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aardwyrm's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Lovely prose, clever pacing with few pages, lively characters, and awesome worldbuilding, and it all comes together with elegant craft.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Colonisation, Death, Violence, Suicide, Infidelity, Pregnancy, Medical content, Blood, and War
spiritedfaraway's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
“You will never remember the great if you do not remember the small.”
Exiled to the estate of Thriving Fortune, Empress In-Yo from the North is fierce and coldly furious. With her she brings loyal Rabbit, her handmaiden, who has made her choice and will follow her Empress anywhere.
Years later, a traveling cleric seeks to learn the history of places, of people, of history, of the Empress of Salt and Fortune. And when her former estate opens back up to visitors after her death, Chih goes there to learn.
“Thriving Fortune itself seemed to be a place made of stories and plots, conspiracies and fury.”
There they find items from long ago, ghosts, and Rabbit, whose allegiances now lie with the dead and as she says, “the dead care for very little”. Rabbit agrees to tell them about the items and about the Empress and about the war.
“The war was won by silenced and nameless women.”
This is a very reflective and emotional novella. I wish it was longer so that we could really delve into this world and these characters, but the storytelling aspect really worked for me. We learn with Chih and we feel with Rabbit. We glimpse the personal stories and feelings behind a grand Empress, we see how she rose to rule and create a legacy. We learn of the life of her most loyal companion. We only see a fraction of this vivid fantasy world that Nghi Vo has created based off of imperial China.
But what a world it is.
Definitely give this book a try.
Content Warnings
Minor: Animal death, Confinement, Death, Grief, Medical content, Sexual content, Suicide, Torture, and Violence
There is also a mention of forced sterilization and of babies being torn from mothers and an instance of misgendering.
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