Reviews with content warning for Suicide - Zachary Ying and the Dragon Emperor

Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

Zachary Ying and the Dragon Emperor by Xiran Jay Zhao

15 reviews

grace_b_3's review against another edition

adventurous fast-paced

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

2.0

I picked this up for 2 reasons: it fit the middle grade fiction with LGBTQ+ characters prompt for The Storygraph genre challenge for 2024 and because I liked Iron Widow. This worked a lot less for me than Iron Widow.

The exposition was very clunky—both for the world-building elements as well as the historical and cultural notes. This seems to be written for a non-Chinese audience, as the story stops a lot to explain things like there being different ethnic groups in China etc. The fact that the writing style was such an issue makes me afraid to reread Iron Widow.

I could appreciate some elements of the story being told—like dealing with racism and bullying and finding your place in the world when you don’t feel like you fit in. Those more thematic elements were the most compelling part of this book for me.

Lastly, to touch on the LGBTQ+ elements,

it’s clear that Zachary is gay, but it’s not dealt with very directly. It’s a couple of lines throughout the book that clue the reader in.

As this book is very much setting up a sequel, I could see this element becoming more prominent in later books, as first crushes become more important to the characters as they age.

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sophiesometimesreads's review against another edition

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adventurous funny informative 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

It was fun and educational, and I would recommend for anyone a fan of mythical middle grade books. The first half had a lot of info dumping via dialogue though, which made me lose a bit of interest at the time, and I would've liked to learn about these parts of the lore and Chinese history via other means, perhaps as flashback or memories or a dual timeline/POV situation. The second half of the book was really good though and the ending was excellent. I'll definitely be tuning in for the sequel.

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zombiezami's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional funny informative reflective medium-paced

4.25

This was an exciting and endearing book, and I’m looking forward to the next installment in the series. The one thing I didn’t like was how many times a facet of Chinese history or culture was explained as “this person was basically the Chinese version of [Western thing].” I understand that the POV character is a Chinese American person who has little knowledge of Chinese history, but those summaries felt pretty oversimplified. Also, some of the dialogue scenes around Chinese culture and history didn’t feel terribly organic.

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dandelionsteph's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional informative lighthearted medium-paced

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

5.0

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evelynyle_88's review against another edition

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adventurous funny 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

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queer_bookwyrm's review

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adventurous emotional hopeful lighthearted reflective 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? No

4.0

4 ⭐ CW: fantasy violence, religious persecution, anti-Asian sentiments, suicide mention, bullying

Zachary Ying and the Dragon Emperor is book one in the first middle grade series by Xiran Jay Zhao. I originally started this book as a before bed read with my youngest, but since she's not around much, I figured I would finish alone, because I was enjoying it so much!

We follow Zachary Ying, a Uyghur Muslim immigrant living in Maine with his mom. Zack is a shy kid who gets bullied a lot for being Chinese, when suddenly while wearing his Mythrealm glasses, a spirit tries to possess, fails and possesses his VR headset instead. Turns out Zach is related to one of the most notorious Chinese historical figures: Qin Shi Huang. Zack now has water powers and must find a way to save his mother's soul that was stolen by another spirit. He is accompanied by his teen idol who, is possessed by Emperor Tang Taizong; and a pop star possessed by Wu Zetian, the first and only female emperor of China.

This book was actually a hilarious wild ride! Zhao admits they just wrote their 12 year old self into anime they wished had ended better 😂. This book is great if you love video games, anime, pop culture references, and lots of Chinese history. As an American who never learned anything about China in school, it was fascinating learning about Chinese history and their influence on China's myths and legends. I also love that Zhao always makes the villain the main character, we get some lovely middle grade morally gray action.

The lessons my kid took away when we were reading together was to not point out when someone looks different than you, to believe in yourself and not give up before even trying, and to stand up to bullies. An additional lesson is that there is no such thing as Good VS. Evil in real life. Everyone has done wrong, but they can also do good. We also get the beginnings of Zack questioning his sexuality, and might be explored more in later books. This is a wonderful middle grade read, and I look forward to the rest of the series!

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