I enjoyed what I read of it but it didn't keep drawing me back. It was a bit niche. We haven't sold any since it's been out unfortunately

I was not a fan of the characters in this book. It's fine for a character to be unlikeable, but you have to at least be invested in how their situation is going to turn out. Binsa and all of the supporting characters were so flat that it was really hard for me to care about any of them.

The Scarlet Throne, by debut author Amy Leow, is the first book in the The False Goddess series. It unapologetically combines a pretty immoral and traumatized protagonist with some pervasive unreliable narration to create a tale that is both captivating and atmospherically depressing. If you are looking for good vibes, look elsewhere; if you are curious about what it might be like to forge a demon contract knowingly while living with consequences, good and bad, you are in the right place.

Meet our reader lens with a lot of head trauma: Binsa. To those on the outside, Binsa is a “living goddess,” chosen by the gods to hear the woes of her people, arbitrate disagreements, and empower her priests with magic to help the masses from her place on the Scarlet Throne. But, it turns out that when Binsa showed up for the magical deity drop-off she ended up with a demon by mistake. Binsa is from a world that is generally unpleasant to be in, and even worse if you are a woman. When she finds out that her appointed goddess doesn’t infuse her with divine power during her rite of ascension, she uses a contract with a demon to fake it until she makes it. Things are going well with one small road bump–priests of the divine are only supposed to last a few years and Binsa has been a conduit of the divine for a suspiciously long time. When a new girl, Medha, is selected to take over her position, Binsa and her demon strike a deal: To magnify his power and help her wrest control from the priests, she will sacrifice human lives. She’ll do anything not to end up back on the streets, forgotten and alone. But how much of her humanity is she willing to trade in her quest for power? Deals with demons are rarely so simple.

This book is a sneaky and devious time, immediately establishing that we can’t trust Binsa’s version of events and that we are being actively lied to as a reader. This is not a book with a ton of surprise twist rug-pulls; instead, it is an enigmatic morass that we are knowingly wandering into hoping you can find a way out. This metaphor also works really well with the fascinating demon contract that Binsa enters with Ilam. Ilam is a giant black cat demon with mental powers that range from reading minds to affecting memory to warping perception. Binsa uses these powers to consolidate power and keep her position, but it is immediately obvious that while Binsa is twisting the minds of others around her, so too is she being twisted by her contracted demon.

The examination of this demonic contract is one of the more interesting elements in the book. All too often, demonic contracts are blanketly categorized as this evil thing protagonists are tricked or forced into and must get out of. Ilum is a different sort of beast. He offers immense power with pretty clearly defined and implied costs and does not pressure Binsa into taking them (yet, who knows with all the mind-altering powers). As a huge fan of warlocks in Dungeons and Dragons, it feels fresh and new to see Demons treated as ruthless traders more than evil temptresses’ and I had a lot of fun with this interpretation.

The world here is interesting, but everything is kept very surface level as our view is narrowed to the small box Binsa is kept in. I think this works thematically and adds to the oppressive atmosphere of the book. The pacing is extremely fast, to the point where several sections of the story fly by without proper time to absorb new information as it is presented. This leads to one of my first minor gripes with the book, which is there is such a thing as too unreliable a narrator. The book ends on a pretty interesting cliffhanger, but thanks to all of the uncertainty around events and reveals in the story I didn’t get a good sense of what we accomplished or where we stand after the entirety of book one. I closed the last page feeling mostly confused, but still intrigued. I suspect that this is the type of series that will be best consumed in one go and might want to hold off reading until there are more books out. Also, the author picked really strange ages for Binsa in the story. In the present, she is a teenager, who talks and acts like she is in her 30s. In the flashbacks, Binsa is 7 years old, and talks and acts like she is a teen. It was distracting to the point of breaking immersion, which was a huge deal for a book that is so involved with its atmosphere. Of course, there is the potential that all of this is intentional and that there is some weird behind-the-scenes thing happening with her age. Yet, it still wouldn’t give me back the lost sense of immersion in book one.

Overall, The Scarlet Throne is certainly one of the more interesting reads of the year and definitely scratches the itch for readers who like a lot of mystery and discovery in their fantasy stories. It’s rare we get this much shameless murder from a likable protagonist and I am very curious to see how far Leow can push Binsa before I turn away.

Rating: The Scarlet Throne – 8.0/10
-Andrew

Title: The Scarlet Throne by Amy Leow
Genre: High Fantasy
Pub Date: September 10, 2024

✨️ Asian Literature
✨️ Blood Magic
✨️ Unexpected Twist
✨️ False Goddess
✨️ Unreliable Narrator

My Review:

Binsa refuses to give up her position as vessel for the Goddess Rashmatun and will do anything to keep from being replaced.

I'm a sucker for an unreliable narrator and Binsa was incredible. The false goddess sham reminds me of The Wizard of Oz, but with a little demon possession 👏 Binsa's efforts to stop puberty in order remain in power and her cutthroat attitude against the other potential vessels was remarkable. The betrayal was unexpected and that cliffhanger was heart stopping! I need book 2 ASAP!

Thank you so much, NetGalley and Orbit Books, for the gifted digital review copy ❣️

The Scarlet Throne introduces us to Binsa, a wonderful and terrible villainess. We watch her full descent into becoming the villain throughout the course of the novel makes this an incredibly entertaining read. Binsa is a Rahkti - serving as the vessel for a goddess but she has been lying for years about the goddess being present in her head instead she has a demon within her. After years of serving in her role Binsa begins to uncover a plan to replace her as Rahkti and must decide how much she is willing to risk if she wishes to maintain her place of power.

It feels strange to say it but I loved Binsa becoming a villain - she made the most absurd choices and pissed everyone off and it was so fun. I loved all the plotting and the various schemes to get by. Additionally the relationships she developed and then destroyed hurt. I was a put confused by the ending but will definitely pick up the next books in this series.

I have the tendency to browse NetGalley and get attracted to pretty covers, and I have to say, this cover got me intrigued. I'll be honest, I jumped into this book without having read anything about it, which made it a intetersging ride.
Now, Let me start by saying I enjoyed it. I did struggle with getting into it (which is why I ended up finishing it almost a month after its release, I think it is in part because it wasn't really an action filled book where I felt like I was on the edge of my seat. It is political after all, as Binsa is trying to stay in power. But it didn't really feel high stake to me, and I think I was expecting it to be a little more. In a way, it felt like I was waiting for a real 'quest' (if I can call it that), to drive the story a little more and really get me hooked. I feel like there were a few plot points that I though would become way bigger things with bigger stakes, and they ended up being quickly resolved.
Still, I'm curious to see where Amy Leow will take the story, as I think there is a lot of potential. I feel like there were a lot of small things that were brought up during the book that could really make captivating to me.

Thank you NetGalley for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Rounded up to 4. I really did enjoy this book. We have a morally grey girl who will literally do anything to try to maintain her power. It’s definitely more of a villain origin story which is always a fun change. I’m interested to see how this series is going to continue as I felt that it could have been a standalone if it ended a few pages earlier, so I’m interested to see what exactly the next book will be about. I enjoyed the corruption storyline and it was kind of nice to have a break from a romance sub plot. I felt like there were some things that could have been fleshed out better though and sometimes the story seemed to drag, but that last 20% had me hooked.

I really enjoyed this debut fantasy - the world that Leow creates feels very lived in and very well thought out, the magic systems are visceral and interesting, and the main character, Binsa, is a complex and understandable villainess heroine despite her rather reprehensible decisions. It may have took me a few weeks to read the book in its entirety, but every time I did sit down with it, I would be glued to the pages. There's plenty of political intrigue and twists (that shed light on the world and made a lot of sense), but also a lot of heart and emotion in the story, including commentary on the cycles of abuse. Much of The Scarlet Throne is backing Binsa into a corner from which there's only way for her to escape, regardless of what she loses in the process.

My biggest complaint is that sometimes it felt that there was more "telling" than "showing", or tragic and plot-important events that felt more summarized than experienced - especially when there were some more mundane, repetitive scenes that would be described as they happened. There were also a few side characters who played important roles that felt very flat - however, this is a novel told in first person, and that could be a commentary on Binsa's limited perspective as well.

On a positive note and in relation to perspective, I did really enjoy how the narration reflected Binsa's spiraling mental state and splintering identity. I thought that worked very well, especially for a perspective character hosting a mind demon who can peek into the minds of others.

Overall, I'm really looking forward to the next book in the trilogy!

I forgot to leave a review for this, but I really enjoyed it! It's already out, so I won't say much more than I need to for my star rating. <3

I enjoyed this book quite a bit! I was initially a bit nervous about the "YA spin" or tone, but the book feels very mature. I had a wonderful time with the characters and the plot felt well developed!

2.5⭐️By all definitions, this should have been a great book for me. Even rereading the synopsis I was getting hyped for all of the elements in the book. I love a story from a villains perspective. I will say that the synopsis is accurate, and the book did deliver all of the content that it said it would. I think what was missing for me was that the MMC was too naive, but also sometimes portrayed as clever and conniving. The plot didn’t have a ton of direction and I felt like none of the characters had any actual plans, leaving their fates up to circumstance or the whims of others.

One thing I’ve seen others say that I really agree with is that this could have been really good as a standalone. I really wanted to like the end, and I think it would have been more impressive if it had a dark conclusion instead of setting up for a future book.

I can’t say for sure what it was that drew me to this book, though the cat on the cover didn’t hurt. I didn’t know what I was jumping into, exactly, but I found this to be interesting, a bit unfamiliar, and a little horrifying. Based on the living goddess in Nepal and the question of what would happen if the living goddess wanted to stay goddess, The Scarlet Throne paints a world filled with magic and blood, priests and living gods who would maneuver behind the scenes for what they want, and demons. While I can’t speak to any authenticity, the author does offer a note expressing her own limitations as someone who is neither Nepali nor from Nepal, which I appreciated, and am now left more interested in this small South Asian country I, in turn, know nothing about.

Rakhti Binsa has been the vessel for the goddess of wisdom Rashmatun for the past ten years, since she was six as this goddess’s vessel must be pure and not have menstruated, and the head priest Harun is suspicious and plots to have her removed. Binsa, though, has secrets that keep her in her place, and plots to remain the living goddess forever. Thanks to her mother Kavita’s terrible training and deeds, and a secret her blood holds, Binsa carries the demon Ilam as Rashmatun seems to be missing. But Binsa has carried the goddess for far longer than anyone else ever has, and the priests grow suspicious, plotting behind Binsa’s back to hold the next Selection, where a young girl named Medha is selected by Binsa herself, even as Binsa plots to show her powers as Rashmatun and to declare herself the one and only vessel for Rashmatun. All the while, Binsa can’t help wondering where Rashmatun is.

I found it easy to become immersed in this story. Even though much of it is set in the temple complex, Binsa did get out into the city now and then, and I found myself enjoying learning about this world. I don’t know anything about Nepal, and I still probably can’t properly say I know anything, but it felt exotic and different, while also being somewhat familiar as it managed to remind me of some of the Indian-inspired fantasies I’ve enjoyed while also carrying what felt like a waft of Chinese inspiration. It made me feel like Nepal is sandwiched between two strong cultures and somehow is a delightful blend of both, and I found myself eating it up. I delighted in this world, and found myself fascinated by the idea of living gods. Of course, the twist about the gods was really the fun part, and I found myself both delighted and a little horrified. It kind of felt like it muddied the idea of Nepal’s living gods, but I also found it perfectly suited for a fantasy story.

I really liked Binsa, and, as the story is told entirely by her, I loved really getting to know her. She’s a complicated creature carrying a lot of trauma and a thirst for power, which arises from her fear of what comes next once she’s no longer Rakhti. I found it easy to sympathize with her and her worries and fears. I felt sorry for her as she revealed more of her past and the things her late mother put her through, as well as the terrible things she herself felt compelled to do just to both protect her position and her mind. But I mostly loved that, unlike other adolescent characters, she felt more adult than childish. I didn’t wince and roll my eyes at her terrible ideas and actions, because I perfectly understood them and her. She put more thought into what she did than most other characters her age I’ve read about, and I really appreciated it. I loved how vicious she was, how perfectly poised even when things went horribly wrong. She was a fascinating character to get to know. Her relationship with Ilam, the demon she carries in her blood, made everything even better. I loved how prickly he was, and I loved that he took the form of a cat, and I adored the relationship they developed over the course of the novel. Everything always felt more exciting for me when Ilam was present.

The secondary characters, though, weren’t quite as interesting. They had their roles, and they played them well. I liked how they often got played by Binsa, and yet still had their own minds now and then. But they also felt very two dimensional. There isn’t much depth to them even though they were given backstories that felt like they were supposed to evoke some feeling of sympathy and understanding. I simply didn’t care much for them beyond the role they were meant to play in the story. I liked Keran, who becomes something of a spy for Binsa, but he felt slippery the entire time and I had difficulties really grasping his character. Her brother Ykta also felt interesting, but I struggled to get to know him. It felt more like the story had plans for him instead of him making his own decisions. Kavita’s spirit was interesting, but in a horrifying way, so there was no real depth to her. Jirtash, Binsa’s head maid, was probably one of my favorites, steadfastly caring for Binsa’s and sometimes feeling more like a mother than a servant. Medha, on the other hand, is given a lot more personality for a six-year-old. I liked her and I thought she was adorable, and sometimes she reminded me of every other little girl her age I’ve ever known. There’s depth to her that’s glimpsed now and then, but, by the end, it felt like the story had plans for her and just pulled her where it wanted her to go.

The world is where The Scarlet Throne really shone for me. As I mentioned, I can’t speak to any authenticity, but I really found myself captivated by the world. As the advanced reader copy I have doesn’t have a map, I did find it a little difficult to place everything, but there’s a fantastic amount of detail that also managed to not take away from the story. I found it easy to imagine what this world might look like and, once I looked it up, what the clothing looked like, making it easier for me to imagine the characters themselves. There’s such a divide between the temple grounds and the city of Bakhtin, and I really liked how that was explored since Binsa’s life story starts in, basically, the slums of this city. I also found it easy to imagine the intense poverty and the soaring mountains, and even the shuttered prison that’s mentioned just a few times. There’s also a wealth of world building outside of this small part of the world, a larger battle along the border with another country playing a distant role. It was fascinating getting a glimpse at these people and what they’re capable of, and I hope to see more in future books. This world came alive to me, and I really enjoyed it.

The story, though, felt a little meandering. This happened and then those characters plotted and then something else happened. It felt like Binsa was always running around to stay on top of everything and make sure everything happened the way she wanted it to. There was so much plotting it was sometimes a little too much and I kept forgetting who was planning what. It also started to become a little predictable in knowing when a reveal was about to happen because I started to feel like Binsa was keeping me at arm’s length. It was a little frustrating when that happened because, after getting so deeply in her head, it suddenly became impossible to know what she was plotting, only for some twist or reveal to come. This felt like her villain origin story, but it didn’t really feel that way until the end. I can see the slow build up to it throughout the story, but I was also lost in all the plotting during that time. There were so many winding threads that were tangled together, and it was sometimes a little too much.

The Scarlet Throne offers a fascinating and different world to me. I loved getting to know Binsa and her city, and I loved how horrified of Kavita I found myself to be. Ilam was fun and Medha was delightful and sweet, but the rest of the characters felt forgettable as a whole, easily confused for each other. I did enjoy this, though, and I really enjoyed the twists and turns. It was a little harder to follow all the plotting the characters did, but I think it came together by the end, resulting in an ending I certainly didn’t see coming. I’m excited to see what the next book holds.

Thank you to NetGalley and Orbit for a review copy. All opinions expressed are my own.

Amy Leow tells the tale of a girl who will do anything to keep falsely representing a goddess and to keep sitting on the The Scarlet Throne (paper from Orbit) Binsa got the position at age six when the other applicants were mysteriously poisoned. Her mother bonded her to a demon and she uses the abilities it gives her to fake being bonded to the goddess. But, after a decade, it’s time for another child to be chosen. What actually happened to the goddess is a puzzle, as is the relationship between goddess and demon. It’s a bit disquieting to look through the eyes of a person who would be a villain in any other tale, but it was fun watching her come close to achieving her desires. I look forward to the second part.

Really liked the magic system in THE SCARLET THRONE and the way the pieces fit together to form the whole. The religion was fascinating and now I want to do more reading about its roots in Nepali culture. Binsa is a great character - I’m always into a female protagonist (ish) willing to go after what she wants, unabashedly focus on her endgame and unwilling to let anyone get in her way, judgment be damned (literally). The supporting cast was developed enough to hold their own and I’d definitely like to know more about several of them.
Looking forward to book 2.

I had high hopes but I found the main character a bit difficult to connect with but I enjoyed how revenge obsessed and smart and spiteful she was.

I support women's wrongs!!!! I loved the worldbuilding in this too. It was fascinating getting to learn a Nepalese-inspired world and while I know the author is not part of this identity I feel like I could tell the care that went into researching this

Binsa has been the avatar for the Goddess Rashmatun for the last ten years, far longer than she should have been and her head priest seems to have decided that her time is up. As events take place around Bakhtin that seem to point to a hundreds year old prophecy coming true and the end of Binsa's reign, Binsa determines that she will keep her throne by any means necessary, even if that means sacrificing her people to a demon.

I did not find anything about this believable, unfortunately. And I'm 100% certain that's because I've read like eight books in the last oh six months with basically the same exact plot line just in a different setting with varying levels of evil the MC is willing to do to accomplish their goals. And to be fair, Binsa does some pretty messed up stuff and yet out of all of these books she's the least believable mc to lie, cheat, murder and/or steal for a selfish reason. The pacing in this is also incredibly slow, mostly because we spend a lot of time bogged down in Binsa's head with nothing actually happening. Genuinely this would have been 100% better if it had been told in any other perspective or at least switched between characters. By the halfway mark *I* wanted to kick Binsa off the throne because I was sick of hearing just from her. And I think Leow makes one of Binsa's powers mind reading to alleviate this and it just doesn't work.

In terms of world building this was really well done, the magic system is not anything ground breaking but it wasn't overly complicated either which was very nice, since we got bogged down in Binsa's head. Leow also does a very good job at expressing the contradictory nature between an abuser and abuse victim, especially between a parent and child.

Overall, there are some really shining moments in this book that show that Leow definitely has potential, but, I found that there weren't enough of those moments to make me really care about what was happening. And like I said I don't think that was necessarily 100% the books fault, I think I've read way too many books with similar plots recently that it was just really difficult for this to hold my interest. So do I recommend it? Yes, I think for people that enjoyed Inferno's Heir this will be right up their alley.

As always thanks to Orbit Books and NetGalley for the eArc!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a free eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I LOVED this book. This is for everyone who loves reading about villains. Who loves morally-gray protagonists who get their hands dirty. Who loved reading about Rin's moral downfall in the Poppy War trilogy.

I really loved that this book didn't have any romance to sully Binsa's quest for power. I loved the complex politics and worldbuilding as well. Binsa is a villain that I loved to follow; her reasonings behind the horrible things she does are understandable and make her a sympathetic character despite her evil actions.

I can't wait for the next in this series!

A difficult book, in good ways and bad. I liked aspects of the voice, and the choice to have a truly unlikeable, violent main character scrabbling to keep her head above water was an interesting one. But it suffers badly from "book 1" syndrome. Apparently first in a trilogy, I think it would have worked well as a standalone with a few tweaks. But the book we're given almost stands still, setting up for I'm not quite sure what in the next book. Certainly interesting enough to see what IS planned next, but on its own merits I think this structure is to The Scarlet Throne's detriment.

One of my best reads of 2024. Fast paced (every chapter something happens that makes me wonder what will our protagonist invent next), interesting worldbuilding (Nepali inspired), captivating protagonist (just watch that slide deeper and deeper into the Dark Side), breezy writing style.

Recommended for fans of ruthless self-serving girls a la The Poppy War (R. F. Kuang) and Iron Widow (Xiran Jay Zhao). Adult with YA crossover appeal. No romance - if you're tired of every YA / NA fantasy centering around a romance, this book is for you.

Thank you Orbit Books and Netgalley for this amazing new addition to the Asian Fantasy shelf and generously granting me the ARC.

Looking forward to what the author writes next.