A Magic Steeped in Poison

A great book, especially as a first book. There is so much to talk about and love in this book. The way Judy weaves in so many sayings that actually feel natural to say and hear is great.

CAWPILE SCORE
C-7
A-8
W-8
P-7
I-10
L-8
E-9
TOTAL-8.14/10

CAWPILECharacters.Ning is a great character. We really get into her head and the reasons she has for doing things. Any character who might have initially felt one-sided was shown to have other sides to them. I really felt like her characters all acted appropriate to their ages. No teenagers acting like adults and vice versa.AtmosphereThe world that Judy I. Lin has created is beautiful and scenic, even if there aren't many scenes outside the palace, the use of all 5 senses creates a great scene that you can truly feel. Her incredible use of Scent and Taste were spectacularWritingWriting was good, occasional small things I could nit-pick, but nothing so bad it took me out of the story. Her chapters end well, and at a good length. The writing flowed well. I liked that we get told Ning was trouble to her family when growing up and then later its shown to us one instance.PlotThe Plot has some YA tropes to it, but done different enough that they worked well for it. I enjoyed the directions the plot took, and while I knew some things that would happen(tropes) I was still very excited to actually read it and am still excited to see where it is going.InvestmentThe first chapter was great and very engaging, it gives us everything we need to know to get started, but after they start the Trials everything gets so much better.LogicMost everything follows the logic that is set forth earlier in the book. I dislike and like when teenagers switch so quickly on romance/hate, but that really is how some teenagers are.EnjoymentI loved this book. I loved the Magic and Tea. I Loved all the lore that is presented to us, never felt info dumpy. I loved so much about this book and I am super excited for the next one. MISC awesome parts and thoughts“Grief has a taste, Bitter and lingering, but so soft it sometimes disguises itself as sweetness” What an amazing line. Beautiful. Love all the sayings throughout the book. One thing I dislike in tournaments is when one test is super unrelated to the tournament. Aka find this random thing do this thing that doesn't actually relate to what your testing on. That's what I thought was going to happen, but then it didn't and it worked so well. Lily SceneHow the magic is different for all the shennong-tu.During the first test. Dragon shakes off the morning dew after sleeping, Dragon encircles his royal residence. I live for this kind of stuff. So amazingStupid Judge who interrupts her first test. Is he the stupidest man alive, yes and yes, does he deserve to be thrown in a pit forever, because he couldn't be patient for 5 more minutes yes.It was a bit fast how many contestants they eliminated. The sister transcribing her antidote efforts into stitching and her coming home and saving her sister. Just amazing
I will be talking about it on Libromancy 04/03/2022 https://libromancy.podbean.com/