#the apothecary diaries series

[kamreadsandrecs]

Title: The Apothecary Diaries Light Novel, Vol. 1

Author: Natsu Hyuuga, Kevin Steinbach (trans.)

Illustrator: Touko Shino

Genre/s: historical, mystery

Content/Trigger Warnings: implied pedophilia by a character no longer present in the series, kidnapping, being sold into indentured servitude, death, suicide, physical and emotional abuse

Summary (from publisher's website): In the East is a land ruled by an emperor, whose consorts and serving women live in a sprawling complex known as the hougong, the rear palace. Maomao, an unassuming girl raised in an unassuming town by her apothecary father, never imagined the rear palace would have anything to do with her—until she was kidnapped and sold into service there. Though she looks ordinary, Maomao has a quick wit, a sharp mind, and an extensive knowledge of medicine. That’s her secret, until she encounters a resident of the palace at least as perceptive as she is: the head eunuch, Jinshi. He sees through Maomao’s façade and makes her a lady-in-waiting to none other than the Emperor’s favorite consort… so she can taste the lady’s food for poison! At her lady’s side, Maomao starts to learn about everything that goes on in the rear palace—not all of it seemly. Can she ever lead a quiet life, or will her powers of deduction and insatiable curiosity bring her ever more adventures, and ever more dangers?

Buy Here: https://j-novel.club/series/the-apothecary-diaries

Spoiler-Free Review: Oh but this was a delight! The way I think of this is that Maomao is kind of like Sherlock Holmes, except she’s stuck in a period intrigue drama set in the rear palace of the Chinese imperial court and has to negotiate all the etiquette and conspiracies in THAT particular setting while also solving mysteries. Which, given all the conspiring, there are actually plenty of.

While the mysteries are pretty interesting, what REALLY hooked me was reading about Maomao interacting with the consorts and their ladies-in-waiting. The way Maomao views herself (low-ranked servant/food taster/apothecary) stands in direct contrast to the way the REST of the inhabitants of the rear palace view her (poor unfortunate waif), and there’s plenty of hilarious moments where Maomao does or says something that makes the other rear palace residents react in a certain way, and she does NOT for the life of her understand WHY. It’s not that she can’t READ people, because she CAN; she just doesn’t seem the least bit interested in anything that might necessarily apply to HER. On one hand there’s a pretty good reason for that: she firmly believes no one would care about her because she’s so low in the overall hierarchy that she doesn’t think anyone would care about her welfare. On the other hand, she’s just the type of person who’s not easily impressed by anyone. She knows how to act in front of her social betters, but that’s just manners; she doesn’t go out of her way to impress anyone because, in her opinion, it’s a waste of time.

What this means is that Maomao has some entertaining, and often outright HILARIOUS, interactions with the other residents of the rear palace. There is a moment in the novel where some ladies-in-waiting concoct a tragic backstory for Maomao that Maomao finds annoying - not only because it gets the facts of her life wrong, but also because it prevents her from working as much as she used to. Despite that, though, she tends to let it slide because the privileges she gains from the misunderstanding allow her to do OTHER things that are more aligned with her preferences. There’s a lot of “It is what it is, I should just make the most of it” to Maomao’s outlook in life, which is juxtaposed against her intense curiosity and willingness to go to any lengths to find the answer to any question she might have.

And then there is Jinshi: the beautiful eunuch who is constantly giving Maomao migraines. At first he’s an almost adversarial character, but that’s only because the reader first sees him through Maomao’s THOROUGHLY unimpressed eyes. It becomes clear later on that Jinshi isn’t all that he seems to be on the surface - something that Maomao figures out herself later on, though that doesn’t lessen her annoyance at him. It’s also through Maomao’s interactions with Jinshi and his assistant Gaoshun that the reader gets a sense of something brewing in the palace - something that goes beyond the games and intrigues of the imperial consorts and their ladies. Still, it’s clear his and Maomao’s dynamic is something to keep an eye on, and it’s easy to see why they’re popular as a ship in the manga and anime fandoms.

Overall, this is a very quick and entertaining read. Maomao’s an absolutely endearing character, both because she is extraordinary and extraordinarily flawed. The way she interacts with the characters around her and navigates rear palace politics often make for hilarious moments, but they make for some pretty interesting mysteries for Maomao to solve as well. It’s interesting to see where Maomao’s curiosity will take her, and what mysteries she will unravel - not just in the rear palace, but perhaps in the Imperial court itself.

Rating: five rare herbs

[cattnipt]

most annoying man vs. world's strongest idgafker!! who will win!!

[animeposts9]

maomao x jinshi

[glorfys-glorioushair]

Started watching and reading The Apothecary Diaries. Here's some cursed redraws ✨️

[lenateliier]

Maomao in various hanfu #2: Ming dynasty

[drforger]

kusuriya no hitorigoto opening!

[spatziline]

GUYS NEW YOUTUBE VIDEO! Maomao cheers Jinshi up! HOPE YOU LIKE IT !!

Click here, if the link doesn't work please go to my channel spatziline

[ladykyriaa]

Oh my gosh i never realized this. And it's actually such a small detail also but

I LOVE how they made her look so. Idk. Raggedy?? Like her dirty feet, her torn up clothes, the seemingly old bandage?

They don't shy away from the fact that this is a poor girl and with an odd stroke of luck that somehow managed to climb her way to where she currently is now

[maflufla]

I just finished rereading LN 3 of the apothecary diaries and I need to ramble for a bit

One of the things that is clear and emphasized a lot in the these initial volumes is how much maomao is scared of accidentally committing an infraction unknowingly and been punished (killed) because of this. That is her reasoning behind wanting clear limits and direct orders, as in her narration she mentions multiple times that that makes her life easier.

Even in situations where the people in higher station are clearly showing signs of affection towards her (I'm thinking about when the emperor pats her head in the labyrinth-shrine), she has her guard up and is still very aware of the image she presents as to not "accidentally offend a noble and get killed".

And then we get at the end of volume 3, where the hunting trip offers more proof than ever that Jinshi is much more important and high up in the chain than she had previously thought, and that the whole situation is VERY messy. And she is obviously resentful and stressed for being dragged into this, because the undeniable truth is that she is the one that stands to lose the most. But still, when Jinshi offers her the ox bezoar she then SHUTS THE DOOR IN HIS FACE and it's such a funny and very maomao way of showing that she is a little bit closer to him and can let her guard down enough to let her excitement for pharmaceutical ingredients consume her necessity to maintain propriety (lest she gets beheaded for being accidentally rude as she always thinks????).

She knows that her own feelings about people are not something she is very in tune with (she knows how she feels about her dad and maybe her sistersand thats about how much she recognizes), so we the readers are not going to get a direct declaration from maomao about how she feels about jinshi. I like then that we get progressive and subtle glimpses of how she starts to let her guard down and feel more at ease in jinshis presence, that she becomes a little bit more rude, outspoken, direct with her observations and conclusions in her investigations. We get to see her talk more and narrate less, and I find it such clever and subtle way to show that she is warming up to him.

[gothsuguru]

this man has no fucking right to be THIS beautiful… jinshi my LOVE.

[kamreadsandrecs]

Title: The Apothecary Diaries Vol. 2 (Light Novel)

Author: Natsu Hyuuga, Kevin Steinbach (trans.)

Illustrator: Touko Shino

Genre/s: historical, mystery

Content/Trigger Warning/s: suicide, mental illness, body horror, death, blood

Summary (from publisher's website): Dismissed from the rear palace, Maomao returns to service in the outer court—as the personal serving woman to none other than Jinshi! That doesn’t necessarily make her popular with the other ladies, but a bit of jealousy might be the least of her problems. A mysterious warehouse fire, an official with a very bad case of food poisoning, and the mysterious last will and testament of a deceased craftsman all demand her attention—but are these cases really separate, or do they share a troubling connection? Then there’s the mysterious military man who continually visits Jinshi. He’s strange, maybe even a little twisted… and he seems very interested in Maomao.

Buy Here: https://j-novel.club/series/the-apothecary-diaries#volume-2

Spoiler-Free Review: Once again this was a DELIGHT! The world expands a bit here, in the sense that the reader begins to see more of it beyond just the rear palace and the tiny bit of the pleasure quarter that the first volume showed. This expansion also means that there are more mysteries for Maomao to solve, and while they aren’t always necessarily complex, they DO begin to take on a bit more significance, because now those mysteries involve more than just the consorts and their ladies-in-waiting. (Which isn’t to say the consorts and the other residents of the rear palace aren’t important in the grander scheme of things, but it’s rather limited in what sorts of things can happen in there.)

Speaking of expanding, not only do the mysteries expand, but the backstories expand as well! This time the reader learns more about Maomao’s origins, which are DEEPLY fascinating and also tragic. The mystery of Jinshi’s identity is also touched upon in this volume, but in such a way as to actually produce more questions than answers. There were hints of something towards the end of the first volume, and that little hint is expanded upon somewhat in this one, both in Maomao’s own speculations about Jinshi and in the scenes where Jinshi appears without Maomao present.

Speaking of Jinshi and Maomao, their connection progresses in this novel - to a certain extent. It becomes VERY obvious that Jinshi is rather possessive of Maomao, and acts quite jealous whenever Maomao chooses to pay attention to someone else - or a LOT jealous, as one particular scene in this volume shows. He also isn’t above bribing anyone, including Maomao herself, to get what he wants. As for Maomao, her view of Jinshi changes a little too in this volume, though she still finds him troublesome and a bother for the most part.

As in the previous volume, much of the fun in reading this series comes from how Maomao interacts with the characters around her, and this volume is no different. While the consorts and ladies-in-waiting of the rear palace do make an appearance (with a new consort included to make things more exciting), much of Maomao’s work in this volume involves characters from the outer palace. Aside from Jinshi, Gaoshun, and Lihaku, the story introduces other characters like Suiren, Jinshi’s housekeeper, and (the rather confusingly-named) Suirei. This volume also prominently features the Verdigris House (a high-end brothel also featured in the first volume), including more of its residents, like Meimei. As mentioned earlier this opening up of the world in which the story is set is great because it gives more opportunities for mysteries, but it also begins laying down the groundwork for the overall arc of the series itself.

Speaking of which, that arc is rather hard to tell so early in this series, but it certainly seems like it has to do with succession and the Emperor. Of course this was a clear concern laid down in the previous novel, given that Maomao’s first case was to solve the mystery behind the death of a child in the rear palace, but this volume shows that something is afoot that neither Maomao nor Jinshi can quite grasp at the moment. The reader gets a fairly good sense of who the key players might be, but there’s nothing confirmed as of this volume - and even then, there might be some plot twist further into the series that will render any speculation moot.

Overall, this volume was an excellent continuation of the first one. The shift in milieu from the rear palace to the outer palace not only opens up the setting, but opens up the plot: both in terms of the kinds of mysteries that Maomao gets to solve, but also in terms of the overall plot of the series itself. The reader then gets to know Maomao and Jinshi better, though there are still plenty of questions about the latter that are still left unanswered. As always, though, the beating heart of this series is Maomao’s interactions with the world and people around her, and that remains a consistently delightful aspect in this volume as much as it did in the previous one.

Rating: five blue roses

[dumplingprincessextraordinaire]

I love them dearly

Art by あーちゃん

[realrosielol]

Syphilis

[yournotsolocalpharmacist]

She does this all the time I fear. Self-sufficient to a fault, someone needs to call her Pops (NOT Rakan) so he can tell her she can ask for help.

[anonynewsroom]

The Apothecary Diaries summed in a sentence

A man in his mid-30s having a midlife crisis while carrying his adoptive kids employer and the employer's favorite employee in baby harnesses (one of them keeps eating strange stuff and not spitting them out help).

[bluefriendlycatfish]

agh this art is so cute I'm dying. Maomao and her FRIENDS AAAAAA

(Source: Apothecary Diaries v.9)