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3.83 AVERAGE
3.83 AVERAGE
adventurous
medium-paced
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
started reading physically, tried moving onto audio when mood wasn’t mooding, mood still didn’t mood, will return eventually
adventurous
emotional
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
A Thousand Steps into Night pulls together demons, curses, fantasy mythology, deep friendships, and rich character development and world-building into a feminist self-liberation story that is by turns humorous and touching. Author Traci Chee presents us with the story of "an unremarkable girl names Otori Miuko," who, thanks to a demon's curse, is expelled from her decaying and all-but-abandoned hometown of Nihaoi to lead an epic journey across the patriarchal realm of Awara in which she befriends spirits and a shapeshifting magpie and confronts gods and ghosts in a race to free herself from the curse that is slowly transforming her into a demon.
Chee's world-building is compelling, thanks in part to the fictional language of Awara whose vocabulary and etymology are richly woven into the text, offering a unique enmeshment of language, culture, and place that I rarely encounter:
As a lover of languages, this aspect of the novel was an entirely welcome surprise for me and is one of the many facets of the storytelling that made it uniquely interesting.
Lovers of fantasy and East Asian mythology will almost certainly find this to be a satisfying read, though in the end, I would argue that the centrality of friendship to the arc of the main characters' journey (literal and figurative) is one of the most endearing and rewarding aspects of the novel. I would definitely enjoy reading this again. 4.25/5 stars.
Chee's world-building is compelling, thanks in part to the fictional language of Awara whose vocabulary and etymology are richly woven into the text, offering a unique enmeshment of language, culture, and place that I rarely encounter:
The people of Awara had a word for that. Yazai. More intense than mere bad luck, yazai was the result of all one's evil thoughts and deeds compounded and turned back on oneself a hundredfold. [...] Yazai, or so it was said, was the reason Nihaoi was crumbling and returning slowly to the earth—the result of some long-ago transgression by one of the villagers against a powerful spirit.
As a lover of languages, this aspect of the novel was an entirely welcome surprise for me and is one of the many facets of the storytelling that made it uniquely interesting.
Lovers of fantasy and East Asian mythology will almost certainly find this to be a satisfying read, though in the end, I would argue that the centrality of friendship to the arc of the main characters' journey (literal and figurative) is one of the most endearing and rewarding aspects of the novel. I would definitely enjoy reading this again. 4.25/5 stars.
emotional
funny
inspiring
lighthearted
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:
Yes
I loved this book so much. I related to Miuko so much as a Japanese- Canadian. I am loud and opinionated and never do what I am supposed to do. I love how she didn’t fit into the Patriarchal Japanese inspired world she lived in. I love how she was short like me and sassy like me. I have waited so long for a character in a novel I looked like and could relate to. Also, this is a YA fantasy novel that focuses on friendship and self discovery over romance! A breath of fresh air. Hands down would buy whatever this amazing author writes.
This book was very imaginative and the writing painted very vivid images in my mind of all the spirits Miuko encounters on her journeys. However, the story and characters fell a little flat for me, and I found myself trying to get to the end quickly. I think its main drawback was that it drove home the "women are mistreated" stance too frequently and heavy-handedly. Yes... we get it. Now let's get back to the battle with the demon.
adventurous
challenging
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-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
adventurous
emotional
funny
inspiring
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes