Book Blog #382: The Poet Empress by Shen Tao

 

Title: The Poet Empress

Author: Shen Tao

# of Pages: 387 (ebook)

Genre: Adult, Fantasy, Historical Fiction

Rating: ★★★★☆

Synopsis: In the waning years of the Azalea Dynasty, the emperor is dying, the land consumed by famine, and poetry magic lost to all except the powerful. Wei Yin is desperate. After the fifth death of a sibling, with her family and village on the brink of starvation, she will do anything to save those she loves. Even offer herself as concubine to the cruel heir of the beautiful and brutal Azalea House. But in a twist of fate, the palace stands on the knife-edge of civil war with Wei trapped in its center…at the side of a violent prince. To survive, Wei must harden her heart, rely on her wit, and become dangerous herself. Even if it means becoming a poet in a world where women are forbidden to read—and composing the most powerful spell of all. A ballad of death...and love.

Review: Reading The Poet Empress made me feel like I'd been punched in the gut.

As an enjoyer of imperial court dramas (shout out to K-dramas Empress Ki and Scarlet Heart: Ryeo, and even the video game Road to Empress), this seemed like something right up my alley. I love it all, particularly the court politics that is inevitably tied up with some romance plot with a prince or a king. 

If you didn't know anything about this book going in, it's easy to see how this book could be no different; some romance book mixed with crafty deceit. The author Tao actually does a great job in telling this story in a way that makes it incredibly obvious where she COULD have leaned into the romance aspect of the story (it was practically writing itself in my head). But while she toes this line with her writing, don't be fooled: this is NOT romance. 

This book is actually about power, family, and duty. There's the power struggle and the court politics that I love. While Frozen (yes the Disney movie) is a VERY different story, The Poet Empress is similar in that there's a significant focus on complex sibling relationships. They also both do a great job at demonstrating that stories about sibling love can be just as captivating as those about romantic love.

By at least 50% in, the story will have you hooked and racing to the end. The story is told non-linearly, so I initially was skeptical that I was going to like this book. I kept putting it down in the first 30%, but then suddenly I jumped to 60%, then the end! It felt like I was with this characters forever from what they went through, but it only took me ~2 days to get through this book (which is fast for a book this length).

Some story read like it was being told rather than shown to the reader, so I was bracing myself for the story to end predictably. However, I ended up being surprised in ways I never would have guessed, so the end solidified this as a solid 4 star read rather than the initial high 3, low 4 star rating I was initially considering. 

I would highly recommend this book.