For fans of Peaky Blinders meets fantasy, get a copy of A Forbidden Alchemy right now. I’ve watched enough hours of edits to know I cannot afford to get even more sucked in. BUT A Forbidden Alchemy is about power, sacrifice, and love. Keep reading this book review of A Forbidden Alchemy for my full thoughts.
Summary
Nina Harrow and Patrick Colson are twelve years old when they are whisked away from the shadows of their disenfranchised mining towns to dazzling Belavere City to discover their magical potential. Those who pass Belavere’s test will become Artisans, wielders of powerful elemental magic destined to fulfill the city’s grand ambitions. For Nina, the Artisan School symbolizes a dream and an escape from her harsh reality, while Patrick yearns to return to his Craftsman family, whose extraordinary physical strength serves the idium mines keeping the city alive.
And then they uncover a devastating truth: Artisans aren’t born, they’re chosen. They part ways on very different paths, leaving them to carry the burden of this secret alone.
In the years that follow, a Craftsman revolution ignites, thrusting Nina and Patrick into opposing factions of a brewing war. Now an elite Artisan with the very rare talent for charming earth, Nina has turned her back on the fight, haunted by the loss of her found family. But fate intervenes when she is captured by Patrick’s rebel group. Despite the years and conflict that separates them, Patrick hasn’t forgotten Nina. He desperately seeks her help for a mission that could shift the tides against Belavere City. Reluctantly, she agrees, battling the sparks flying between them. But when Nina’s first love reappears, asking her to betray Patrick for the sake of the Artisans, Nina faces an impossible choice that could alter the fate of their world.
Review
(Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)
A Forbidden Alchemy captivated me. All I found out about it was that it was like Peaky Blinders meets fantasy and while this is so 100% spot on, it’s so much more. It’s a story about class, power dynamics, and guilt. It takes an underlying premise of a system of inherent talent and then violates what we know to be true. And it works because the characters are both so shocked, being in their perspective and dual POV, makes us feel the betrayal so strongly. Because when we find out that the world which meant the pain of our families, and the promise of something new was only ever really a farce, an illusion, a method of power and control – what do we do?
And A Forbidden Alchemy explores this schism, this turning point, for Nina and Patrick. Do we continue into the system thinking we can never change it? Or do realize that something has to change even if it means burning the whole system down? What is the right choice? A Forbidden Alchemy doesn’t give us any easy answers as it unpacks the prejudices against the Crafters for their ‘lack of talent’ while not realizing that they’re the force the Artistans rely upon. That they live with their mortality hanging over their heads every day and have to find ways to cope with that loss, that fear, and that terror.
Choices
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While my internal compass probably skews more towards Patrick – although Nina did give me a run for my money – I adored A Forbidden Alchemy. We see the ways in which time, and society, has changed them. What has this knowledge of the system done to them throughout the years? And while I had trouble with Nina, Nina’s perspective does a great job at exploring the pressure points and sacrifices we might be asked to make. It examines the cage she’s been put into as well to have to bargain for a semblance of security and the knowledge that maybe both sides aren’t going about this the right way.
Overall,
A Forbidden Alchemy was swoony, but even more so it’s a powerful story about exploitation, rebellion, and the pace of change. It’s a story about community and what it would take to band together – the power of solidarity and the ways in which rebellions flare and flutter. It’s a dance of trust, betrayal, and within all of that – love. McEwan dares us to choose, to accept our consequences, and to choose again. Find A Forbidden Alchemy on Goodreads, Storygraph, Amazon, Bookshop. org, Blackwells, & Libro. fm.