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kemikemi's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
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
4.25
holy shit…the author really got me in the end there with zilan resurrecting her siblings in the royal bodies, i was flabbergasted sitting there it was so fucking metal. but really the entire climax was so insane, we were rly coming down to the wire there and i so respect that the author went with zilan choosing to become the monster that was SO hardcore. her being adopted and being “reborn” into her new identity with her new family coming back in the end to save her was fucking wild too she cheated death TWICE!!! WHAT A LEGEND this book did have a more predictable general hero storyline for the entire middle section, so most of the journey (while still enjoyable!!) wasn’t anything new, but the third act i think is where it all takes off and the story really gripped me. it also had a lot more graphic body horror than i expected, but the alchemy magic system was so interesting and i loved the intricate visuals that the author painted when they were describing zilan using her alchemy. my one gripe was that zilan was so ridiculous with how she legit just went around openly speaking treason out loud thinking she was safe bc she assumed no one else around the entire palace could understand her dialect to the point where i wanted to yell through the book, but in all i can look past it bc shes supposed to be young and what i enjoyed about the book far outweighed it. i will say though—the romance aspect of the book, although present, was not the stand out part of the story for me; it was a very sweet loveline, but the theme of family was stronger and i think what brings this book to a high point.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Body horror, Death, and Violence
Moderate: Child death, Confinement, Death of parent, Eating disorder, and Grief
teri_reads's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- 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
4.0
This book sucked me in from the very beginning and I found myself flying through it, and now I'm left (not-so-patiently) waiting for Book 2.
The magic system is really interesting, using different metals to generate alchemy based on the four elements. From the beginning, we find out that Zilan performs life alchemy (aka resurrects people), which is forbidden. But that skill and knowledge gets her wrapped up in the royal family in ways she could've never expected.
This is a Young Adult novel where the 17-year-old protagonist really felt like she made sense to me. She was full of complicated feelings about her history, her role within her family, and her status as a merchant among scholars and royals. She got wrapped up in things so much bigger than her and more complicated than she realized, all because she rushed in without fully thinking through the consequences. Her allegiance and motivations were pulled back and forth as she struggled to figure out who she really was and what she wanted to stand for.
There were a few really good, unexpected twists in this book. And looking back, there were some really interesting bits of foreshadowing and breadcrumbs throughout the earlier bits of the book that made the reveals all that more impactful.
Here's a few spoiler-y thoughts.
- I felt the Empress made such a well-written villain. Always one step ahead, pulling on puppet strings in a million directions. But at the last second misjudging Zilan's true priorities, and how much of herself she'd be willing to give up to save the world. She could never truly understand Zilan's mind.
- I genuinely loved her relationship with the Prince. Give me a golden retriever boy who falls in love with the girl who actively hates his guts any day.
- THE ENDING. What an absolute TEASE, miss Kylie Lee! You are really gonna make sure we all read Book 2. I felt NO closure, and I have 8 million questions.
The magic system is really interesting, using different metals to generate alchemy based on the four elements. From the beginning, we find out that Zilan performs life alchemy (aka resurrects people), which is forbidden. But that skill and knowledge gets her wrapped up in the royal family in ways she could've never expected.
This is a Young Adult novel where the 17-year-old protagonist really felt like she made sense to me. She was full of complicated feelings about her history, her role within her family, and her status as a merchant among scholars and royals. She got wrapped up in things so much bigger than her and more complicated than she realized, all because she rushed in without fully thinking through the consequences. Her allegiance and motivations were pulled back and forth as she struggled to figure out who she really was and what she wanted to stand for.
There were a few really good, unexpected twists in this book. And looking back, there were some really interesting bits of foreshadowing and breadcrumbs throughout the earlier bits of the book that made the reveals all that more impactful.
- I felt the Empress made such a well-written villain. Always one step ahead, pulling on puppet strings in a million directions. But at the last second misjudging Zilan's true priorities, and how much of herself she'd be willing to give up to save the world. She could never truly understand Zilan's mind.
- I genuinely loved her relationship with the Prince. Give me a golden retriever boy who falls in love with the girl who actively hates his guts any day.
- THE ENDING. What an absolute TEASE, miss Kylie Lee! You are really gonna make sure we all read Book 2. I felt NO closure, and I have 8 million questions.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Death, and Body horror
Moderate: Racism
Alternate Tang Dynasty China. Based on the history that alchemists were searching for a source of immortality. This book is dark and gruesome, but doesn't feel like horror or too intense.eeyores_flowers's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Body horror, and Gaslighting
Moderate: Child death
paninikita's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Body horror, Blood, Violence, Death, and Torture
sissizc's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
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
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Classism, Body horror, Racism, Animal death, Gore, and Death
nalame's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
I loved the first half of the book, but it took me longer to enjoy the second half of the book
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Death, Gore, and Murder
Minor: Child death, Death of parent, and Animal death
sundayfever's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
This book was wild and the ending was a batshit gory blood bath. I appreciated how chaotic it was and how it isn't your typical fantasy story about magic and resurrection. I loved the mixed race representation. The "lessons learned" here are very different than your typical story. The plot twists felt so unbelievable and hard to follow though. Read like gory indulgent violent fantasy, which I guess isn't my thing.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Classism, Body horror, Blood, Death, Gore, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Abandonment, Kidnapping, Child death, Death of parent, Sexual harassment, Cursing, Xenophobia, Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, and Self harm
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.
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
paperwitches's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
↠ Content warnings: death, written depictions of dead bodies, child death, resurrection, murder, gore, cussing.
↠ Pages: 424
↠ My Rating: ★★★★☆
Thank you so much to Bookishfirst, and Inkyard Press for my physical arc copy. I am voluntarily leaving this review.
This book immediately interested me upon seeing the description on BookishFirst. I have never read Kylie Lee Baker before, nor asian fantasy (even though The Keeper of Night has been on my TBR for like 4 years now oops). But strangely enough, Wu Zetian and the Tang Dynasty and their ‘alchemists’ are a topic that have fascinated me as history buff for a long time. So seeing it in fiction had me HOOKED. And the author did a brilliant job satisfying the history buff part of me.
I thought this book was really good, not flawless, but exciting and interesting with a main character who is scarily clever and persistent. Zilan feels like she can keep up with all other character’s in the book, believably so. I loved her anger, I was sympathetic to it, I know that many called her unlikeable but I adored her. The girls no nonsense attitude made a LOT of sense based on the historically accurate treatment of the merchant class, and her struggle to survive. Of course she was rude, she often was in a more primal state where she didn’t know when her next meal would come. Manners are something only some people can afford to have, in Zilan’s own words. She was constantly in a state of trying to be taken advantage of and had to put her foot down to everyone before she even fully knew their intentions. Either they tried to take advantage of her or treated her badly for being a woman, being a hunxie, or being poor. She has to be one of my favorite female characters ever. Zilan’s sheer intelligence made me love the book, but then the author decides to just take away her intelligence for two scenes halfway through the book, I was so frustrated, it felt like it directly contracted all her character traits (including her paranoia and double checking) and her intellect. It came off like the author ripped it all away for a scene or two just to drive the plot forward, and I wasn’t a fan of that. And then her reaction:
There is some romance in this book as well, in regards to the prince, who seeks Zilan out initially for her powers. There is <b>NO spice</b> in this book, just basic kissing and innocent sort of fraternization. Which was cute. The prince, Li Hong, was very sweet - but I felt nothing for him as the romantic interest. Nor did I understand Zilan’s fascination with him. It developed way too fast, and was too one dimensional. It was too quick for the bare minimum info we had on the prince. He could completely be summed up as ‘cinnamon roll prince is the black sheep of his family, likes ducks, and mom wants to kill him.’ and this is the entire extent of his character. I hope the next book really expands on him despite his *ahem* predicament.
There were so many twists, and twists rarely get me but these were very well done! It actually had me dropping my book and my jaw. The queen is FEARSOME, I was actively scared for Zilan and the prince because of how intelligent and capable she was. There is a dinner scene in this book that I won’t spoil, but had me SHOOK. She did, at times, have caricature-like attributes still. For all her imagination and wit, I hated how she had no active ability to manipulate Zilian without brutish force or threatening. She was way too clever for that, I thought at least there would be some level of manipulation that targeted Zilan’s lack of a mother figure, or that made Zilan doubt the prince’s version of things. And it never happened. This is why I gave it 4.0 stars instead of 5.
If you like:
♡ Dark Academia and Fantasy
♡ The Keeper Of Night
♡ Strong FMC’s who are angry at the world
♡ Capable villains
♡ Historical Fiction (with a lot of fantasy elements)
↠ Pages: 424
↠ My Rating: ★★★★☆
Thank you so much to Bookishfirst, and Inkyard Press for my physical arc copy. I am voluntarily leaving this review.
This book immediately interested me upon seeing the description on BookishFirst. I have never read Kylie Lee Baker before, nor asian fantasy (even though The Keeper of Night has been on my TBR for like 4 years now oops). But strangely enough, Wu Zetian and the Tang Dynasty and their ‘alchemists’ are a topic that have fascinated me as history buff for a long time. So seeing it in fiction had me HOOKED. And the author did a brilliant job satisfying the history buff part of me.
I thought this book was really good, not flawless, but exciting and interesting with a main character who is scarily clever and persistent. Zilan feels like she can keep up with all other character’s in the book, believably so. I loved her anger, I was sympathetic to it, I know that many called her unlikeable but I adored her. The girls no nonsense attitude made a LOT of sense based on the historically accurate treatment of the merchant class, and her struggle to survive. Of course she was rude, she often was in a more primal state where she didn’t know when her next meal would come. Manners are something only some people can afford to have, in Zilan’s own words. She was constantly in a state of trying to be taken advantage of and had to put her foot down to everyone before she even fully knew their intentions. Either they tried to take advantage of her or treated her badly for being a woman, being a hunxie, or being poor. She has to be one of my favorite female characters ever. Zilan’s sheer intelligence made me love the book, but then the author decides to just take away her intelligence for two scenes halfway through the book, I was so frustrated, it felt like it directly contracted all her character traits (including her paranoia and double checking) and her intellect. It came off like the author ripped it all away for a scene or two just to drive the plot forward, and I wasn’t a fan of that. And then her reaction:
There is some romance in this book as well, in regards to the prince, who seeks Zilan out initially for her powers. There is <b>NO spice</b> in this book, just basic kissing and innocent sort of fraternization. Which was cute. The prince, Li Hong, was very sweet - but I felt nothing for him as the romantic interest. Nor did I understand Zilan’s fascination with him. It developed way too fast, and was too one dimensional. It was too quick for the bare minimum info we had on the prince. He could completely be summed up as ‘cinnamon roll prince is the black sheep of his family, likes ducks, and mom wants to kill him.’ and this is the entire extent of his character. I hope the next book really expands on him despite his *ahem* predicament.
There were so many twists, and twists rarely get me but these were very well done! It actually had me dropping my book and my jaw. The queen is FEARSOME, I was actively scared for Zilan and the prince because of how intelligent and capable she was. There is a dinner scene in this book that I won’t spoil, but had me SHOOK. She did, at times, have caricature-like attributes still. For all her imagination and wit, I hated how she had no active ability to manipulate Zilian without brutish force or threatening. She was way too clever for that, I thought at least there would be some level of manipulation that targeted Zilan’s lack of a mother figure, or that made Zilan doubt the prince’s version of things. And it never happened. This is why I gave it 4.0 stars instead of 5.
If you like:
♡ Dark Academia and Fantasy
♡ The Keeper Of Night
♡ Strong FMC’s who are angry at the world
♡ Capable villains
♡ Historical Fiction (with a lot of fantasy elements)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Gore, and Body horror
ddnreads's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
I love it. It offered a perfect combination of action and pace. It didn't let you sleep.
The characters are well written. They have significant trait that's make it bearable throughout the story. A pinch of jokes and sassines here and there. OH THE EMPRESS. I love it when woman right, but I like it even more when woman wrong. Clever, sadistic, and ten steps ahead. AND THE PRINCE HIMBO!!!! 🐣🐣🐣
Go pick up this book if you like an alternate universe of Tang dynasty, dead bodies come to life, PLOT TWIST, gripping story telling, kingdom political intrigue, with thick lines of sibling love and romance. Historical trivias here and there. Highly recommended!!!
The characters are well written. They have significant trait that's make it bearable throughout the story. A pinch of jokes and sassines here and there. OH THE EMPRESS. I love it when woman right, but I like it even more when woman wrong. Clever, sadistic, and ten steps ahead. AND THE PRINCE HIMBO!!!! 🐣🐣🐣
Go pick up this book if you like an alternate universe of Tang dynasty, dead bodies come to life, PLOT TWIST, gripping story telling, kingdom political intrigue, with thick lines of sibling love and romance. Historical trivias here and there. Highly recommended!!!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Violence, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Classism, Colonisation, Death of parent, Gore, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Torture