I recently finished The Scarlet Alchemist, and I have to say,I found the story quite interesting, especially with its setting in ancient China, based on a real dynasty, where alchemy is real and humans have mastered the art of creating longevity elixirs and resurrecting the dead. The concept of using alchemy in this context was refreshing and reminded me a lot of the Fullmetal Alchemist anime.

The first half of the book was really compelling. I was drawn in by the main character’s fierce determination to become a royal alchemist. Her single-minded focus on her goal, even with the male lead in the picture, was admirable. I also appreciated the strong family bonds, particularly the loyalty between the protagonist and her cousins, which added depth to the story.

However, as the story progressed into the second half, my interest started to wane. The protagonist began making frustratingly childish and irrational decisions, which led me to pause reading a few times out of sheer irritation. While I liked the depiction of her family relationships, I wasn’t sold on her romance with the crown prince. Their love story didn’t resonate with me, and I found the crown prince to be the least interesting character—despite being different from the typical male lead, he didn’t contribute much until the very end.

I enjoyed the climactic fight toward the end, but the cliffhanger has left me undecided. There’s a sequel coming out, but I’m still debating whether I’m interested enough to pick it up.

Overall, The Scarlet Alchemist offers a unique take on historical fantasy with its intriguing alchemical elements and a strong start, but the second half left me feeling conflicted. If yo 're interested in historical fantasy and curious about alchemical concept this book has, you might want to give this one a try.

Zilan has a lot of quirky/sassy and downright rude people around her. Zilan herself is training to be an alchemist in spite of her father, whom she believes betrayed her and her mother. The story is good enough to keep you moving forward but there is some downright GORE in this book that I was not expecting or ready for when I started the book. The breaking and changing of monologues and internal thoughts really needed some help and I winded up having to re-read things several times to understand when the change happened. I would have rather had some break on the page or even just a new chapter to show there was a break. At one point you loose an entire day or two (I'm still not sure) and just pick up in the next timeframe with no warning.
 Once Zilan learns everything she can about her past, present and possible future for this book, it kinda of ends on a cliff hanger and.. I'm still not sure if I'll read the second at this point.

Interesting and some good ideas but I felt it failed to deliver. The main character was too brash and annoying. I also really find it offensive when main characters try to make decisions for supporting characters or go against their express wishes because the main characters knows what is best. 

The FMC spent the entire book womansplaining alchemy to everyone who wasn't an alchemist and then whining about being poor BECAUSE rich people are evil...it was a facepalm every time she spoke.

A morbidly dark young adult fantasy about the mysterious world of alchemy, set during an acient Chinese empire. Fan Zilan is a merchant girl from the poor South, who performs illegal resurrection alchemy, with the help of her cousins, so her family can afford to live. She has an unwavering desire to climb the ranks and become a royal alchemist, despite the bigoted hostility she faces because of her mixed heritage. But the more she pursues her dream, the more she discovers bone-chilling secrets about the royal court and herself.

Lee Baker's writing is graphically vivid and full of suspense as we read about Zilan constantly having to surmount the next obstacle that comes her way and deal with the many twists and turns that are thrown at her.

I believed in the close sibling-like yet fraught relationship between Zilan and her cousins, Wenshu and Yufei, who were both endearing characters to read about. And the shy romance that started to surface was an embracing relief from the relentless depictions of death and decay and rotting corpses, which became very stale the more I read.

I thought the ending was both strange in a way that didn't sit well with me, but also clever in it's unexpectedness. However, it did diminish the feeling of high stakes that the novel would've otherwise had. Overall, I liked the intensity of the story and how well it sets up the next book in the duology.

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.