Reviews with content warning for Blood - Phoenix Extravagant

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Phoenix Extravagant by Yoon Ha Lee

24 reviews

aardwyrm's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

4.0

The magic system is stellar, the worldbuilding is lovely (and brutal), and you get to make a dragon friend, which improves any book a thousandfold. Lots of political intrigue, a paucity of right choices, and horrible consequences, avoids giving pat answers to hard questions.

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brnineworms's review

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fast-paced

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

3.0

I was surprised to learn Phoenix Extravagant wasn’t Yoon Ha Lee’s debut novel – many of its shortcomings are typical of new writers, such as repetitive phrasing and telling rather than showing. It’s a shame, really, because it had potential. A book about a nonbinary artist in a dystopian world of sigil-powered automata is a fantastic pitch, but the execution is so-so.

An issue throughout is the emotionality lacking depth or simply not landing. I partially blame the protagonist, Jebi, who is pretty apathetic for the most part. If they don’t care about anything, why should I? But I think the problem runs deeper than that, because even moments which elated or terrified or shocked Jebi fell flat for me. Take

their relationship with Vei

for example. There is no chemistry between them and the whole affair comes out of nowhere. I am told that they are in love but I’m not made to feel it.

In many ways, Jebi simply isn’t protagonist material. They’re an asshole and they don’t have the charisma to make up for it. Characters as unpleasant as they are are best confined to short stories and novellas, I feel – that way you don’t have to endure them for too long. Jebi is also frustratingly passive. On the rare occasions that they do take action, it always backfires thanks to their glaring incompetence. I know their lack of agency is a reflection of the oppressive system they find themself trapped within, but the way they kept blurting out secrets or wandering off and immediately getting captured was even more annoying and less compelling than their head-down resignation to the status quo.

The story ends with a message that not everyone is a fighter and the world needs artists just as much as it needs revolutionaries. It’s a nice idea, but Jebi still could have become a better person or helped out in a more substantial way than fucking off to the moon. It feels like whatever character arc they might have had got snapped back to where they were at the start, caring only about themself and their art and distancing themself from political issues as much as possible. Vei is also there, I guess.

There are more plot holes and inconsistencies than I can count. For example, the financial struggles of Jebi and their sister Bongsunga are sometimes front-and-centre and sometimes completely forgotten about in scenarios where it really should have affected the outcome. I was often left feeling like I was going crazy. To say nothing of the scenes that happen out of nowhere as though the author suddenly remembered they’re important to the plot. I already mentioned the awkward romance, but I also want to talk about

the torture scene, which seems to exist purely to justify the later killing of Hafanden. It doesn’t really serve any purpose besides presenting Hafanden as an irredeemable villain. Were it not for that one scene, would he have deserved execution?

It’s an interesting question which the story doesn’t seem to want to grapple with.

Which brings me to Arazi...

Arazi is a magical mechanical dragon designed to be used as a weapon, but subtle sabotage in its creation caused it to be a staunch pacifist. That is, until the final act. During an ambush, Arazi kills Hafanden in order to save Jebi’s life. An act of justified violence, maybe, but violence nonetheless, and lethal violence at that. Arazi was a bit bummed out but it didn’t have time to sit with the implications of what it had done. Its defining trait – its pacifism and its refusal to kill – had just been tested and ultimately contradicted, and with nowhere near the gravity a moment like that deserves.

Throughout the book, Arazi puts forward intriguing philosophical questions that get pushed aside to be dealt with later. And, of course, they’re never followed up on. I'm not expecting the author to construct an exhaustive thesis on the nature of the soul and the self, but some exploration of these concepts in the story would be nice. Arazi and the other automata are constantly sidelined despite the book being about them.

There are so many issues I could pick apart but I think I’ll stop here. Between the flat characters, the lack of follow-through on interesting concepts, and the inconsistencies throughout, Phoenix Extravagant is hard to recommend. That said, it’s largely inoffensive. I appreciate what the author was going for, at least, even if it feels half-baked. I don’t think it’s bad but I’m glad I’m done with it.

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booksthatburn's review against another edition

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adventurous reflective 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

5.0

PHOENIX EXTRAVAGANT is thoughtful and deliberate, featuring a character who gradually finds themselves as part of a revolution. Not through some showy event, but through a conviction that a particular thing cannot be allowed to stand, that it pains them at their core, and hurts their community now and into the future. It's emotionally complex, leaving room for different people to have different hurts and allegiances in a world where not everyone oppressed is on the side of the oppressed. Also there's a mechanical dragon, which is great.

The worldbuilding is very focused on what Jebi thinks about and specifically what affects them. This means there are a lot of discussions of their interpersonal ties, and what they think about art in the context of occupation and conquest. I like the tight focus, it means that whatever's brought up is detailed, well-constructed, and either emotionally or factually important to the narrative. What Jebi thinks is important enough to explain tells as much about their world as what they slowly realize they'd never thought of before.

The romantic relationship is well-conveyed, fitting naturally into the narrative and then slowly forming a new emotional goal, as Jebi moves from simply trying to have enough money to survive, to having a person they want to live with and for. Arazi fills some of this emotional space, but its ties to Jebi are of a very different (but very important) nature.

I wish there were a sequel in this world (the ending certainly leaves just enough room for it), but it does feel complete enough to be a stopping point.

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daisyandherbooks's review

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adventurous medium-paced

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

4.0

🐉 Phoenix Extravagant by Yoon Ha Lee ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️🐉

Jebi a painter, finds themselves jobless and has to turn to their people’s enemy - the Razanei - who occupied their country, for work. Jebi works for the government by painting mystical sigils on the automaton soldiers masks which animate them. Jebi also has to help fix the dragon automaton Arazi for the leaders. But Jebi uncovers the horror of what the Razeni government has done, and plans to help the dragon - a pacifist - to escape.

What I liked:
✨Jebi is non binary
✨ There is a queer romance
✨World was super interesting
✨Arazi the talking dragon was my FAVE!!
✨The integration of art, war, rebellion and politics merged into one made the plot really interesting and you wanted to know what happened next.
✨Set up nicely for the next book in the series
✨Poetic writing style

What I disliked:
✨At the beginning there was lots of world building, and so it confused me at first - but is the same with any epic fantasy book (especially the first in the series)
✨Lots of characters were introduced at once, and was difficult to keep track of them.

Overall I’m really excited to see what happens in the next book! This story was really interesting and I’d reccomend to anyone who likes Leigh bardugo or books about technology, with a hint of rebellion on the side!

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foreverinastory's review

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adventurous 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

4.0

Finally read this 6 months later than I intended to!

Rep: Nonbinary queer BIPOC MC (asian coded), biracial queer love interest, bisexual female side character, BIPOC cast of characters, queer-normative world.

CWs: Blood, confinement (to rooms/cell), death, murder, sexual content, torture, violence, grief, xenophobia.

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amandaquotidianbooks's review

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adventurous reflective relaxing fast-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

4.0

I loved the first third so much! Seeing the slow unveiling of the world, enjoying Jebi’s perspective, hearing about art... the second two thirds were paced much more quickly and involved more action and tension. I would have preferred a slower paced novel. However, I loved the historical, Asian (Vietnamese) second world fantasy, the nonbinary and bisexual representation, and unique mythology and magic system. If there is a sequel, I will be reading it!

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nikolas_fox's review

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adventurous emotional funny reflective tense fast-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

4.5

This book was so great for so many reasons. All the characters felt SO real and I can't say I ever expected to fall in love with a mechanical dragon, but here we are. This book explored the realities of war in a very real way while looking through a viewpoint not of a soldier, but an artist. The representation in here was also amazing and not a plot point, but just was. And that was amazing.

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