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3.98 AVERAGE
3.98 AVERAGE
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
adventurous
dark
emotional
inspiring
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
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
adventurous
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
I have been seeing this book being recommended all over the place and I admit that I may have gone in with too high of expectations. However, I ultimately felt pretty let down by the time I made it to the end of the story.
The core plot line, the political maneuvering by Zhu, Ouyang and the others, is fine, and when the book sticks to this it is a reasonably enjoyable read. The biggest issue with this book is that the author seems to have zero faith that her readers will be able to remember her characters' underlying motivations and feels the need to explain their exact thoughts and feelings in internal monologue over and over again. I really struggled to make it through the second half of the book because it felt like the book was just repeating things to me in order to increase the word count. The prose itself also felt very simplistic and lacking in authorial voice, and the dialogue between characters often came off as being much more contemporary than I felt was fitting for the setting of the story.
I still feel like it deserves three stars because the two primary characters, Zhu and Ouyang, are both compelling and provide an interesting perspective on gender and navigating that in a historical setting that I don't often see in other works. I did feel like some of the other characters were pretty underdeveloped, particularly Ma, but overall I did enjoy the core narrative during the parts when the author wasn't explaining the same thing about Ouyang's anger and insecurity and Zhu's ambition and impostor syndrome to me for the 5th time in as many chapters.
The core of a compelling story is present in this book for sure, but ultimately I just don't think it deserves all the hype I have seen for it on other websites and I don't feel particularly inclined to read the sequel.
The core plot line, the political maneuvering by Zhu, Ouyang and the others, is fine, and when the book sticks to this it is a reasonably enjoyable read. The biggest issue with this book is that the author seems to have zero faith that her readers will be able to remember her characters' underlying motivations and feels the need to explain their exact thoughts and feelings in internal monologue over and over again. I really struggled to make it through the second half of the book because it felt like the book was just repeating things to me in order to increase the word count. The prose itself also felt very simplistic and lacking in authorial voice, and the dialogue between characters often came off as being much more contemporary than I felt was fitting for the setting of the story.
I still feel like it deserves three stars because the two primary characters, Zhu and Ouyang, are both compelling and provide an interesting perspective on gender and navigating that in a historical setting that I don't often see in other works. I did feel like some of the other characters were pretty underdeveloped, particularly Ma, but overall I did enjoy the core narrative during the parts when the author wasn't explaining the same thing about Ouyang's anger and insecurity and Zhu's ambition and impostor syndrome to me for the 5th time in as many chapters.
The core of a compelling story is present in this book for sure, but ultimately I just don't think it deserves all the hype I have seen for it on other websites and I don't feel particularly inclined to read the sequel.
adventurous
emotional
informative
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes