The Scarlet Alchemist by Kylie Lee Baker (book review)

Genre: YA Historical Fantasy

Length: 424 pages

 

PLOT

Fan Zilan and her cousins travel to China’s capital where Zilan competes to become the next alchemist to the royal family. While there, she discovers the royal family’s dark secrets.

 

CHARACTERS

Zilan is a morally complex protagonist. I recently read another book, The Dollmakers by Lynn Buchanan, and Zilan is what I think Buchanan wanted her protagonist, Shean, to be. However, Zilan’s motivations were selfless, unlike Shean’s selfish ones, and Zilan overall had a lot more depth to her character.  

Zilan was raised by her aunt and uncle alongside her cousins, Wenshu and Yufei. The cousins are more like siblings and their love and loyalty to each other was an anchor for Zilan. Due to being an unofficial Fan, however, Zilan often expresses her anxieties that she will be abandoned. Zilan doesn’t suffer from an anxiety disorder, but the way these fears are written reminded me a lot of how my own brain (as someone with a diagnosed anxiety disorder) tends to work. Don’t mistake this for Zilan being weak, however. She’s a powerful alchemist who is willing to do whatever it takes to prove herself.

Li Hong, the crown prince, is Zilan’s love interest. Unlike Zilan, Hong is painfully naïve but also has a real sweet heart. They both want to change the world for the better, and Zilan actually helps Hong to grow a lot in terms of worldliness. Their romance is so endearing – it’s a cute first love story set amongst a high stakes plot. My favorite thing about how their relationship is written is how you get the sense that Zilan is falling for Hong before she even realizes it herself.

The Empress is the antagonist and she is pure evil (basically the exact opposite of her son). At first, I thought she was too one dimensional, but after reading the historical notes in the back I understood her more. She’s a re-imagining of the real life Wu Zetian, the first and only female emperor of China.

 

WRITING

The novel is told from the first person perspective of Zilan. As I mentioned in the section above, there are a few pages of historical notes in the back of the book. I recommend reading these. They give a lot of insight into what real parts of Chinese history Baker used as inspiration and how she altered it to fit the fantasy format.

The writing of this novel is the kind that some readers (like me) love while others gag at. It’s very flowery and poetic. I wanted to highlight an example here from page 89: “I’d never seen so much open land, like the whole world was a scroll unfurled into forever.” This line is beautiful and also perfectly captures the views of a character who has never traveled outside her hometown leaving for the first time. In my opinion, Baker’s writing really adds to the magical feel of the story, but I know it’s not to everyone’s taste. So, be mindful this single example was chosen as one which I feel encompasses the overall writing style. I hope that helps you decide if this is a book for you or not.

The novel ends on a pretty big cliffhanger and there is a second book titled The Blood Orchid. I do plan on reading the sequel (hopefully) soon!

Trigger warnings for graphic violence, child death, gore, and body horror.

 

FINAL THOUGHTS

I’d had this book on my physical TBR shelf since May of last year. I wish I’d read it sooner, but I’m happy that I finally did. The novel has great characters, a good balance of history and fantasy, and a high stakes plot. If her other books have the same style of writing, then I think it’s safe to say that Baker could become a new favorite fantasy author for me.

 

FINAL RATING: 5⭐️