Reviews

The Scarlet Alchemist by Kylie Lee Baker

its_thekla'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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

well that was better than i think i expected. it takes a while to get to the point, but once it does it GOES. the characters were very YA but the story is mostly solid. felt like reading "magic steeped in poison" all over again, but longer and less OH SH*T. 

lizardw's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

5.0

larl_girl81's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

3.5

oliviadc1's review against another edition

4.0

I did enjoy this book: the author’s writing style is beautiful and she creates a stunning and immersive world. I suspect I am simply out of the target audience but I found the main character slightly irritating in how she seemed to waltz into assassination plots with practically no planning or assistance. I did really enjoy the end so it redeemed itself for me there.

lucy__'s review against another edition

4.0

3.5 ⭐ I really enjoyed the setting, it's really quite bleak but the author makes it so immersive. I've also never read a book about alchemy before, so that was a refreshing change. Although it's well written, I didn't find myself that gripped by the book as a whole and I think it's because it seems like a young YA book (despite some rather dark moments). The characters are all childish and the overall plot could have been taken from a children's story too.

Also this is probably just me, but I found myself really distracted when she managed to instantaneously pull three matching stones out of a bag of mixed stones!

noemie_rigatoni's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.5

malana170's review against another edition

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

The ending had me gagged

fluffles's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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

4.0

andreiaoh's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

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

2.75

three stars is GENEROUS for that ending (edit: yanking it down to 2.75 upon further reflection. the more i think about it the more things im finding that annoyed me) but the writing was actually great the entire way through, and i thought the first half of this (pre zilan becoming a royal alchemist) was really compelling and paved the way for a pretty unique fantasy story. the only thing that bothered me about the writing was that it often read very very modern - from the author's note i understand that she didn't want to lean too much into real ancient chinese history and language in order to make it accessible, but at times, it didn't read like it was set in the tang dynasty which broke me out of the story. as much as this is a fantasy story, it's also a period piece: the way this was written could have highlighted its ancient atmosphere more clearly through the lanaguage chosen. 

zilan gradually became so irritating as the story went on.  i frequently had to pause my audiobook to gesticulate wildly at the wall because of her dumbass decisions. she was so incredibly childish !!!

also, i just didn't care for li hong and zilan's relationship. don't understand how they got to an 'i love you' stage after knowing each other for like 2 weeks (im being facetious here. it was more like 2 months) and having nothing in common except not wanting to die by his mother's hand. their entire vibe was very much telling me how much they liked each other, instead of actually showing their supposed love in the text. 

i won't even talk about how this ended. very unhinged (and not in a good way). 

i'm still very intrigued by how the hell this story is gonna wrap up in the second book because i genuinely can't predict what nonsense zilan is going to get up to next (outside of what was already told to us at the end of this book).

i actually don't think this was Bad with a capital B, and i do think younger readers will enjoy it more, but too many aspects of this pissed me off for me to look at it favourably. 

paigelayne's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense

4.0

Overall I really enjoyed this book. Some of the twists I definitely expected, but others I did not see coming. Honestly I forgot how dark a YA book can be. The family aspects of this book are really sweet and the plot is mysterious and dark. The logic of the characters is really where it being a YA book is most apparent