[Content Warning for The Poet Empress: This book includes lots of torture and sexual violence.]
I think I speak for most of my fellow authors when I say we sometimes read a book that makes us question whether or not we have any business writing. It’s an all-too-frequent occurrence for me, most recently with Shen Tao’s debut, The Poet Empress.
After all, it’s not every day I find myself sympathizing with a psychopath.
I was so excited to write this review that I started within an hour of finishing the audiobook. It is now day five of fitful starts, rewrites, and do-overs, I realized there is no way to do this story justice, without giving too much away.
I have concluded The Poet Empress needs to be experienced with very little knowledge of the story and characters, so the enigma of the villain can be unraveled as expectations are met and then turned on their head. It is a puzzle of partial recollections, which by themselves will always lead you to the wrong conclusion.
Can one come to love an evil person? Can an evil person be redeemed through love? What choice will the protagonist make when all the information is laid out before them? These are the questions you will be asking yourself as you meet textured characters navigating generational trauma, sibling competition, and a cutthroat culture that discourages communication. If you are the sort of person who guessed Darth Vader was Luke Skywalker’s father, figured out the twist of Sixth Sense, or surmised L+R=J (and ruined these stories for everyone else), you will still probably not guess this dark story’s satisfying ending.
What I can say without robbing you of the experience is the bigger picture is akin to the Japanese drama Ooku or the Chinese epic Empress of China, with the main viewpoint character being an outsider thrown in over her head with court intrigue. In a world where a woman caught reading will face a terrible death, and magic is fueled by written poetry, it’s a study in who holds power and what it does to them.
Coincidentally, I listened to The Poet Empress after finishing the first trilogy of the Mistborn series, and it might be heretical to say in fantasy circles, but Shen Tao’s world is just as vibrant and lived-in in a standalone book, as Sanderson’s three. Even the magic system of hereditary Seals and Literomancy compares favorably to Mistborn’s Allomancy, Ferochemy and Hemalurgy.
The author does not use flowery language, yet evokes image and emotion through simple prose appropriate for the main character. Props to the audiobook narrator, Katharine Chin, for capturing the voice.
If I could give The Poet Empress more than ten stars out of ten, I would. Heck, I still will:
Eleven stars.
Julia Kitvaria Sarene