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3.48 AVERAGE
3.48 AVERAGE
This was a really good fantasy debut! I liked Minyi's character best, though, and she gets the least time on the page of any of the protagonists. I would have liked to have more balance between the two sisters' storylines, because their relationship could have gone really interesting places if it had been the main focus. I hope the sequel will have more of that!
TWs for attempted rape, domestic violence, emotional abuse/manipulation, violence, and on-page death.
This was the first book I finished in 2019 and I think my expectations were too high, because I ended up being disappointed. The plot wasn't as cohesive as it could have been and elements of the world-building seemed to be dropped in at random more than halfway through the story, rather than introduced in the beginning. Pacing was also an issue, and Nok was the only character I felt invested in toward the final chapters of the book. There's an attempted rape scene that I had issues with because it really didn't need to be there. At all. It added nothing to the plot, and was never mentioned again by any of the characters afterwards, or challenged in any way. It also paints the only potentially queer character in the novel as a predator and abuser.
Having said all that, the book did some things really well. The Asian-inspired folklore was rich and enjoyable, and I really liked the fact that there was an Asian-based naming system for all characters, as it served to deepen the world-building. The narrative itself had moments of excellence, particularly the descriptions of the palace and colours. On the whole, the concept for this book had a lot of potential, but the execution wasn't great.
This was the first book I finished in 2019 and I think my expectations were too high, because I ended up being disappointed. The plot wasn't as cohesive as it could have been and elements of the world-building seemed to be dropped in at random more than halfway through the story, rather than introduced in the beginning. Pacing was also an issue, and Nok was the only character I felt invested in toward the final chapters of the book. There's an attempted rape scene that I had issues with because it really didn't need to be there. At all. It added nothing to the plot, and was never mentioned again by any of the characters afterwards, or challenged in any way. It also paints the only potentially queer character in the novel as a predator and abuser.
Having said all that, the book did some things really well. The Asian-inspired folklore was rich and enjoyable, and I really liked the fact that there was an Asian-based naming system for all characters, as it served to deepen the world-building. The narrative itself had moments of excellence, particularly the descriptions of the palace and colours. On the whole, the concept for this book had a lot of potential, but the execution wasn't great.
I received a free copy of this through NetGalley in return for an honest review
I so wanted to love this book. It sounded so good and the characters and premise interested me.
But I got so bored.
I found myself skimming it more and more as I got near the end and I'm not sure why. The plot was interesting or not but the language could get repetitive and something about it felt so slow yet the romance was too fast. There was nothing overtly wrong with it but...it just wasn't for me sadly.
I so wanted to love this book. It sounded so good and the characters and premise interested me.
But I got so bored.
I found myself skimming it more and more as I got near the end and I'm not sure why. The plot was interesting or not but the language could get repetitive and something about it felt so slow yet the romance was too fast. There was nothing overtly wrong with it but...it just wasn't for me sadly.
A brilliant introduction to the series that I really enjoyed. Our main characters are interesting, although I found them to be irritating in their own ways - I wish MIn had started to develop a lot sooner and had more of a chance to change rather than the sudden character development that happens. I also felt that the romance was rushed, it needed time to develop and there were opportunities later in the story for this to happen. All in all though, this is a good book with a solid start to the series. I am invested enough in the characters to want to get to the rest of the series and I cant wait to see how this all develops.
"Why did the Gods make you like this? Just to torment me?"
I'd been eyeing this book up since last year when the first lot of proofs were going out but I emailed late 2018 and I was lucky enough to have received a full cover copy of this book and be on the blog tour and it was one of my most anticipated reads of January! So this may be clichรฉ for me to say but I've honestly not read a book like this before and it's been such a lovely change of pace and style! I will admit that I felt that a couple of the chapters dragged on a little bit but they always reeled you back in with a twist!
The book was done from three different points of view, the two sisters, Lu and Min and also Nok who actually knows the sisters from when they were all younger. At the beginning I did get a little bit confused with the chapters of which sister we were viewing from as it did seem to switch but I did get into the swing of things a bit more easily after the first few chapters.
My favourite character in this book was Nok, he is such an interesting character and I absolutely love the way that he can shapeshift as well, I really felt more connected with Nok throughout this book than the other two. I did find Lu a bit mean at the beginning of the book but I grew to like her more throughout it and I'm not entirely sure how I feel about Min yet, I think I'm going to need to read book two before forming an opinion about her.
This book was just filled with twists and turns which just kept you hooked and wanting more, it was such a fantastic read, I was forever saying to myself 'Just read one more chapter before bed' then it's been almost 60 pages and I've not realised, I have absolutely no idea how I'm going to wait until 2020 to read the second book in the series?!
I was originally going to give this book 4.5 stars but when I was writing this review I was just gushing to myself about how much I enjoyed it and just had to bump it up to the full five stars I just enjoyed it so much, I loved the characters, the world building, the twists and turns and I just really enjoyed it if you couldn't tell! I highly recommend reading this so if you haven't bought yourself a copy yet, you should!
"Why can't you see you've lost?"
"In order for me to lose, you have to win. And you're never, ever going to win. It's not in your nature.
2.5 stars. I had posted a full review of this but decided to remove it because there's already a lot of discourse around this and I don't feel like my opinion is needed, nor I want to explain it anymore - all I had to say has already been said by others.
Anyway.
I would recommend it to: those who are looking for an ownvoices Asian-inspired fantasy, and to those who like tropey princess stories, plot-driven fantasy, and want to read a royalty fantasy book that for once openly criticizes imperialism.
I would not recommend it to: those who are looking for an atmospheric story or detailed and vivid worldbuilding, those who dislike travel fantasy book, those who want their YA fantasy to be fast-paced or unpredictable.
Also: while this is being advertised as a book about rivalry between sisters, the two don't interact that much for most of the book - just like with Three Dark Crowns, the actual rivalry will be in the sequel. There's also a scene that really didn't sit well with me - the only time something like same-sex attraction appears in this book it's because a character is trying to rape the male protagonist. I think that books with an all-straight cast should stay away from that sort of scene.
Anyway.
I would recommend it to: those who are looking for an ownvoices Asian-inspired fantasy, and to those who like tropey princess stories, plot-driven fantasy, and want to read a royalty fantasy book that for once openly criticizes imperialism.
I would not recommend it to: those who are looking for an atmospheric story or detailed and vivid worldbuilding, those who dislike travel fantasy book, those who want their YA fantasy to be fast-paced or unpredictable.
Also: while this is being advertised as a book about rivalry between sisters, the two don't interact that much for most of the book - just like with Three Dark Crowns, the actual rivalry will be in the sequel. There's also a scene that really didn't sit well with me - the only time something like same-sex attraction appears in this book it's because a character is trying to rape the male protagonist. I think that books with an all-straight cast should stay away from that sort of scene.
Man I canโt believe Iโm DNF-ing this ๐๐๐๐๐
Also posted on my blog
On paper, this looks like a really cool East Asian inspired fantasy with strong female characters and with a sibling relationship at the forefront. I really should've liked it.
I gave up when I was just under halfway through, according to my e-reader. Even that much had taken me much too long to read. Every time I went to pick up the book, I felt like I would rather be doing anything else, and I had long journeys to fill! At a fundamental level, it simply wasn't interesting enough to hold my attention. However, there were also specific things that made me not want to read any more.
Firstly, there are three pov characters, and they were all present at a certain event when they were children. What event? I have no idea. They were all really cagey about it in their internal monologues. It very quickly stopped being a mystery to be revealed at a later point, and just became annoying that there would regularly be paragraphs of narration that were meaningless at best, but were often just confusing.
It takes quite a long time to be given an age for one of the pov characters. The reader is told quite early on that Lu is 16 years old, which is a fairly standard age for ya protagonists, and there is no doubt that that's her role. The boy, whose name I think is Nok, is presumably around the same age. But it takes quite a while for the reader to be told the age of Lu's younger sister, Minyi. Before that point I had decided that she was probably aged somewhere between 10 and 12, based off of how she thinks and reacts to people and events around her. She also gets her period for the first time over the course of the novel, so that added to my thinking that. But apparently she's supposed to be 15. The difference in maturity between real 15 and 16 year olds is tiny, but if you were to go by what's presented in this book you'd think that people magically become adults upon their 16th birthday.
The specific event that caused me to stop reading was an attempted sexual assult that occurs just before the halfway mark. 9 times out of 10, those don't need to be there, and it didn't happen in a way that gave me faith that there would be far reaching emotional consequences for the character it concerned. If this is something that would bother you, then I'd advise against reading this book.
Honestly, I stopped reading this a week and a bit ago. It's only now that I've gotten round to marking it as such and writing up this review. I was that bored with it.
I received an e-arc through Netgalley in return for an honest review.
On paper, this looks like a really cool East Asian inspired fantasy with strong female characters and with a sibling relationship at the forefront. I really should've liked it.
I gave up when I was just under halfway through, according to my e-reader. Even that much had taken me much too long to read. Every time I went to pick up the book, I felt like I would rather be doing anything else, and I had long journeys to fill! At a fundamental level, it simply wasn't interesting enough to hold my attention. However, there were also specific things that made me not want to read any more.
Firstly, there are three pov characters, and they were all present at a certain event when they were children. What event? I have no idea. They were all really cagey about it in their internal monologues. It very quickly stopped being a mystery to be revealed at a later point, and just became annoying that there would regularly be paragraphs of narration that were meaningless at best, but were often just confusing.
It takes quite a long time to be given an age for one of the pov characters. The reader is told quite early on that Lu is 16 years old, which is a fairly standard age for ya protagonists, and there is no doubt that that's her role. The boy, whose name I think is Nok, is presumably around the same age. But it takes quite a while for the reader to be told the age of Lu's younger sister, Minyi. Before that point I had decided that she was probably aged somewhere between 10 and 12, based off of how she thinks and reacts to people and events around her. She also gets her period for the first time over the course of the novel, so that added to my thinking that. But apparently she's supposed to be 15. The difference in maturity between real 15 and 16 year olds is tiny, but if you were to go by what's presented in this book you'd think that people magically become adults upon their 16th birthday.
The specific event that caused me to stop reading was an attempted sexual assult that occurs just before the halfway mark. 9 times out of 10, those don't need to be there, and it didn't happen in a way that gave me faith that there would be far reaching emotional consequences for the character it concerned. If this is something that would bother you, then I'd advise against reading this book.
Honestly, I stopped reading this a week and a bit ago. It's only now that I've gotten round to marking it as such and writing up this review. I was that bored with it.
I received an e-arc through Netgalley in return for an honest review.