Reviews tagging 'Death'

The Scarlet Alchemist by Kylie Lee Baker

42 reviews

ezz1234's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

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.

---

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

eas2's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Blood

Moderate: Violence and Racism

Minor: Animal cruelty and Abandonment

campisforever's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Medical content, Murder, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Classism, Cannibalism, Child death, Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Death of parent

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.

---

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

mollieweitzman's review against another edition

dark emotional tense fast-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 almost left this on a shelf to die… i… oh my god I don’t even have words!!! READ IT OR ELSE

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Death, Murder, Violence, and Blood

aelis_'s review against another edition

adventurous

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

4.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Death

missmaam's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Death, Violence, Blood, Abandonment, Death of parent, and Body horror

novelty_reads's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

ARC kindly provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I LOVED this book!

Literally from the first page I was hooked with the story, characters and historical and fantastical world building. From the first few pages I immediately knew The Scarlet Alchemist could become a new favourite book of mine.

The Scarlet Alchemist follows Zilan, a girl who dreams of becoming a royal alchemist. Joining her cousins on their quest to become royal scholars, Zilan finds herself among the royal court uncovering political plots and schemes. When the Prince appears, knowing of Zilan's ability to resurrect the dead, she discovers things are not as they seem.

I absolutely loved the world-building in this book. Zilan's home town? The royal palace? I could imagine every place and I felt transported into the story. I loved seeing the home life and relations between Zilan and her cousins and their secret resurrection business. The resurrections brought another element to the book including a rock based alchemy system that I really enjoyed reading about. 

The characters made this book. Wenshu and Yufei's banter with Zilan made me laugh out loud. Each character has their distinct personality and there was never a dull moment with them. Two other characters I loved was the Prince and the duck, Durian. The entire scene at the pond with the ducks made me cackle out loud. 

The only criticism I have is with the side characters, the alchemists. They clearly were a big part of Zilan's life and yet we never learned more about them than their titles (the moon alchemist being an exception here). The ending would've hit harder if we got to know the alchemists a little better. 

Speaking of endings though, this book was plot twist after plot twist after plot twist. My mouth hung open wide at some points with the thought: "That did not just happen??" at the forefront. I cannot wait for book two, I desperately need to talk over this ending with someone!

ACTUAL RATING: 4.8 STARS 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Torture, Racial slurs, Murder, Grief, Gore, Death of parent, Animal death, Death, Child death, Body horror, and Blood

accidentalmuse's review against another edition

challenging dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.5

I thought this book had interesting ideas but failed to execute them. The writing felt like it lacked maturity - especially the romance.
I wasn't invested in the story, in large because of weird pacing. This was a shame, because it was unique plot. Things got pretty dark as we progressed through the book but there were 2 key things (romance aside) which led me to be uninvested.

1. The villain really wasn't villainous enough when on the page. They actually seemed quite immature and petty in the writing, yet 'off-screen' they were incredibly cunning, and driven. It didn't match.
2. Death lacked impact. It's a classic problem - bringing characters back from the dead. The problem is, it means death no longer has any weight.

Unfortunately, I don't recommend this book, but I do see potential in future works. It was great to have a morally ambiguous, strong female character, and that was definitely the highlight of the book.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Violence

Minor: Xenophobia