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3.83 AVERAGE
3.83 AVERAGE
This was a very interesting story about a Japanese folk tale. The narration and writing was good. My only complaint was that the author way over used the word lugubrious.
Pretty disappointed in this book. The premise, the atmosphere, and the world building was so good, but the pacing is just abysmal. Maybe it needed to be two books? It just seemed like so much was happening that I didn’t have time to process one event or one character introduction after Genki. Really wanted more out of this!
2⭐️
Esperaba encontrarme recuerdos de InuYasha, pero no ha sido así.
"Mil pasos al interior de la noche" nos cuenta la historia de Miuko, una joven que vive en un pueblito en una especie de Japón feudal antiguo, quien vamos a seguir a lo largo de las páginas.
La historia empieza con una Miuko torpe, ruidosa y, por qué no decirlo, común. Vive en una casita con su padre, quien regenta una especie de taverna o posada. Y está atormentada por una madre que los abandonó sin explicación.
Y es en un paseo al atardecer-anochecer que nuestra protagonista se topa con una shaoha, una demonio de la muerte, que la besa. Desde ese instante Miuko va a ver cómo su mundo cambia. Su piel se empieza a tornar azul medianoche en las plantas de los pies, y allí donde pisa la vida se derrumba. Su propio padre la repudia y la echa de su casa. Aquí empieza su viaje para intentar poner solución a esta maldición.
En este viaje vamos a visitar muchos lugares con Miuko y algunos amigos que va a hacer por el camino. Típica historia del protagonista y sus co-protagonistas en una misión.
Ahora mi opinión de este libro.
Aviam.
¿Esperaba algo como InuYasha? Sí, un poco. Esperaba algo peor, pero del estilo.
¿Esta novela lo es? Hmmm. Un poco, pero no demasiado, no suficiente.
Primero de todo, demasiado japonés (para mí). Me explico. Si bien cada vez que sale una palabra en japonés se pone una nota al pie explicando su traducción, no hay un recopilatorio al final del libro, no hay ningún glosario. Si vas por la página 300 y no recuerdas qué significa algo, buena suerte en encontrar su significado en las 300 páginas anteriores.
Además los nombres de algunos personajes son muy parecidos y eso lía bastante. Me imagino que deben de tener su significado y tendrán un trasfondo que no puedo apreciar, aún así, confuso.
¿Por qué no me ha gustado? Fácil, se me ha hecho ETERNA (en el mal sentido). Se me ha hecho bola la protagonista y su afán de repetirse como el ajo. Se me ha hecho predecible. Quizás está enfocada para un público juvenil y yo ya no entro ahí.
Ahora la controversia (si alguien quiere verla, solo es mi opinión en realidad).
Creo que la autora ha intentado forzar temas actuales de género como el género neutro "elle" y las personas trans en esta historia para intentar conseguir más público. Pero para mí no funciona, en una novela ambientada en Japón feudal no me tiene sentido esto, además que no aporta absolutamente nada a la trama de la protagonista. Te saca de la inmersión en la lectura.
Sí que hay, aparte de estos comentarios, mucho mensaje feminista de la posición de la mujer en esa época, comprensiblemente pues nuestra protagonista es mujer. Pero también creo que se repite muchísimo, hasta hartar al lectur/a.
Esperaba encontrarme recuerdos de InuYasha, pero no ha sido así.
"Mil pasos al interior de la noche" nos cuenta la historia de Miuko, una joven que vive en un pueblito en una especie de Japón feudal antiguo, quien vamos a seguir a lo largo de las páginas.
La historia empieza con una Miuko torpe, ruidosa y, por qué no decirlo, común. Vive en una casita con su padre, quien regenta una especie de taverna o posada. Y está atormentada por una madre que los abandonó sin explicación.
Y es en un paseo al atardecer-anochecer que nuestra protagonista se topa con una shaoha, una demonio de la muerte, que la besa. Desde ese instante Miuko va a ver cómo su mundo cambia. Su piel se empieza a tornar azul medianoche en las plantas de los pies, y allí donde pisa la vida se derrumba. Su propio padre la repudia y la echa de su casa. Aquí empieza su viaje para intentar poner solución a esta maldición.
En este viaje vamos a visitar muchos lugares con Miuko y algunos amigos que va a hacer por el camino. Típica historia del protagonista y sus co-protagonistas en una misión.
Ahora mi opinión de este libro.
Aviam.
¿Esperaba algo como InuYasha? Sí, un poco. Esperaba algo peor, pero del estilo.
¿Esta novela lo es? Hmmm. Un poco, pero no demasiado, no suficiente.
Primero de todo, demasiado japonés (para mí). Me explico. Si bien cada vez que sale una palabra en japonés se pone una nota al pie explicando su traducción, no hay un recopilatorio al final del libro, no hay ningún glosario. Si vas por la página 300 y no recuerdas qué significa algo, buena suerte en encontrar su significado en las 300 páginas anteriores.
Además los nombres de algunos personajes son muy parecidos y eso lía bastante. Me imagino que deben de tener su significado y tendrán un trasfondo que no puedo apreciar, aún así, confuso.
¿Por qué no me ha gustado? Fácil, se me ha hecho ETERNA (en el mal sentido). Se me ha hecho bola la protagonista y su afán de repetirse como el ajo. Se me ha hecho predecible. Quizás está enfocada para un público juvenil y yo ya no entro ahí.
Ahora la controversia (si alguien quiere verla, solo es mi opinión en realidad).
Creo que la autora ha intentado forzar temas actuales de género como el género neutro "elle" y las personas trans en esta historia para intentar conseguir más público. Pero para mí no funciona, en una novela ambientada en Japón feudal no me tiene sentido esto, además que no aporta absolutamente nada a la trama de la protagonista. Te saca de la inmersión en la lectura.
Sí que hay, aparte de estos comentarios, mucho mensaje feminista de la posición de la mujer en esa época, comprensiblemente pues nuestra protagonista es mujer. Pero también creo que se repite muchísimo, hasta hartar al lectur/a.
It might've been the narrator, but overall the plot wasn't that engaging and characters felt flat. The MC also felt annoying and very Mary sue-esque
adventurous
slow-paced
If you’ve been a long-time reader of this blog you know that I’m a sucker for a good plot twist and let me tell you, Traci Chee crafted a powerful plot twist in this novel. I did not see it coming at all, but I loved it nonetheless. I obviously won’t spoil it for you so this review is going to be purposefully very vague.
The story follows Miuko after she receives a kiss from a demon and begins to transform, slowly. She embarks on a journey to try to reverse the curse, traveling throughout the country and learning more about the spirit world that she inhabits. She makes friends with a magpie spirit named Geiki, who makes for the best “sidekick” ever. Miuko was not an a “typical” girl as she was considered loud as Awara is a very misogynistic society. Girls are expected to be quiet, homemakers, and mothers. Miuko does not aspire to be any of those so she struggles to fit in. Geiki becomes her first friend and I really enjoyed how their relationship developed. Both Miuko and Geiki have to learn to depend upon each other as they travel and battle against Tujiyazai, a malevolence demon who wishes for Miuko’s transformation to complete as he wants to use her power. Through her transformation Miuko eventually begins to learn that being loud and being herself is very powerful itself.
I will admit the story began a little slow and it took me a bit to get into it, but I kept going because I was loving the characters, even Tujiyazai who really is a villain who wishes destruction for all, and I was intrigued with the world of Awara that Chee created. Once I hit the plot twist, which is midway through the book by the way, I practically couldn’t put the book down. One thing Chee also did, which I loved was footnotes that had the pronunciation and definitions of various words throughout the novel. Most of the words were for the various spirits that inhabit the world that Chee created. I’m not a fan of footnotes in general, but the way they were written, as if an aside to a story that one tells as they sit around the fire, really added to the fairy tale style narration. This all drew me into the story and why I enjoyed the book so much.
The story follows Miuko after she receives a kiss from a demon and begins to transform, slowly. She embarks on a journey to try to reverse the curse, traveling throughout the country and learning more about the spirit world that she inhabits. She makes friends with a magpie spirit named Geiki, who makes for the best “sidekick” ever. Miuko was not an a “typical” girl as she was considered loud as Awara is a very misogynistic society. Girls are expected to be quiet, homemakers, and mothers. Miuko does not aspire to be any of those so she struggles to fit in. Geiki becomes her first friend and I really enjoyed how their relationship developed. Both Miuko and Geiki have to learn to depend upon each other as they travel and battle against Tujiyazai, a malevolence demon who wishes for Miuko’s transformation to complete as he wants to use her power. Through her transformation Miuko eventually begins to learn that being loud and being herself is very powerful itself.
I will admit the story began a little slow and it took me a bit to get into it, but I kept going because I was loving the characters, even Tujiyazai who really is a villain who wishes destruction for all, and I was intrigued with the world of Awara that Chee created. Once I hit the plot twist, which is midway through the book by the way, I practically couldn’t put the book down. One thing Chee also did, which I loved was footnotes that had the pronunciation and definitions of various words throughout the novel. Most of the words were for the various spirits that inhabit the world that Chee created. I’m not a fan of footnotes in general, but the way they were written, as if an aside to a story that one tells as they sit around the fire, really added to the fairy tale style narration. This all drew me into the story and why I enjoyed the book so much.
3.5--A Thousand Steps into Night followed Miuko, a girl cursed by a demon, as she makes her way through worlds both real and spiritual as she searches for a cure and avoids a power hungry demon-prince. Along the way she befriends Geiki, a charismatic magpie spirit. This book's strengths lie in its amazing characters, beautifully developed world and mythology, and commentary on misogyny. It was weakened by an inconsistent plot pacing that made it a little hard to stay with at times, I almost DNFed because there were moments where I couldn't get with the flow.
I really enjoyed this audiobook. The story felt a little long in the middle, but overall I found it to be very engaging. I also liked all of the strong female characters and the lack of a love interest.
A Thousand Steps into Night is an extraordinary trans-inclusionary story about women's empowerment and taking the world by storm regardless of the obstacles that restrictive patriarchal societies have placed upon them.
A Thousand Steps into Night follows Otori Miuko's journey through a heavily patriarchal society inspired by Ancient Japan and her attempts to regain her humanity after being cursed by a demon to bring death to whatever she touches. But, the further along into her adventure she gets, the more Miuko discovers that she might not want to return to the life that she'd left behind and that the powers she'd been cursed with... might not necessarily by such a bad thing after all.
First and foremost, nearly every other review that I've read thus far mentions the Geiki the magpie spirit is one of the greatest, most delightful things to come out of this book... and I agree 100%. While I love our protagonist Miuko to death, Geiki steals every scene that he's featured in. Geiki's almost like the lovechild between trickster spirit Peter Pan, Dororo, Howl Pendragon, and Sokka. He's such a delight and I need merch of him n o w.
Ahem. Anyways.
A Thousand Steps into Night is a trans-inclusionary feminist exploration of gender and the restrictiveness of patriarchal societies. Not only does this exploration of gender highlight trans and nonbinary identities, it includes the cisgendered protagonist Miuko and her discovery that, after transforming into a man to sneak into a women-excluded library, while she enjoys the privileges afforded to her as a man... she does not want to be a man. She does not identify with a masculine identity. As a transmasc person myself, this normalization of a cisgendered person's exploration of gender is incredibly important because it normalizes gender exploration and makes it easier for trans people to figure themselves out.
This book also contains elements of Dororo (exploration of gender in a restrictive patriarchal world + losing one's humanity while simultaneously learning what it means to be human), Avatar: The Last Airbender (Gaang travel shenanigans + being pursued by someone with fire powers), Inuyasha (travel journey through historical Japan + facing demonic threats), and Howl's Moving Castle (cursed female protagonist and their birdlike companion). If you enjoyed any of this media, then you're bound to like this book as well.
Overall, my final rating of A Thousand Steps into Night is five stars with a thumbs up. I think I've discovered one of my new all-time favorite authors with this book.
Style: fast-paced, hero's journey, fantasy historical japan, time travel
Running Themes: trans-inclusionary feminism, patriarchal hypocrisy, empowerment, equality
Content Warnings: misogyny, sexism, nonconsensual kissing, brief but interrupted attempted sexual assault, death and massacres, blood and injuries, domestic abuse
A Thousand Steps into Night follows Otori Miuko's journey through a heavily patriarchal society inspired by Ancient Japan and her attempts to regain her humanity after being cursed by a demon to bring death to whatever she touches. But, the further along into her adventure she gets, the more Miuko discovers that she might not want to return to the life that she'd left behind and that the powers she'd been cursed with... might not necessarily by such a bad thing after all.
Spoiler
First and foremost, nearly every other review that I've read thus far mentions the Geiki the magpie spirit is one of the greatest, most delightful things to come out of this book... and I agree 100%. While I love our protagonist Miuko to death, Geiki steals every scene that he's featured in. Geiki's almost like the lovechild between trickster spirit Peter Pan, Dororo, Howl Pendragon, and Sokka. He's such a delight and I need merch of him n o w.
Ahem. Anyways.
A Thousand Steps into Night is a trans-inclusionary feminist exploration of gender and the restrictiveness of patriarchal societies. Not only does this exploration of gender highlight trans and nonbinary identities, it includes the cisgendered protagonist Miuko and her discovery that, after transforming into a man to sneak into a women-excluded library, while she enjoys the privileges afforded to her as a man... she does not want to be a man. She does not identify with a masculine identity. As a transmasc person myself, this normalization of a cisgendered person's exploration of gender is incredibly important because it normalizes gender exploration and makes it easier for trans people to figure themselves out.
This book also contains elements of Dororo (exploration of gender in a restrictive patriarchal world + losing one's humanity while simultaneously learning what it means to be human), Avatar: The Last Airbender (Gaang travel shenanigans + being pursued by someone with fire powers), Inuyasha (travel journey through historical Japan + facing demonic threats), and Howl's Moving Castle (cursed female protagonist and their birdlike companion). If you enjoyed any of this media, then you're bound to like this book as well.
Overall, my final rating of A Thousand Steps into Night is five stars with a thumbs up. I think I've discovered one of my new all-time favorite authors with this book.
Style: fast-paced, hero's journey, fantasy historical japan, time travel
Running Themes: trans-inclusionary feminism, patriarchal hypocrisy, empowerment, equality
Content Warnings: misogyny, sexism, nonconsensual kissing, brief but interrupted attempted sexual assault, death and massacres, blood and injuries, domestic abuse
adventurous
fast-paced