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vivelarevolution's review against another edition
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
1.0
I loved this book when I was younger and I wanted to love it now. I mean, come on, magic and sewing and spinning and knitting! What could be more up my alley?
Unfortunately I found the ableism to be absolutely intolerable and the love interest to be frustratingly sexist. I hated how the main character pushed her disabled brother into taking "one step every day" while she was off on her adventure as if that isn't an incredibly fucked up thing to encourage a disabled person to do, and I hated that she (poorly) faked his disability in order to pretend to be him. I stopped reading when she got drunk and strange men goaded her love interest (who she was not in a relationship with yet) into kissing her and she kissed him on the cheek to attempt to satisfy this request without making herself uncomfortable and then he kissed her anyway. Like, what the hell? Also, I assume that her love interest is also a teenager, but there were some weird references to him maybe being immortal that made me wonder. I can't remember my first reading well enough to say for certain whether or not this relationship was straight up pedophilic.
Also, this is one of my more minor gripes, but why have the main character come out as a gay man while going out of your way to establish that her love interest knew her gender the entire time and therefore nothing about that relationship is actually queer? It's not funny or cute, it's just weird.
Also, introducing a whole (fake, but still) ethnic group as "barbarians" and then having the main character meet some and learn "they're not all barbarians"? That's sick.
Unfortunately I found the ableism to be absolutely intolerable and the love interest to be frustratingly sexist. I hated how the main character pushed her disabled brother into taking "one step every day" while she was off on her adventure as if that isn't an incredibly fucked up thing to encourage a disabled person to do, and I hated that she (poorly) faked his disability in order to pretend to be him. I stopped reading when she got drunk and strange men goaded her love interest (who she was not in a relationship with yet) into kissing her and she kissed him on the cheek to attempt to satisfy this request without making herself uncomfortable and then he kissed her anyway. Like, what the hell? Also, I assume that her love interest is also a teenager, but there were some weird references to him maybe being immortal that made me wonder. I can't remember my first reading well enough to say for certain whether or not this relationship was straight up pedophilic.
Also, this is one of my more minor gripes, but why have the main character come out as a gay man while going out of your way to establish that her love interest knew her gender the entire time and therefore nothing about that relationship is actually queer? It's not funny or cute, it's just weird.
Also, introducing a whole (fake, but still) ethnic group as "barbarians" and then having the main character meet some and learn "they're not all barbarians"? That's sick.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Classism, Violence, Blood, Misogyny, Sexism, Xenophobia, Death of parent, Torture, and Ableism
Minor: War
sarah984's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
I've seen this book advertised as "Project Runway meets Mulan" but that's unfortunately not very accurate. Yes, teenage tailor Maia disguises herself as a boy to enter a competition to become the next imperial tailor in order to protect her father and brother, but that set up is tossed out almost immediately in favour of standard YA foolishness.
Maia’s disguise barely factors into the novel as she's discovered almost right away, and presents as female for the majority of her page time. (Also for some reason she doesn't consider the fact that if she wins the competition she will have to live as a man forever until someone else brings it up??) I really enjoyed the idea of the competition, and the challenges were interesting. However, the competition ends less than halfway into the book. Afterward, Maia is sent on a very long and boring quest with her boring 500-year-old love interest and makes a bunch of stupid decisions.
This is the type of YA insta-love where it is impossible to see what the two characters see in each other and they reiterate how all-encompassing it is over and over. Maia constantly puts the love interest and his wellbeing ahead of herself and her family, which is annoying in a story comparing itself to Mulan.
Every problem that the characters encounter except for the sequel hook is solved almost immediately via wizard magic so the stakes feel very low. There is one singular interesting character and she's hardly in the book.
I really can't recommend this to anyone interested in it for the concept.
Maia’s disguise barely factors into the novel as she's discovered almost right away, and presents as female for the majority of her page time. (Also for some reason she doesn't consider the fact that if she wins the competition she will have to live as a man forever until someone else brings it up??) I really enjoyed the idea of the competition, and the challenges were interesting. However, the competition ends less than halfway into the book. Afterward, Maia is sent on a very long and boring quest with her boring 500-year-old love interest and makes a bunch of stupid decisions.
This is the type of YA insta-love where it is impossible to see what the two characters see in each other and they reiterate how all-encompassing it is over and over. Maia constantly puts the love interest and his wellbeing ahead of herself and her family, which is annoying in a story comparing itself to Mulan.
Every problem that the characters encounter except for the sequel hook is solved almost immediately via wizard magic so the stakes feel very low. There is one singular interesting character and she's hardly in the book.
I really can't recommend this to anyone interested in it for the concept.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship and Grief
Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Bullying, Death, Sexual content, Violence, and Xenophobia
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