After moving recently, I’m back to my normal puzzle regimen. (A puzzle a day keeps the doctors away!) I’ve unpacked my puzzles and I’m trying many brands. I’ll post reviews of at least one puzzle from each brand. My reviews will focus on the characteristics of each puzzle. Think of this as educating you on some of this brand’s puzzles so you can make better informed decisions for yourself.

First up is a 500-piece puzzle from a new company, Piecewise Puzzles, titled “The Only Medicine I Need.”

Packaging: The box lid displays the full picture, and the box contains a larger poster with the same picture. The box also contains a canvas zippered bag containing the pieces and two small bamboo trays with magnets. These extras are reflected in the retail price of $39 as of this writing. I don’t find the trays useful for puzzling because they’re so small, but I love them and I’ll use them for other purposes.

Cut: The puzzle is a ribbon cut with standard-size pieces. While most pieces are typical two-and-two 🧩 shapes, several other shapes are also used. Unusually, though, pieces that aren’t two-and-two always occur in pairs. So those pieces don’t add much difficulty to the puzzle.

Play: The fit of the pieces was great, and I didn’t encounter any false fits. The colors of the pieces were vibrant and were true to the box lid and poster. Also, the finish was a lovely matte; I had no issues with glare.

All areas of the puzzle were easily distinguishable from each other by color and pattern. This puzzle did not have any large areas where a shape sort was necessary. For example, the sky had white clouds near the top, lighter blue near the horizon, and dark blue below that for water, plus the vertical pole. The rug at the bottom center could be challenging, but framing that area by first building the furniture around it minimized the number of pieces remaining.

Closing thoughts: This puzzle is generally suitable for both casual and speed puzzling. I greatly enjoyed building it, and I will definitely be building it again. On the other hand, Piecewise Puzzles should consider eliminating the trays so they can reduce their prices a bit.

If there’s a particular brand you’d like to see reviewed in the future, please let me know. Happy puzzling!