The Scarlet Alchemist is a fun young adult book with dark undertones. It's a historical fantasy set in China. I didn't know anything about alchemy going into this, and truthfully I'm not sure what was fantasy or real from what I did learn of it from this book. If you've read A Magic Steeped in Poison, there's a competition in this that feels to test magic similarly but with more at stake. Our main character is Zilan, who enters this competition in the hopes of being the next royal alchemist. She starts off poor and makes money to help her family survive by performing necromancy. This is a stark contrast to the royals that literally eat gold. But they have dark secrets and the crown prince is in desperate need of her help. There's also a bit of romance in this book. I really liked the twists at the end of the book, but sometimes the pacing was frustrating.