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gattolinos_nerdy_nook's review
challenging
dark
emotional
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
3.75
This novella takes a well known classic and puts its own unique spin and cast of characters into it. This is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast with a FxF romance and is inspired by Vietnamese myths and stories, and I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
If I really enjoyed this book why the 3.75 star and not a 4 star read? Well as much as I enjoyed it I did get lost with the world at times. It felt like I was meant to have some background knowledge that I did which left me wondering if we are in a whole different world, earth, or something between the two. There was a lot of reference to the past and whilst you can just take them and roll with it, it had me curious and wanting to know what had happened then, which took me away from the current story. Now a lot of this issue could just be that I'm unaware of Vietnamese myths and that could answer everything, but just know you might be a little out of the loop when reading this.
Despite that I did overall enjoy the book and it is something I want to read again. It has a wonder cast of characters, something that I really enjoyed was that wisdom and character growth was shared among younger and older characters.
I recommend this book for those who are wanting something different from their fairy tale retellings. It is a fun read that takes you to a whole different world that feels familiar and different all at the same time. It also has a diverse cast of characters that you will come to love.
If I really enjoyed this book why the 3.75 star and not a 4 star read? Well as much as I enjoyed it I did get lost with the world at times. It felt like I was meant to have some background knowledge that I did which left me wondering if we are in a whole different world, earth, or something between the two. There was a lot of reference to the past and whilst you can just take them and roll with it, it had me curious and wanting to know what had happened then, which took me away from the current story. Now a lot of this issue could just be that I'm unaware of Vietnamese myths and that could answer everything, but just know you might be a little out of the loop when reading this.
Despite that I did overall enjoy the book and it is something I want to read again. It has a wonder cast of characters, something that I really enjoyed was that wisdom and character growth was shared among younger and older characters.
I recommend this book for those who are wanting something different from their fairy tale retellings. It is a fun read that takes you to a whole different world that feels familiar and different all at the same time. It also has a diverse cast of characters that you will come to love.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, and Death
strange_little_ranger's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
hopeful
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? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Chronic illness, Death, Medical content, and Slavery
Minor: Blood, Chronic illness, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Sexual content, Slavery, Terminal illness, and Violence
nmcannon's review
emotional
mysterious
reflective
slow-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
5.0
My 2021 Reading Challenge is going to be super long mlm doorstoppers and bite-sized wlw novellas, it seems. I'm on a roll with these. I picked up In the Vanishers' Palace for a couple reasons: (1) my wife just read it and loved it; (2) the new Trash & Treasures podcast is doing an episode on it, and hey, it's nice to read along; and (3) I've been meaning to read Aliette de Bodard since forever!
At around 145 pages, In the Vanishers’ Palace tells a complex story. In a magical Vietnam reeling from the invasion, and then abrupt disappearance of, the alien Vanishers, Yên is a failed scholar who returned to her village in disgrace. She’s been awkwardly shuffled off to her assist her aging mother in healing and educating the village’s youth, but both of them live under constant threat. Once the village’s elders deem someone has lost their “use” to the village, the person is sacrificed to the Vanishers’ constructs, bloodthirsty inventions who haunt the forest. If that isn’t bad enough, pollution and magical retroviruses run rampant. When the headwoman’s daughter is infected, Yên’s mother calls upon a dragon spirit to heal her, but the dragon demands a sacrifice too. Volunteering as tribute, Yên is whisked away to a palace out of an M.C. Escher painting, and the dragon, Vu Côn, asks her to…tutor her children. Yên’s surprised, to say the least. It doesn’t help that Vu Côn is super attractive.
Reading the other reviews, many readers remark that the world is too complicated or confusing. I will admit it’s a lot, especially for so short a book. However, while I wasn’t always sure exactly what a Vanisher is or why the palace is Like That, I always knew what elements stood for. Vanishers are colonizers, and the repercussions of them are metaphors for colonization’s devastating after-effects. I’m unsure if something went sideways with the book’s marketing, but some readers went in expecting a story exactly like the Disney Beauty and the Beast movie but queer, and no, this is much more complicated that that. And also not YA. If a reader is patient, everything’s explained in more clear terms later in the novella.
As for my own reading experience, I’m a little bit obsessed with de Bodard’s writing style. Her words are at once under-stated, but evocative. She somehow made me literally nauseous and dizzy with her descriptions of the palace, just like Yên is. The blending of the hard science and linguistic magic is something I haven’t seen so well-done since G. Willow Wilson’s Alif the Unseen, and Wilson’s one of my favorite authors. If I had a quibble, Yên and Vu Côn seemed to spend more time in denial than being in love. Then again, that’s more my personal preference when it comes to romance.
All in all, I love In the Vanishers’ Palace. A masterfully told tale that knows the story it wants to tell. I’m already reading Fireheart Tiger and very excited to delve deeper into de Bodard’s bibliography.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Colonisation and Kidnapping
Moderate: Body horror, Ableism, Gore, Blood, Terminal illness, and Violence
Minor: Sexual content and Vomit
dytiscusfriend's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Very distressing story and setting. Post-apocolyptic and somewhat post-colonial. Story involves kidnapping, Beauty & the Beast-style "romance," and very serious medical/illness related themes. I rarely feel that a book is paced too fast for me but I often felt myself wishing we spent more time getting to know the characters and letting the story play out at less of a breakneck pace. Gorgeous imagery.
Recommend for fans of queer romance enemy to lovers novels.
Recommend for fans of queer romance enemy to lovers novels.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Confinement, Death, Grief, Kidnapping, Medical content, Terminal illness, and Violence
Minor: Sexual content
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