1.04k reviews for:

Strange Beasts of China

Yan Ge

3.82 AVERAGE

adventurous dark mysterious 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: Yes
adventurous dark emotional sad 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: Complicated
emotional sad slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
adventurous emotional funny mysterious fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
mysterious
emotional mysterious reflective sad fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated
adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No
mysterious reflective medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Glad to have finally finished reading this after a third attempt. I really enjoy the premise of this story - of beasts existing within society, only slight differences making them distinguishable from humans. The way they emerge in true forms at the full moon. Beasts are human, human are beasts. The story weaves together with short studies of the different beasts which makes for nice bite-sized segments, but ultimately a fairly seperate/disjointed through line. In some ways we are left wanting more of both the beasts, and also our narrator. Some of the metaphors or allusions I feel like may be somewhat lost in translation, or more context specific, but I was happy to spend time in this curious little world, and the constant questioning of beasts and how they exist within the world and within us.
mysterious reflective tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated
mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes