Review of the Alchemist of Aleppo by Marie K Savage

My Rating: 4 stars

I received a free e-galley in exchange for an honest review

CW’s: violence, mentions and implications of child marriage in historical timelines, suggestive content

THIS is what I love in a academic fantasy. I practically felt like I was reading a merge between a fantasy book and a research methodology chapter in a monograph. I ADORED the academic aspect of the book, multiple POVs contain them. I liked also that there were both STEM elements and humanities elements to the book as well.

For the multiple different timelines, I think the execution was okay, was it the best? No. But I think when you have more than one timeline it’s difficult to execute it really well. I don’t think Marie K. Savage did it poorly by any means, and I think dual timelines would underserve the premise, but I think there might’ve been a way for her to do this in a more organized way that felt a little more organic or have smoother transitions. I did feel a little bit like I was being jerked around between timelines and perspectives.

Speaking of perspectives, I do think her chapters could have done for a bit more distinction. While it is third person point of view, I don’t think that necessarily means that she couldn’t do some variation of distinct language or narrative choices. While the characters felt generally distinct in their personalities and characterizations, that just didn’t flesh out enough into the narrative.

The characters themselves were believable and well done. I had a particular fondness for Kat and Michael. I’m a sucker for the “I knew you in another life” and reincarnated soulmates/true loves thing. It was my bread and butter in early 2010’s YA books. I’m a sucker for the sweet kind of yearning. That being said, the writing does feel remniscent of 2010’s YA and fanfiction (but like, good fanfiction).

One thing I think was also different here than another book I read recently, *The Vanishing Bookstore*, is that it paces out the worldbuilding and reincarnation storyline from the beginning. And the romance is more believable. Their reactions to the romance (being reincarnated soulmates) felt realistic, Kat (or Emmaline) was freaked out in her modern life and less so in past lives, which I think really tracks. Certain things were easier to digest before the popularization of science and the changing role of religion and spirituality. I can totally see that a character in 1640 Scotland would have a different outlook than a character in the modern age who lives in the US but is visiting London.

I will add in here that there are a few grammatical errors, but I don’t know if they were fixed in the final copy or not.

I also liked the fact that there was a real cause behind the romance. It wasn’t just the sake of the romance that drove the plot, but a concern for evil and for the world’s safety. *The Luck* meant something beyond Kat and Michael and I really enjoyed that aspect, as well as the world-building surrounding it.

I did feel like outside of Michael and Kat, some of the minor characters did come out flat, not all of them, but some of them. But I think considering everything, it wasn’t awful that they were flat, the characters mostly connected to the main plot were fleshed out enough.

I also liked a more diverse and different approach to Middle Eastern fantasy. I feel like so much of it is inspired by Arabian mythology. I love Arabian mythology, I grew up on it as someone with a Middle Eastern parent, but it’s nice to see diversity and to see other countries in a really big region represented.

I also felt like everyone, protagonists and antagonists alike, had reasonable motivations, no one was evil for the sake of evil, no one was angry to be angry.

All in all, i liked the book, the ending, and the way the story progressed. The characters, for the most part, felt real and realized.