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

Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Zachary Ying and the Dragon Emperor by Xiran Jay Zhao

26 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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ezrazoe4'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? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

Great middle grade debut novel. I really like the funny history tidbits we get throughout the book. The action sequences were well written, and the final battle was super epic.

I do feel like the side characters could have been given more attention, specifically Simon and Melissa. Perhaps their characters will be expanded in the next book.

Overall, a great action oriented middle grade novel, recommend for mythology likers.

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fkshg8465's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted tense medium-paced

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

4.25

I’m so excited about this new series and can hardly wait for the sequel. In the meantime, I’ll be buying copies for several of my kiddos. This is a fun book and funny at times, also full of adventure and education too.

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amalyndb's review

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4.5

I want to read more, see how things further develop.

I appreciated the cultural footnotes in story via augmented reality on historical figures. It felt like how I look things up on wiki while reading.

This novel helped show me areas I was ignorant and can learn more in the future.

Chinese Muslim people are not a culture I am familiar with other than news articles on the mistreatment of the Uighur people.

I academically knew people within China are not a homogeneous monoculture and have a variety of beliefs in spite of government attempts AND this helped gently remind me how much I do not know.

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reila's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny informative inspiring lighthearted reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

Enjoyed this book so much that I couldn't put it down. Exquisite world-building, pulling from blood-drenched history and the myths/legends spun from such events (regardless if true or fabricated, who knows?)--how they lent themselves to the powers the hosts can evoke was fascinating. Zack confronting his mixed cultural identity hit emotional places I never had words for. Zhao's sense of humor, pop-culture references, and cutting wit felt more apparent here (if familiar with their social media presence). For the ordeal they described in writing the book too, they must have had some fun in doing so because I could swear I felt it (if not, I will choose to believe it).

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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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bones_jackson's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny lighthearted 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

Que livro incrível. É uma mistura de Percy Jackson e histórias e mitologia chinesa incrivelmente escrito, todos os fãs de Percy Jackson deveriam ler esse livro. O humor na história te faz ter umas risadas muito boas em horas muito inconvenientes na história, o que é incrível. E ainda tem um bode com olhos no sovaco o que é incrível

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