Reviews tagging 'Chronic illness'

The Scarlet Alchemist by Kylie Lee Baker

3 reviews

frantically's review

adventurous challenging dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

While this book is incredibly engaging and well-written, I struggled to connect with the MC. Baker tries very hard to make her a morally grey character, in the vein of "The Poppy War" but I found it hard to root for her. I loved the way the author incorporated actual Chinese history and how she adapted. Unsure if I'll continue with the sequel, though.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Gore, Sexual assault, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Violence, Torture, Blood, Sexual harassment, War, Child death, Bullying, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Death of parent and Grief

Minor: Chronic illness and Sexual content

miranda_lynn1234's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I haven’t read a book this quickly in a while I was gripped the whole time. It’s a very sad story but written extremely well.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Cannibalism, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Classism, Confinement, Death of parent, Torture, Violence, Vomit, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Physical abuse, and Sexism

emilysreadingbooks's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Zilan is an orphan living with her aunt, uncle, and cousins in the southern region of China in an alternate history where Chinese alchemists were successful in finding an elixir of immortality.

Only the rich have access, and while they don’t age, they can die through other means. 

Zilan is an alchemist, and she and her cousins, Wenshu and Yufei, perform illegal life alchemy that brings the recently deceased back to life to earn the money they need for their family to survive. 

Their dream is to move to the capital, Chang’an, for Zilan to become a royal alchemist, and her cousins to become civil servants; but to become a royal alchemist, Zilan has to pass the entrance exams, and the odds seemed stacked against her. 

Can she pass, when it seems like almost everyone is against her? And is being a royal alchemist really everything she thought it would be?

This book was amazing! The plot is creative, and the twists are so well done. I was hooked from the first chapter, and I can’t wait for the next book in the series.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Drug use, Grief, Racial slurs, Body horror, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Xenophobia, Animal death, Classism, Death, Gore, Murder, Racism, and Violence

Moderate: Medical content, Fire/Fire injury, and Kidnapping

Minor: Physical abuse and Pandemic/Epidemic