Press Reviews

• Andrea Stewart, Sunday Times bestselling author

  The Poet Empress is a hidden knife, one that cuts so deeply and cleanly that it excises your heart and makes you like it. I have rarely had such a breathless reading experience, where each page reveals the ways in which humanity's beauty and ugliness run lockstep with one another. Terrifying and enthralling!

• Kritika H. Rao, Sunday Times bestselling author of THE LEGEND OF MENEKA

  Taut, sharp, and compelling. With haunting prose and characters vividly real, The Poet Empress is a devastating composition, revealing intrigue, magic, and politics turn by thrilling turn. Impeccably paced, vicious and romantic, this is a deadly debut that'll have you at the edge of your seat

• Kemi Ashing-Giwa

  The Poet Empress will surprise you. It will, at times, terrify you. But Tao's rich tale is multifaceted - it is brutal, yes, but also beautiful and full of hope and kindnesses both big and small. If you love court intrigue, creative magic systems, and protagonists who know that empathy is a strength and not a weakness, even as they are forced to make impossible decisions, this is the book for you

• Amélie Wen Zhao, New York Times and No. 1 Sunday Times bestselling author of THE SCORPION AND THE NIGHT BLOSSOM

  Sublime. Against a lush, poetic rendition of ancient China, Tao unfurls a breathlessly sweeping and brutally romantic historical epic woven with themes of feminism, courage, and morality. Powerful and poignant, The Poet Empress is one of my favorite recent reading experiences

• Chloe Gong, New York Times bestselling author of Immortal Longings

  The very definition of an epic. The Poet Empress draws its world with sharp clarity, its characters with astounding depth, and its magic with flawless precision. Vicious, gorgeous, and fiercely haunting until the end

• Chelsea Abdullah, author of The Stardust Thief

  With political intrigue as sharp as a blade and sweeping, ethereal prose, The Poet Empress is an astounding debut novel. This mesmerising fantasy shattered and healed my heart in equal measure - and I enjoyed every moment of it

• Vaishnavi Patel, New York Times bestselling author of Kaikeyi

  There are many stories about the power of words, but none quite like this: an illiterate girl learns to write poetry that changes the world. And yet, no simple words can do justice to this book's beating heart--its intimate portrayal of characters so painfully human that you see them as real people, flawed, traumatized, and still yearning for love. From the very first page, this book had me completely gripped. The Poet Empress is fantasy at its best

• K. X. Song, New York Times bestselling author of THE NIGHT ENDS WITH FIRE

  Lyrical, romantic, and full of heart, The Poet Empress is an epic fantasy debut that captivates from the very first page

• Publishers Weekly

  Tao's prose gleams with poetic precision, and climactic revelations strike with devastating inevitability. Fans of R.F. Kuang's The Poppy War and Shelley Parker-Chan's She Who Became the Sun will be enthralled by this fierce meditation on love, power, and survival through art

• Julie Leong, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Keeper of Magical Things

  A beautifully devastating tale, powerfully and elegantly told - The Poet Empress will cut you and heal you all at once. This is not a love story, but it is a story about love, and all the ugly things that fill the void when it's taken away. With an unflinching eye and a poet's quiet restraint, Tao weaves power, pain, hope, and humanity together into an epic tapestry that will take your breath away

• SFX

  A book filled with complicated characters, power plays and familial love, set in an epic world of literomancy and magical dynasty. Wei is enthralled and corrupted by the power she gains, but never loses sight of the ordinary families struggling to survive far from palace life

• The i Paper

  This epic fantasy rooted in poetry follows a peasant girl trapped in an imperial court. Richly imagined and politically driven, it combines intrigue with a focused emotional arc about survival, language and agency

• The Daily Mail

  It's hard to overstate how calmly authoritative and finely judged this debut is. Gorgeous settings, outstanding characters and tremendous narrative drive put it in a class of its own

• The Guardian

  This impressive debut is set in a fantastical version of ancient China where poetry is a magical art, and the right to rule is established by physically subduing a dragon . . . A powerful, engaging story with real psychological depth as well as convincing worldbuilding rooted in Chinese history

• Grimdark Magazine

  A masterful character study . . . At its heart, The Poet Empress is an ode to survival, and the lengths one will take to return home. Shen Tao's debut is slicing and heart wrenching, and now holds a standard for fantasy standalones that few other books could reach

• The Nerd Daily

  Debut author Shen Tao introduces readers to the lush, deadly world of The Poet Empress, a sweeping, epic and intimate fantasy perfect for fans of The Serpent & the Wings of Night, The Song of Achilles and She Who Became the Sun