Reviews with content warning for Sexual violence - Girls of Fate and Fury

This was such a beautiful conclusion to the trilogy. I’d struggled to get through the second book but had absolutely loved the first so I was a bit hesitant heading into this one. So glad that those concerns were unfounded! I think this might be my favorite of the trilogy!

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natcat's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.25

I do honestly wish I'd liked this book more, I think there were a lot of good things about it, and it is much better than the second book in the series! I think it's unfortunate that this book wasn't a duology. And an Asian-inspired world, written by an Asian author, with multiple queer characters and several disabled ones? Excellent! And I also do respect the ambition of this book, even if it didn't achieve a lot of what I think it was trying to do. I am, generally, very conflicted about how I feel about this book, and very much working through my thoughts as I write this review.

I didn’t find the elements of the book related to the war very convincing, which is a little unfortunate given that is a large chunk of the book, partly because several conundrums brought up in this book were as a result of things that annoyed me about book two

(namely the killing of Eolah by Wren, which was sort of wrangled with as a moral conundrum for Wren, but which no-one ever suggested was just a straight up incredibly stupid tactical decision, which stopped them from gaining an ally (and then ultimately the White Wing not being on their side... turned out not to really matter? So there were no real consequences to this stupid decision either)

. I appreciated what the book was trying to do with its themes of war and people suffering and the ends justifying the means, and at which point do the ends not justify no means, and how do you cope with having blood on your hands, but I’m really not sure what it was trying to say about any of those things. The ends justify the means as long as you feel bad about it afterwards? The ends justify the means when your girlfriend forgives you?

I didn’t necessarily need the characters to come to any conclusions, but I did want a slightly more nuanced discussion of everything related to this, and one that didn’t just… let our main characters off entirely. The last minute reveal that

Lova had been responsible for the death of Wren's mother was absolutely bizarre to me and then also didn't really have any consequences, so what was the point of that?! There was, generally, a lot of murder of non-combatants by our heroes which the narrative didn't seem to be terribly interested in considering as real moral hurdles, just as a light sprinkling of extra angst for our heroes and not as, you know, war crimes, but neither was the setting and writing of the book such that I believed this was a world in which they would not be war crimes

. In general, I thought the morality of the whole series swung weirdly from 'very 21st century' to 'very much not that', without a great deal of worldbuilding for why this was.

I very much thought there was a lack of actual consequences for things our characters did in the name of winning the war, which I wouldn't have objected to except that the book also seemed to be having a theme about the costs of war and what committing morally dubious acts does to the people who commit them, and so it was an odd choice to me to pull one's punches on that front.

Wren's apology to Aoki for the Hannos having killed her parents and then blaming it on the King happened entirely off-stage, despite the epilogue being multiple chapters long, and there wasn't even a hint at the potential consequences might be if the supporters of the Hannos had discovered that they were going around burning villages and blaming it on the king in order to get support! I'm prepared to go with the fact that this was a political necessity, but given how the murdering of Eolah panned out, you'd think someone might be a little concerned about what would happen if all the rest of the dirty laundry got aired. But both moral and practical consequences were just kind of... ignored.

It left a lot hanging, thematically speaking, and ultimately I thought it muddled its point so much I have no idea what it was trying to say about any of these things.

I did really like Lei in this book, and particularly the bit where she is in the Palace with the other Paper Girls; actually in general the Paper Girls being back in this book was such a great move. And I thought giving us Wren’s perspective was an interesting and effective technique, both from a storytelling perspective and a character perspective. I really liked that the main relationship in these books is between two women, and how focused this entire series has been on trauma and how people cope. And I was invested enough to read all three books, so I did care about where the characters ended up and what would happen to the

and the death of the king was incredibly satisfying given his audacity in surviving the end of book one haha.

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spacexgay's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring 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? No

4.25

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steffi_23's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional tense 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? No

4.0

Do you ever read a book and start crying multiple times

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kavitashankar's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful sad 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

3.75

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charlotte_ab's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring 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? No

4.75

Amazing diversity. There is something for everyone.

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starccato's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad 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

3.5

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onceuponabookcase's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

I was received this eProof for free from Hodder & Stoughton via NetGalley for the purposes of providing an honest review.

I've been sitting on writing my review of Girls of Fate and Fury by Natasha Ngan for a while now. It's been difficult to know exactly what to write. This isn't the kind of book where I can just talk about plot, characters, pacing, etc. like I normally would (though obviously they're brilliant, as I knew they would be going on the previous two books in the trilogy, or I'd be writing a very different review). Because this trilogy is so much more than just a story to me. As a sexual assault survivour, it's very close to my heart, and I anticipated this third and final book eagerly, but for more than just seeing how things would turn out, but also for a kind of closure, I guess. Lei has been fighting the person who hurt her, which I was never able to do, and I was looking forward to her triumphing. And I wasn't disappointed.

Before I get too much into how emotional this book was for me, there are a few other things I should touch on. When I finished Girls of Storm and Shadow, I was absolutely livid with Wren. Enough time had gone by that I had forgotten mostly why I was so amad at her, but thankfully these things were briefly covered in the book. Girls of Fate and Fury is narrated by both Lei and Wren, which I think was a very clever move on Ngan's part. I didn't finish the book having forgiven Wren for the terrible things she had done, and in some cases, continued to do, but I understood her. She has been brought up by her asopted father her whole life for the very purpose of defeating the Demon King. Her father, Ketai, is quite cold and calculated - which we knew, considering he gave Wren up to being a paper girl knowing full well she would be raped by the King - but we actually see more of what this looks like. Wren believes this is her duty, and making her father proud is almost the only thing that matters to her. She's done what she knows her father would say needed to be done. There is a bigger picture here, and defeating the King is the goal, by any means necessary, whatever the cost. Ketai had a fanatical obsession, and he forged Wren into his weapon. A lot of the things Wren did still don't sit right with me, but I understand her more. I understand why she did those things, and how she could believe there was no other choice. Still, I really don't know how certain characters were able to be in the same room as her by the end of the book.

When Girls of Storm and Shadow had ended, Lei had been caught and was to be taken back to the Hidden Palace. Girls of Fate and Fury starts with her there. I have to say I was horrified at her being caught, and was dreading the things she might go through in this book. But Lei is not who she once was. There is a fire in her, a determination to do whatever damage she can, to get out, so save her friends. Time and again, she is put in impossible situation after impossible situation, where it would be so easy just to give in to despair. But she is not alone, and there are others to protect, and her strength sees her through. That's not to say she's not fearful, or that she isn't living constantly on edge, waiting for a blow that's sure to come. Or that it doesn't take more than you could imagine to be in the presence of the King. But there is a bigger picture. While she's there, whatever she can learn could be helpful for when she gets out - and she will get out, along with the other paper girls, because you can't let herself imagine any other possibility. She is on a mission, and despite how dire her situation is, she doesn't lose sight of what they're all fighting for, and it's what keeps her going. And I was in complete and utter awe of her the entire time.

Girls of Fate and Fury is a fast paced book, and a lot goes on. It's full of action, and strategising. Characters we love return, and charcters are lost. For those who are reading just for a high fantasy story, it ticks all the boxes as the tension builds to the climax. For me, it was also hugely emotional. Because while there is this bigger picture, it's also very personal. For Lei, for Wren, for the other paper girls. It's a fight for justice, and seeing that justice handed out. I honestly cannot find the words to describe how I felt reading those final chapters. There was triumph, and anger, and vicious joy, and relief, and a hollow emptiness, and, still, the loss. But then hope and joy and love. I got to live vicariously through Lei, but healing isn't necessarily over once there is justice. Lei is getting there, though, and I'm getting there, and these books have helped immeasurably.

I'm never going to be able to fully articulate what these books mean to me. Nor can I ever thank Natasha Ngan enough for these incredible books. They ahave, internally, changed my life, and I can't give any higher praise than that.

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