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bionerdatgc's review
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gore, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Cannibalism, Suicide attempt, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Gore, Sexual assault, Vomit, Grief, Medical trauma, and Fire/Fire injury
blondofondo's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
A beautiful, perfect ending that had me tear up. A story of love over lifetimes. A story of great adventure, with appearances from many different creatures of myth. This was a great read. The end got a bit intense as we reached the climax (it’s rough to see beloved characters subjected to great pain and loss), but there is a happy, beautiful ending. Quite an epic. Such an emotional journey.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Torture, Violence, and War
sisforsony's review
adventurous
dark
hopeful
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Torture, Kidnapping, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Violence, and War
bluemoonrabbit's review
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.25
If I have to read "my fated one" one more time I may rip out my hair.
The book was mostly fast paced (minus some slog in the middle), especially fast at the end, it could have benefitted from more pages, I really wanted to like this book, in fact, the first 40% was enjoyable, and the book initially sat at 4 stars. The beginning really caught my attention, I loved the idea of Sai being a matchmaker and the opening scene was very well done in my opinion, a great way to open a book, but by the 40% mark the story starts slowly crumbling apart until it becomes a complete mess by the end. Specifically,it all fell apart when Jyn got injured in the desert (according to the notes past me made at least).
I am not sure where to even begin with this book, so I guess I will start with the horrendous prose. I did not notice it in the beginning, the writing seemed fine initially, but the more I read, the more annoying and juvenile it was, the prose is just so crap and I can't put into words why, it is just such poor quality. The dialogue is bad too, it is unnatural for one, but once Sai finds Jyn it gets even worse. I could go on and on about how much I hated Sai's use of petnames, he didn't even pick one pet name, he called Jyn every crappy nickname under the sun and the author always inserted them not only into the most awkward unnatural places, but the sheer quantity of the petnames made me want to put the book down forever.
The petnames are made even worse by the fact that their love feels so half baked and forced to begin with, the worst thing about reading this book was the fact I would read a passage and see what exactly the author was trying to do, convey, set up, and not in a good way, I would read a crappy paragraph and go "I see she is trying to set up Sai to have xyz personality and bring that back later in the book". I should not be able to pick apart a book like that when I am casually reading in bed.
This kind of like transparent writing made it really hard to believe they liked eachother, it was so instalove, which I don't even hate, and it technically makes sense here but it was still hard to read, especially because there was a grumpy sunshine trope shoehorned in, made worse by Jyn's very rough and awkward transition from "Go away Sai" to "I love you". All just so...unbelievable?
The characters were half baked too, all of them but especially the supporting cast. Captain Tian and his relationship to Sai made no sense, Feng was annoying andher death meant nothing , and that one weird cannibal guy was a wild card we did not need. The emperor's characterization sucked too. And Sai, that man was SO stupid and for what? For one, he can see red threads of fate but won't believe in shamans and dragon scales? He was also so stupid for punching Captain Tian, I had to put the book down. Jyn was another bad one, her self harm scene was so random, we have had 0 indication beforehand aside from her brooding a bit and now she is all depressed and cuts herself? So depressed she tried to kill Sai as a kid? . So random.
Alot of the story is really unrealistic, the sheer violence and how much the characters got hurt, even with adrenaline there is no way they could have moved let alone kept figting throughout the story, yes fiction will be unrealistic but this story took it way too far to the point of breaking immersion. The violence happening to begin with was odd, this reads like a solid younger end YA then randomly adds crazy gore out of nowhere, imagine watching Ponyo and Miyazaki inserts the level of violence you see in Princess Mononoke into Ponyo, very jarring. Also Sai caring so muchabout the blue dragon kid, then never even mentioning all the dead kids he had from his 700 lifetimes is SO weird like, fuck dem kids I guess because he didn't have them with his "fated one"? Him losing control was also just cringey, with the red eyes and bloodthirst and "omg Sai stop this, they're dead" please, is this Twilight? At this point, I am just complaining about random scenes that made no sense, of which there are ALOT, so it is better to move into worldbuilding.
It was lackluster. Honestly we know nothing, and when we learn things, it doesn't make sense, such as thesuper tall library, when Sai was looking at all those books on that shelf, the books were so diverse in topic, you'd think a library that large would be much more organized. The environments make no sense, jumping between deserts and mountains and seas, but they travel for 2 days on foot? Everything lacks thought, basically. Even the story of the dragons interluded within the book, though clearly a stylistic choice, came off as lazy.
Lastly, two large complaints, all to do with the last chapter or 2. One, DON'T FEED A NEWBORN HONEY ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL HER? Two, Sai was lowkey a pedo I can't lie,his logic for staying away from Jyn as she grew up wasn't "Gee would it not be weird to see my future lover grow from a baby into a woman, would it not be weird to eventually have sex with someone you knew for their whole life when you were the adult", no, HIS logic was " I want Jyn to have a normal childhood without me because she has been through so much", YOU SHOULD NOT WANNA BE IN YOUR WIFE'S CHILDHOOD EVER IF SHE IS A BABY AND YOU ARE A GROWN 25YO MAN!!!
Anyway, book cover is gorgeous and I've read worse.
The book was mostly fast paced (minus some slog in the middle), especially fast at the end, it could have benefitted from more pages, I really wanted to like this book, in fact, the first 40% was enjoyable, and the book initially sat at 4 stars. The beginning really caught my attention, I loved the idea of Sai being a matchmaker and the opening scene was very well done in my opinion, a great way to open a book, but by the 40% mark the story starts slowly crumbling apart until it becomes a complete mess by the end. Specifically,
I am not sure where to even begin with this book, so I guess I will start with the horrendous prose. I did not notice it in the beginning, the writing seemed fine initially, but the more I read, the more annoying and juvenile it was, the prose is just so crap and I can't put into words why, it is just such poor quality. The dialogue is bad too, it is unnatural for one, but once Sai finds Jyn it gets even worse. I could go on and on about how much I hated Sai's use of petnames, he didn't even pick one pet name, he called Jyn every crappy nickname under the sun and the author always inserted them not only into the most awkward unnatural places, but the sheer quantity of the petnames made me want to put the book down forever.
The petnames are made even worse by the fact that their love feels so half baked and forced to begin with, the worst thing about reading this book was the fact I would read a passage and see what exactly the author was trying to do, convey, set up, and not in a good way, I would read a crappy paragraph and go "I see she is trying to set up Sai to have xyz personality and bring that back later in the book". I should not be able to pick apart a book like that when I am casually reading in bed.
This kind of like transparent writing made it really hard to believe they liked eachother, it was so instalove, which I don't even hate, and it technically makes sense here but it was still hard to read, especially because there was a grumpy sunshine trope shoehorned in, made worse by Jyn's very rough and awkward transition from "Go away Sai" to "I love you". All just so...unbelievable?
The characters were half baked too, all of them but especially the supporting cast. Captain Tian and his relationship to Sai made no sense, Feng was annoying and
Alot of the story is really unrealistic, the sheer violence and how much the characters got hurt, even with adrenaline there is no way they could have moved let alone kept figting throughout the story, yes fiction will be unrealistic but this story took it way too far to the point of breaking immersion. The violence happening to begin with was odd, this reads like a solid younger end YA then randomly adds crazy gore out of nowhere, imagine watching Ponyo and Miyazaki inserts the level of violence you see in Princess Mononoke into Ponyo, very jarring. Also Sai caring so much
It was lackluster. Honestly we know nothing, and when we learn things, it doesn't make sense, such as the
Lastly, two large complaints, all to do with the last chapter or 2. One, DON'T FEED A NEWBORN HONEY ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL HER? Two, Sai was lowkey a pedo I can't lie,
Anyway, book cover is gorgeous and I've read worse.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Torture, and Murder
Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, and War
Minor: Child death and Sexual content
justinekorson's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-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
4.75
I genuinely really enjoyed this novel. The romance between them was very sweet and although I knew who the two of them were right off the bat (the subtly of their backstories wasn't very subtle) I still had fun reading about it. I have to admit though that I think I confused this story with a different one because I thought this story would be queer. Jyn and Sai were so cute though and it was queer (their son's partner was a man and there were other queer characters) just not between the main characters like I assumed. I kind of hope there's a sequel because I'd love a story about their son being reincarnated but... I don't think I'd like to see R'ong again (his partner). If it's done well though I think I could be into it!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Cannibalism, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, and War
lokiisreading's review
Thank you to Saga Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, for the free
copy for review.
I was unfortunately fooled by a pretty cover.
The beginning was just slow and didn't engage me at all. BUT I wanted to know about this dragon, and why Sai had that frayed thread, so I continued. It started to pick up, but it's still not engaging enough for you. One thing I couldn't stand while reading was figuring out the time period in comparison to how our main characters spoke? (I hope this makes sense) It's like the side characters all spoke with what I expected the people of that time (emperor times lol) to speak, but our MCs spoke very modernly??? MIND YOU this wasn't consistent AT ALL. I just couldn't place this story any where in my head while reading.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Blood, Medical content, Murder, and War
m_a_j's review
adventurous
challenging
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death
Moderate: War
Minor: Suicidal thoughts
kaneebli's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal death, Sexual content, Torture, Toxic relationship, Cannibalism, and War
Minor: Animal cruelty, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Sexual harassment, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic
ajacobs590's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
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? Yes
4.0
This was a beautiful story with dragons, fated ones, and Chinese Mythology. It was refreshing to read a book on Eastern mythology when most books are based on Western mythology. The author also is a beautiful storyteller and can weave together both the beauty and the struggle in this book.
This journey was life changing for Sai. He was able to find himself along the way and learned a great deal about his past. He would often use humor to get out of a tough situation. He also loved those around him and would do anything to make sure they were safe. His love for his mother sets him on this journey.
This journey was life changing for Sai. He was able to find himself along the way and learned a great deal about his past. He would often use humor to get out of a tough situation. He also loved those around him and would do anything to make sure they were safe. His love for his mother sets him on this journey.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Torture, Violence, and Blood
Moderate: Child death, Murder, and War
boba_nbooks's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
reflective
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? Yes
4.5
Spice Rating: 🌶️.5 / 5
This novel is a love letter to the fated mates trope, and I ate it up.
Sai has only ever known a quiet life taking after his deceased father's teahouse. However, he does have a supernatural power: he can see the red threads of fate that connect soulmates. Every day he sees healthy red threads or even black ones for those whose soulmates have passed on. But his own thread is a strange grey color that he has never seen on anyone else before. Sai is determined to use his power to bring his mother money to cure her illness, but when he tries the miracle cure of a dragon scale, the emperor catches wind and blackmails Sai into finding the last dragon of the east for him. From there, Sai is thrust into a years-long war, foreign lands, and possibly the end to the search for his Fated One.
The Last Dragon of the East is a beautiful story that pays homage to Chinese mythology and shows the lengths people will go to in order to find their soulmates.
Sai is unlike any hero you've met before. He doesn't know how to fight, he's sarcastic, and he's great at making tea. I love his refreshing character and the fun way he banters with other characters. Throughout the novel, Sai's reality is challenged time and time again as he realizes there is so much more to this world, and his life, than he thought.
I can't say much more without spoiling the story, but trust me when I say readers who love a good love story and fated mates who find each other through time will absolutely love The Last Dragon of the East.
This novel is a love letter to the fated mates trope, and I ate it up.
Sai has only ever known a quiet life taking after his deceased father's teahouse. However, he does have a supernatural power: he can see the red threads of fate that connect soulmates. Every day he sees healthy red threads or even black ones for those whose soulmates have passed on. But his own thread is a strange grey color that he has never seen on anyone else before. Sai is determined to use his power to bring his mother money to cure her illness, but when he tries the miracle cure of a dragon scale, the emperor catches wind and blackmails Sai into finding the last dragon of the east for him. From there, Sai is thrust into a years-long war, foreign lands, and possibly the end to the search for his Fated One.
The Last Dragon of the East is a beautiful story that pays homage to Chinese mythology and shows the lengths people will go to in order to find their soulmates.
Sai is unlike any hero you've met before. He doesn't know how to fight, he's sarcastic, and he's great at making tea. I love his refreshing character and the fun way he banters with other characters. Throughout the novel, Sai's reality is challenged time and time again as he realizes there is so much more to this world, and his life, than he thought.
I can't say much more without spoiling the story, but trust me when I say readers who love a good love story and fated mates who find each other through time will absolutely love The Last Dragon of the East.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Torture, and Violence
Moderate: Child death, Sexual content, and War
Minor: Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt