blue produces flamesilk to burn Swordtail out of the plant, forgetting how flammable almost everything in the Poison Jungle is. Sundew and Cricket splash water from surrounding bromeliads on the fire, but when this is unsuccessful Sundew reluctantly reveals her leafspeak abilities by sprouting a large chokecherry tree, allowing them to smother the fire. Sundew surprises herself with her lack of wanting to yell at Blue, since he apologized so sincerely - something that almost never happens within her own tribe. After cutting Swordtail out of the now-dead plant, the group continue through the jungle toward Sundew's village.
As they arrive in the vicinity of the village, they encounter Wolfsbane and his daughter Nettle, who are watching as Mandrake (Wolfsbane's other dragonet) attempt to kill a massive panther with his relatively weak leafspeak abilities. Mandrake introduces Sundew as his fiancee, and she has to quickly explain that there's no love involved as Cricket nearly asks some very awkward questions regarding her "one true love" comment during The Hive Queen. After a very tense exchange with Wolfsbane about Sundew's guests, the group arrive at the LeafWing village, where Sundew's mother Belladonna is as angry as Wolfsbane at the presence of outsiders (especially Cricket, since she's a HiveWing). Belladonna reveals that Blue's flamesilk was what was used to burn Bloodworm Hive and begins treating Cricket, Bumblebee, and Swordtail as hostages to ensure Blue's compliance with her demands. While Sundew had not intended for that to happen, Cricket and Blue are seemingly not quite sure that she can be trusted. After a feast to celebrate the successful burning of a Hive, Sundew goes to bed separately from the others. After waiting until nearly midnight, she sneaks past the village boundaries. Here a flashback begins, taking place around 4 years before the events of the rest of the book).
Sundew remembers the first time she met her girlfriend Willow, who turned out to be a member of the original LeafWing tribe, the SapWings. In the present, when she arrives at the pond where the two meet up, Willow is excited to see her, since she's been away from the jungle for so long. Her excitement turns to horror when she discovers that Sundew's tribe, the PoisonWings, have committed an act of war by destroying a Hive, and that Sundew was seen by the entire HiveWing population of Wasp Hive. Willow worries that the HiveWings will be on their way to the jungle to kill the remaining LeafWings, which the SapWings' Queen Sequoia agrees with after stepping out of the trees. Sundew finally returns with Willow to the SapWing village, tells Sequoia her experience outside of the jungle (the events of The Lost Continent and The Hive Queen), and shows her the vine Wasp uses for her mind control, which she clearly recognizes. Sequoia decides to bring Belladonna to the village in the morning to discuss their situation, as well as to tell the truth about the vine. After Willow shows Turtle and Tsunami (who she saved from an anaconda on their swim to Pantala) to Sundew, the two sleep on the floor of the bedroom of Hazel, Queen Sequoia's great-granddaughter.
In the morning, Belladonna has arrived in the village with all of Sundew's guests except for Blue, and they gather to hear Sequoia's story. She ends Part One by asking if any of them know the Legend of the Hive."
Part Two: Tendrils And Teeth
Queen Sequoia began to tell the legend. When dragons arrived on Pantala for the first time, they would be attacked by swarms of insects every night, all moving as one and seemingly united by one mind. After many deaths, the dragons discovered that cutting back the breath of evil, the vine that covered the entire continent, gradually made areas safe. Eventually, the plant had been removed from almost the whole continent. After telling the story, the queen asked Cricket, Willow, and Sundew to venture into the most dangerous part of the jungle and find Hawthorn, a LeafWing who guarded the small amount of breath of evil still growing in the jungle. Belladonna ordered Sundew to bring Nettle and Mandrake in addition to her choice of traveling companions. On the trip, Nettle fell and got trapped in a carnivorous plant, forcing them to cut it open with a thorn. Later, they came across the most dangerous obstacles of the journey so far, forcing them to fly across a lake. They all managed to cross until Sundew and Bumblebee were the only ones left. Sundew got close to the other side of the lake, but Bumblebee screamed and landed on Sundew's face. Blinded, Sundew was trapped by a sundew. After a little searching, she was able to attract an enormous tsetse fly and distract the plant. They made it the rest of the way across and discovered that the next part of their journey would be through the Den Of Vipers. After entering this area, they spotted dragonbite vipers above them, behind them, and on their sides staring at them. They were not dead but were paralyzed in place. Once they were almost to their destination, the vipers all moved and cornered them. It turned out that the snakes had been mind-controlled by Hawthorn, who appeared and invited them in for tea.
Part Three: Leaves in a Storm
Nettle, Sundew, and Cricket left Bumblebee with Tsunami and traveled towards the LeafWing camp with Hawthorn's antidote, a root called the "Heart of Salvation." When they arrived, they talked with Queen Sequoia and Belladonna about their plans to distribute the Heart of Salvation into the HiveWing army. They asked Blue to let them use his flamesilk to burn the root, hoping that fumes would have the same effect as consuming the root. He agreed, but on the terms that Belladonna and Queen Sequoia would not use any of it to harm another dragon.
While Blue and Swordtail went with the other LeafWings, Sundew slept for the night. When she awoke, she broke the news to Mandrake that she did not want to marry him, but he let her know that he already knew. The two decided to grow more of the antidote. As Sundew tried to reach it with her leafspeak, she felt some barrier, making it harder for her to talk to it, and when it finally grew, it turned into the breath of evil, whose premature root was disguised as the antidote. Sundew told Mandrake to stop, but it was too late — the fire had already been lit.
As they panicked, Hawthorn appeared on the other side of the river with Willow beside him and a dragonbite viper poised at her neck, ready to strike. As Sundew, Mandrake, and Cricket landed, vines wrapped around their talons, trapping them. Sundew realized that the plant was talking through Hawthorn as he tried to soothe them into taking the breath of evil. Cricket tried to distract Hawthorn by asking how the plant worked as Sundew tried to find something that could help them escape. Sundew found a sundew in between Willow and Hawthorn and used her leafspeak to make it eat the viper and Hawthorn. It worked, but once Hawthorn was caught, he tried to strangle Cricket. At the same time, he attempted to use his leafspeak to free himself. Before he could do anything, though, Willow stabbed him with an enormous thorn, killing him instantly.
They cut the vine, which retreated away from the dragons. The group rushed to the village and told others about the grave situation with the newly-named othermind. Queen Hazel, looking through the Book of Clearsight for help, cut open the binding and found a secret page. It turned out to be a map of the route from Pantala to Pyrrhia, using small uninhabited islands to rest along the way. They hurriedly planned to use this discovery to escape the continent. Io came in, asking to save the rest of the SilkWings, and Hazel reluctantly lets her have a quickly-made copy of the map. Io, Cinnabar, and several other SilkWings prepare to leave, but before they take off, Sundew asks them to bring Hemlock, Bryony, and Pokeweed with them. Suddenly, a LeafWing guard crashed into the pavilion with the news that Wasp and her army were setting the jungle on fire.
Hazel ordered her tribe to evacuate to the coast, and Mandrake organized the PoisonWings into groups for evacuation. Willow approached Sundew and asked why she was not managing her tribe herself, and Sundew told her that she believed Mandrake would be better at the task at hand. After some prodding from Willow, Sundew admits that she does not want to run away from the othermind and is extremely angry about it. She is caught off guard when Willow says that she was also angry about everything that has happened to them. In a decisive moment, she tells Sundew that not every dragon deserves her anger, despite Sundew's protests. She finally agrees with Willow, and the two lovers profess their feelings. Willow mentions that Sundew needs to run to prevent the othermind from using her leafspeak to spread. The two dragons then take off with the rest of the LeafWing Tribe, following the map towards Pyrrhia. Sundew thinks about how they will come back to Pantala once they find help and deal with the othermind once and for all.
Epilogue
Jerboa flew down to meet with Snowfall somewhere south of the Great Ice Cliff and was criticized by Snowfall for being late. Jerboa landed and responded by saying that Queen Glacier had usually been the later one. She noticed Snowfall flinch at the comment and wondered if the young queen might have a heart after all. Snowfall then requested that Jerboa make the Cliff surround her kingdom to stop an invasion from another direction. The ancient animus told her in no uncertain words that no one would invade the Ice Kingdom, but she insisted someone may want to attack the IceWings like Darkstalker. She told Jerboa that one of her scouts had spotted the hundreds of Pantalan dragons fleeing from the othermind, and was convinced they want to invade. Jerboa reminded her that she shouldn't assume they want to invade and that maybe they needed help. She refused Snowfall's request, the queen ruefully responding that Glacier could have done so much more with Jerboa's power and that she should have told Snowfall about her earlier. Jerboa said that she's not her animus and revealed that animus magic had stopped working all over the continent. When Snowfall asked for proof, Jerboa enchanted a stick to make anything it touches green, but it did not affect herself or the rock next to her. Snowfall called her useless and flew away in a rage, and Jerboa was satisfied by this, thinking, "Completely useless, […] Yes. Just like I've always wanted."
Trivia
- When the book was ordered online from Barnes and Noble, it came with a set of three free buttons: one with a headshot of Sundew, one with a headshot of Sunny, and one with a yellow version of the Wings of Fire logo.[2][3]
Gallery
Click here to see the cover gallery.
International Releases
- German: Wings of Fire. Der Giftdschungel (November 2021)
