A review by annastarlight
The Alchemist of Souls by Anne Lyle

3.0

This alternate history set in Elizabethan England started off slow. It took about 150 pages until it really gets to the meat of the story: intricate political plots surrounding the strange skrayling race from Vinland. The individual characterisation lacks depth, but the power relations and setting are interesting. I much enjoyed the plotting in the latter half of the book, and the slow revealing of the skrayling's magic was well done.

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Trigger warnings:

violence, poverty, homophobia (two characters are gay, and there are mild to medium period reactions to this), mild transphobia (a cis female character dresses up as a boy and occasionally considers this unnatural), sexual harrassment/threat of rape.