A Magic Steeped in Poison

A Magic Steeped in Poison Book Review by Judy I. Lin

I’ll start by saying that this book cover is gorgeous. The colors, symbols, and how they all intertwine is incredibly well done and enticing to the eye. It was one of the main things that drew me to this novel.

 Then I read the synopsis and learned this was a Frozen-esque sister tale of love and adventure involving the intricate process of tea-making. I was sold. 

As a self-proclaimed boba connoisseur, luring me in with tea was an easy thing to do. 

Unfortunately, it went downhill from there. 

A Magic Steeped in Poison by Judy I. Lin is a story about a girl named Ning who wants to save her sister after she’s been poisoned. Several other people from different communities in the kingdom have also been poisoned from an anonymous criminal using tea bricks. 

Ning will stop at nothing to save her sister, especially after their mother succumbed to the same fate. Ning holds herself responsible for not noticing or sensing the poison in the cup before handing it to her mother, which led to her demise. 

In a Mulan-like move, Ning steals the scroll destined for her mother and accepts the invitation to the Palace in the capital in order to participate in a competition involving the best of the best shennong-shi, masters of the ancient art of tea-making. 

Now that I’m writing all of this, the novel seemed unique and original to me at first, but other than the tea and the terminology, it’s a very conventional story of a peasant girl going to the capital to compete in a competition (which we’ve all seen a million times before). 

Most recently for me, the same recycled plot was used in Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas. 

While competing and living in the capital, Ning meets a variety of people, including Princess Zhen, fellow-competitor Lian, a variety of the servants and kitchen staff, and most importantly, the son of the legendary Banished Prince, Kang. 

As her feelings for Kang grows, Ning also starts to uncover the dark intricacies unraveling in the kingdom, the corruption at court, and new friendships, all the while searching for the antidote to save her sister Shu. 

Now, all of that sounds amazing. Lin has the components of a really great novel, but the execution is poorly done. 

Lin tries to make the setting grand and unique, but it only comes across as confusing. She throws so much terminology at you that it’s impossible to keep track of all the places and landmarks she mentions (and genuinely they’re unimportant anyway). Unless you’re frequently checking the glossary in the back, you will be confused. 

With an unimportant kingdom as the backdrop, most readers will fall back on the premise. Again, it sounds interesting but the execution is once again lacking. 

The most intriguing part is the competition. Unfortunately, we don’t get to see a lot of it. Most of the stages are interrupted from external sources like an attack on the princess or subterfuge. Lin wants us to believe that Ning is this incredible shennong-shi, but really she just seems lucky and sort of unbelievably talented for someone who lacks training and education.

Very quickly, the reader learns that the thick of the plot revolves around kingdom politics and honestly? It was very boring. I didn’t care about the warring parts of the kingdom and the different factions vying for the throne. I didn’t have enough information about either to be invested in what happened or who ruled.

 Lin bit off more than she could chew. She throws so many names and cities at you and wants you to care about them, but as a reader, you don’t have the time or depth to do so. 

The most disappointing part of the novel for me, as always, was the characterization. 

Ning as a character was imbalanced and embodied the terrible writing style of show-not-tell. One moment she would be cowering at the foot of some official and the next she’s making some retort back to the princess without fear. 

One page she’s full of self-loathing about coming from a peasant village and the next she's filled with injustice about how certain communities are treated. 

She was inconsistent and aggravatingly talented without reason. She was also a good person in a very boring way. Towards the end of the book, she learns that someone betrayed her. Instead of being mad once she finds out, she says she doesn’t blame this person since they have a family to look out for. 

Who is that altruistic??? Maybe later most people could come to that conclusion, but most human beings in the moment would feel betrayed and upset and that would be normal and realistic. Ning was too good to be real which worsened the story overall. 

Princess Zhen was your very stereotypical princess who wants the best for her kingdom and Kang is the stereotypical banished prince-sort-of-boy, who also wants the best for his kingdom despite everything they’ve done to him. 

The other characters don’t matter, which is a shame since Lin spends an inordinate amount of time explaining who they are and introducing them. All of them blend together and none of them have enough of their own personalities to make them significant in any kind of way. 

The romance between Kang and Ning is forced and while the burgeoning bud of it had promise, Lin wants you to believe that they have deep feelings for one another and a very strong connection despite meeting…three or four times for a handful of hours? People on the tv show the Bachelor spend more time together than that. 

I didn’t mind the romance, but it lacked depth and evolution. It wasn’t believable in any kind of way that Ning would feel as strongly as she did after the short amount of time they spent together. 

Lastly, the final nail in the coffin was overselling Ning. Lin makes you think that she’s crucial to the story and she’s really, really not. 

The Princess thinks she’s amazing, Kang thinks she’s amazing, the court officials eventually think she’s important enough to keep an eye on, but nothing I saw reflected that. 

It boiled down to Lin saying, hey, this character is super important because. Yeah. That’s why. In the plot itself, however, Ning didn’t matter as much as she was portrayed being. 

Lin’s writing was also…distracting. She started so many sentences with “I” and her syntax read as repetitive and formal. Once I realized this, it was hard not to see it. 

The highlights of this book were the Chinese influences on the setting, characters, and world-building. It’s always amazing when an author can draw on their experiences and Lin certainly did this. I just wish she did it better.

Disappointment was what I was left with after finishing this book. It started off okay and continually became more droll and unconvincing as the pages went on. For a book with such cool aspects and a glorious cover, the contents were a let down. 

Recommendation: Gah. Admire the beautiful cover, go get some boba, and call it a day. If you’re truly obsessed with a lower-class girl traveling to a palace to take part in a competition and you’re also craving the Chinese influences, I’d recommend Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan. 

Just the first one. You don’t need to read the rest of the trilogy, believe me. Otherwise, a slew of competition-centered books exist that are way, way better. 

Score: 5/10