Series: The Scarlet Alchemist #1
Author: Kylie Lee Baker
Published: October 3rd, 2023
Genre: Fantasy
Age Group: YA
Length: 432 pages
If you read Kylie Lee Baker’s Keeper of Night then you have a good idea what to expect from this book. (And if you didn’t, go do that!!) While there are noticeable differences, honestly more than I expected, Baker’s style certainly shines through, and if you enjoyed one I expect you’ll appreciate the other. In particular, Baker explores a lot of the same themes between the two stories, which you can observe just from the summaries – both include a historical setting, main characters struggling with their mixed identities, prominent sibling relationships, and death magic.
While The Keeper of Night read closer a horror folktale in some parts, The Scarlet Alchemist came across to me with a bit more of a familiar YA storyline. About the first half of the book is related to some trials that our main character must undergo in her attempt to become an imperial alchemist, and it’s when we got past these that the story, to me, really took off. To be fair though, I’m not one for training and trial-based plotlines in most cases, so if anything it’s admirable that Baker kept my attention despite that comprising a significant portion of the book. And when I say things took off after that, I mean the kind of can’t-put-it-down-until-I-finish feeling that only my work schedule was able to interrupt.
I’m not sure how to say this in a way that comes across well, but I’m simply so glad Baker is writing this kind of YA – violent and gory in an almost beautiful way and still unapologetically young (by which I mean, the main character makes the decisions of a teenager and falls in love like a teenager; she’s angry at the world and refuses to leave it unchanged, in that somewhat shortsighted but valiantly hopeful worldview that adults can never quite reproduce.) What I’m saying is, as much as I am devouring these works now, I would have done so even more as a teen, and as genre and age trends continue to dissolve into an unnavigable cesspit, I admire the path Baker (and her editors) have decided to take. (Which only makes it that much more a shame that Inkyard Press has been shut down.)
Okay, back to the story. The twists and turns were so well-delivered. I saw some coming and others I didn’t, but towards the later part of the book they just kept coming, and every time I was like, “okay this is the plan that’s gonna work out for them,” it inevitably altered in some way I didn’t predict. Again, I was simply hooked until the end.
What else is there? If somehow I haven’t mentioned Baker’s prose yet, you should know that it’s vivid and eloquent. The atmosphere she’s able to create and, I’ll say it again, the pure bloodiness she doesn’t shy away from, all come together to make her one of my favorite authors in that vein. Oh, and the magic system! Necromancy is cool on its own of course, but the use of elemental stones was fun to follow along with and, as acknowledged in the text, provides almost infinite possibilities, so I’m excited to see what else she comes up with for that in the sequel. (Also, the fact that she was able to invent such different, fleshed-out, world-altering systems for both of her series so far is impressive.)
As a fan of examinations of themes of death, ferocious main characters, complicated and meaningful sibling relationships, and of course, expert prose, I don’t see myself ever not being excited for a new Kylie Lee Baker novel any time soon.
natrosette 