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4.05 AVERAGE
4.05 AVERAGE
medium-paced
love the story of shen wei and zhao yunlan — truly. i think shen wei is an interesting character and loved getting to FINALLY know everything. he’s such a sneak (in the best ways). there was just so much going on, all of the time, that it felt like i didn’t really have time to process everything before the next big thing happened. i think with a love story this grand, spanning thousands of years, there needed to be a few more moments where we could sit with the heaviness of that.
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
finally done with this series. in the beginning i was reading ~10 pages a day and then it rose so quickly to 400 pages a day bc i needed to know what was happening. i pulled an all-nighter to get to its conclusion.
however… my enjoyment of this series decreased after each volume.
if you’re looking for mystery and hilarious but also hard-hitting detective fiction, read the first book. then, if you’re intrigued by the romance, read the second. then well… if you’re looking for a conclusion to all the mysteries that surround weilan, read the third. but i wouldn’t highly recommend it as a standalone per se.
the first book is undoubtedly my favorite, which is interesting because it felt almost like a completely separate vibe/pace than the last 2 books. the first book felt like detective fiction with a hint of the xianxia that i love. the last 2 felt more like… a xianxia romance with mystery, yes, but the mystery surrounds the characters rather than separate cases.
for why i didn’t really like the third book…… the lore is quite dense, and the plot twists/reveals were always done in sort of… long continuous blocks of dialogue. not the biggest fan of that. i still enjoyed priest’s humor and the characters as always: love guo changcheng, love chu shuzhi, love daqing, love wang zheng/sangzan (wish i got to see more of them), kind of annoyed by zhu hong’s jealous unrequited love (get over him girl!), and i find lin jing kind of weird. and of course zhao yunlan and shen wei both hold a firm place in my heart. but great heavens, all of
all-in-all though, i enjoyed guardian and weilan :”). probably wouldn’t re-read in full, but might revisit some scenes.
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I personally enjoyed volumes one and two better. There were just a lot of loose ends that needed to be tied up in this book and it's pretty clear that the ending was kind of Trying Its Best. I was a little underwhelmed by how it all ended, and a little sad about the minimum time for romance. I'm a big fan of priest's work, with The Defectives being my favorite.
Guardian was an earlier work and it shows in the writing style and pacing. You still get the signature priest humor and character writing, but the descriptive prose was at time lacking, and pacing was a bit ehhh. I think the first two volumes benefitted from being pretty "self-contained" stories, whereas this one went deeper into the far reaching mythos/history in the background.
Guardian was an earlier work and it shows in the writing style and pacing. You still get the signature priest humor and character writing, but the descriptive prose was at time lacking, and pacing was a bit ehhh. I think the first two volumes benefitted from being pretty "self-contained" stories, whereas this one went deeper into the far reaching mythos/history in the background.
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
emotional
funny
mysterious
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:
No
So sad to depart from 4 Bright Avenue and the SID, but it was a pleasure reading this trilogy. This is a solid crime mystery rooted in Chinese mythology with a bit of romance and humor integrated in. The characters were the best part of the book. They were all so unique, dynamic and flawed in the best way. I was engaged, entertained, and laughed a lot. Would recommend.
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
It was nice. Maybe because it took me so long to read it and I was in a reading slump, but the end felt a bit rushed and not impressive. I expected something a bit more... epic. Still, I love the characters and I got all my questions answered so I'm happy. The first book is still my fave in the series.
Ok I fully did not understand 50% of the lore that happened in this book. It was paced simultaneously too slow and too fast. But I love the main characters and the extras at the end brought me back in.