Scan barcode
hannahbailey's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
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
3.0
I had huge expectations for this epic tale of a girl who rose to power despite all odds. Sadly I preferred the idea over the execution. I found it really hard to connect with the characters because of the third person narration and time jumps.
However, I did love the exploration of gender in the setting of war and violence. It was really interesting to watch the different characters grow into their respective roles. The subtle use of fantasy added an extra element of risk, so the story felt believable with incredibly high stakes.
Fantasy fans will love the diverse cast and character development, as well as the exciting, action-packed plot. I would've enjoyed the book a lot more had it been written in first-person, though I think this is more a fault of my own than that of the book's.
Check trigger warnings for this book as it's packed full of them - definitely not a light read.
thank you to NetGalley for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review
However, I did love the exploration of gender in the setting of war and violence. It was really interesting to watch the different characters grow into their respective roles. The subtle use of fantasy added an extra element of risk, so the story felt believable with incredibly high stakes.
Fantasy fans will love the diverse cast and character development, as well as the exciting, action-packed plot. I would've enjoyed the book a lot more had it been written in first-person, though I think this is more a fault of my own than that of the book's.
Check trigger warnings for this book as it's packed full of them - definitely not a light read.
thank you to NetGalley for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review
Content Warnings
Graphic: Classism, Slavery, Body horror, Grief, Misogyny, Torture, Violence, Animal death, Blood, Physical abuse, Sexism, War, Child death, Ableism, Bullying, Gore, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Racial slurs
galeng's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
inspiring
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror
armontheroad's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
sad
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
5.0
READ THIS BOOK! This is heavy on the supernatural, light on the magical fantasy, but an absolute gem. I loved all of these characters, even though I really should not. The historical setting was such a breath of fresh air. Adored the trans-nonbinary rep, the queer rep, the asexual rep, and the disability rep. This book had everything I could ever want, with political intrigue as the cherry on top. Cannot wait for the sequel.
Content Warnings: Eye gore, etc (see listed below)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Body horror, Death of parent, Slavery, Alcohol, Violence, Colonisation, Sexism, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Excrement, Cursing, War, Blood, Ableism, Homophobia, Sexual content, and Death
sunsetcity's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Gore, Trafficking, Violence, Toxic relationship, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Blood, Sexism, Body horror, Colonisation, War, Classism, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Slavery, and Torture
mmikadze's review
2.5
The blurb is a lie, this is NOT Mulan.
But before I get too much into that (because I think it would be mild spoilers), here's what I will say: I think you could like this book if you like unlikable characters and dark, gritty stories. Possibly a story in which you see the rise of a villain. It has politics, war theory, gore, interesting and complex gender exploration, and a ton of queer characters. It is definitely ADULT and not YA.
Now onto why I was disappointed and upset going into this thinking it was like Mulan.
In Mulan, she takes her father's place as a soldier as an act of love and self sacrifice. She doesn't want her father to die, which he likely will because of his injury. On top of that she wants to make him proud, because she feels like she failed him by not being matched. She works hard, and trains, and it's this hard work and determination to do what is right that leads her to success. She fights hard and risks her life for those she loves and for the good of her country.
In this, Zhu 'steals' her brothers fate and continually does what is best for her. If there's a way around hard work, she'll take the easy shortcut, even if it means doing something morally bad. She feels like she is owed greatness, and she will use anyone along the way to get it. Her greed and need for power ruins the lives of those around her, even people she claims to love, but she doesn't care. Spoiler: She literally killed an innocent 8 year old so that nobody else could challenge her political power and y'all have the audacity to pitch this as Mulan?? Get outta here. Plus, Zhu's wife Ma had just told her how she feels an emotional connection to the child and how she would love to care and raise the child as a mother. Zhu's response? Steal the child and kill it behind her wife's back. Try to tell me this girl is not the villain of the story. I dare you. Not to mention, Zhu isn't actually even a good soldier. She sucks at fighting and doesn't even learn how to properly wield a sword until the very end. Smarts wise, yeah, she's smart. But she's not using her brain power for good, I'll tell you that.
Where is the love? Familial or otherwise. Everything Zhu does is out of obligation or selfish interest. Even from the beginning, how quickly she got rid of that monk, and her best friend did not judge her at all, nor did the head monk, but instead praised her for it. If I were the head monk, I would never trust someone who is so willing to throw other people under the bus for their own benefit. And it is just downhill from there with her self motivated actions harming everyone including those close to her. There is so much hate in this book that I just wanted a little bit of sweetness to balance out the bitterness.
Which brings me to my next qualm, the characters.
Starting with our main girlie, Zhu. As someone who likes morally grey characters, I can easily say she is not morally grey, she is just straight up bad. She has no redeeming qualities and never does anything that won't directly benefit her. For more reasons, go ahead and open up some of the spoilers in the Mulan portion of this rant. Better yet, let me take a direct quote from the book that Zhu herself says: "this is the price of her desire [for power]. To ask those she loved for their suffering again and again. So she could get what she wanted. And at the same time, she knew she wouldn't stop." Great. Perfect. She acknowledges that what she does hurts those she claims to love, but she doesn't care because what's most important to her is getting power. I think her actions are almost made worse by the fact that she knows they're bad and will cause suffering, and yet she still chooses to do it anyways.I'm sorry but I wish she failed. She deserves to fail for her hubris. I was actually pretty impressed and excited during her fight with Ouyang because I thought she was going to die, and was happy when I thought that's the way the story was going to turn. But alas, she survives, more determined than ever to rule.
I can't even think of a single character who I like. At some point it was Ma, because she at least seemed to care for other people but even then, <she still chose to stick by Zhu at the end, despite everything she's done>. At another time I had hope for Ouyang because he had a traumatic past, and there's a shred of good in him when there's hints of romance with Yessin, but then he goes and murders Yessin's father and frames his brother. Yikes.
Beyond the incredibly unlikable characters, I had some issues with the writing. We had one POV for 20% of the book only for it to switch to shifting POVs, which is jarring as a reader. Moreover, there were so many time jumps, fast forwarding past years and years. It was confusing and added to the sense that I never felt connected to anyone. Something would happen, then time jump, something else would happen, time jump again, and on and on. We rarely got to see the reaction and rebuilding after the events took place in real time because after each big event we would skip time. So most of the struggling and character growth happens 'off screen' apart from the very end. This was especially evident in the scene where the monastery was burned down. We don't know what happened to the head monk guy or the other monk that she grew up with when the monastery was set on fire. We eventually find out what happened to her monk friend much later in the book, but it's already far past that scene, and we never get closure on what happened to the head monk .
Finally while magic/ fire thing was cool at first, I'm not sure how well it fits into the story. "If you believe in yourself and your abilities, it will be there" is a bit cheesy, especially for such a dark story. And already at least 4 people in this book apparently have the 'mandate of heaven' fire trick so it really doesn't seem that special anymore. I suspect Yessin's brother also has it because I think he can see ghosts too. So if it's not unique or meant to signal who is meant to rule then what's the point?
But before I get too much into that (because I think it would be mild spoilers), here's what I will say: I think you could like this book if you like unlikable characters and dark, gritty stories. Possibly a story in which you see the rise of a villain. It has politics, war theory, gore, interesting and complex gender exploration, and a ton of queer characters. It is definitely ADULT and not YA.
Now onto why I was disappointed and upset going into this thinking it was like Mulan.
In Mulan, she takes her father's place as a soldier as an act of love and self sacrifice. She doesn't want her father to die, which he likely will because of his injury. On top of that she wants to make him proud, because she feels like she failed him by not being matched. She works hard, and trains, and it's this hard work and determination to do what is right that leads her to success. She fights hard and risks her life for those she loves and for the good of her country.
In this, Zhu 'steals' her brothers fate and continually does what is best for her. If there's a way around hard work, she'll take the easy shortcut, even if it means doing something morally bad. She feels like she is owed greatness, and she will use anyone along the way to get it. Her greed and need for power ruins the lives of those around her, even people she claims to love, but she doesn't care. Spoiler:
Where is the love? Familial or otherwise. Everything Zhu does is out of obligation or selfish interest. Even from the beginning, how quickly she got rid of that monk, and her best friend did not judge her at all, nor did the head monk, but instead praised her for it. If I were the head monk, I would never trust someone who is so willing to throw other people under the bus for their own benefit. And it is just downhill from there with her self motivated actions harming everyone including those close to her. There is so much hate in this book that I just wanted a little bit of sweetness to balance out the bitterness.
Which brings me to my next qualm, the characters.
Starting with our main girlie, Zhu. As someone who likes morally grey characters, I can easily say she is not morally grey, she is just straight up bad. She has no redeeming qualities and never does anything that won't directly benefit her. For more reasons, go ahead and open up some of the spoilers in the Mulan portion of this rant. Better yet, let me take a direct quote from the book that Zhu herself says: "this is the price of her desire [for power]. To ask those she loved for their suffering again and again. So she could get what she wanted. And at the same time, she knew she wouldn't stop." Great. Perfect. She acknowledges that what she does hurts those she claims to love, but she doesn't care because what's most important to her is getting power. I think her actions are almost made worse by the fact that she knows they're bad and will cause suffering, and yet she still chooses to do it anyways.
I can't even think of a single character who I like. At some point it was Ma, because she at least seemed to care for other people but even then, <she still chose to stick by Zhu at the end, despite everything she's done>. At another time I had hope for Ouyang because he had a traumatic past, and there's a shred of good in him when there's hints of romance with Yessin, but then
Beyond the incredibly unlikable characters, I had some issues with the writing. We had one POV for 20% of the book only for it to switch to shifting POVs, which is jarring as a reader. Moreover, there were so many time jumps, fast forwarding past years and years. It was confusing and added to the sense that I never felt connected to anyone. Something would happen, then time jump, something else would happen, time jump again, and on and on. We rarely got to see the reaction and rebuilding after the events took place in real time because after each big event we would skip time. So most of the struggling and character growth happens 'off screen' apart from the very end. This was especially evident in the scene where
Finally while magic/ fire thing was cool at first, I'm not sure how well it fits into the story. "If you believe in yourself and your abilities, it will be there" is a bit cheesy, especially for such a dark story. And
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child death, and Sexism
veronikav's review
adventurous
emotional
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
4.5
Got interested in it because of the premise of lesbian fisting , stayed for the eunuch general.
I didn't have some extra high hopes going into this. All I had known about this books were little tidbits and memes from tiktok (some of the more explicit scenes were very popular there) but nothing of real substance. Oh also I had seen some quotes on tumblr and surprisingly enjoyed them. Still I was expecting another run-of-the-mill YA/new adult fiction that gets mass produced and published these days. I was wrong and I am happy that is the case.
First of all - whoever described this as "Mulan meets Achilles" is doing the story a big injustice. While you could draw parallels between those it does feel like whoever wrote that just saw "Chinese girl who pretends to be a man fights in a war" and "gay" and thought it an appropriate comparison. But rather than that I would draw a comparison to what is the predecessor of this book which is the Chinese fantasy web novel genre which then gave birth to wuxia/xianxia dramas.
As much as there are many elements that you would find in a Chinese fantasy web novel it is clearly different - first noticable difference being the language it is written in. After all despite translations the cadences and writing styles of each language are vastly different and it is clear that SWBS was written for English not transformed into it as an afterthought. Therefore it proves a much easier and smoother read while having the same overall tone.
From what I had heard about the novel I didn't expect it to have such a profound message pertaining to conceptions of gender. That was what honestly drew me in more and more with each chapter - the construction of gender in a highly patriarchal society - the existence of Other gendered states of being in such a space. My favorite character of course ended up being Ouyang because there was something so incredibly fascinating about him. Actually in the first book I'd say the romance between Ouyang and Esen is much more well-developed and intriguing compared to the main couple - who despite having more actual moments are on a smoother path. I've always been into the tragic love stories.
Anyways, I rate this book highly - had to hesitate between a 4 and a 5, but ended up giving it a 5 because I know I can't apply my classical lit standards to everything. Think of it as a rounded up 4.5.
I didn't have some extra high hopes going into this. All I had known about this books were little tidbits and memes from tiktok (some of the more explicit scenes were very popular there) but nothing of real substance. Oh also I had seen some quotes on tumblr and surprisingly enjoyed them. Still I was expecting another run-of-the-mill YA/new adult fiction that gets mass produced and published these days. I was wrong and I am happy that is the case.
First of all - whoever described this as "Mulan meets Achilles" is doing the story a big injustice. While you could draw parallels between those it does feel like whoever wrote that just saw "Chinese girl who pretends to be a man fights in a war" and "gay" and thought it an appropriate comparison. But rather than that I would draw a comparison to what is the predecessor of this book which is the Chinese fantasy web novel genre which then gave birth to wuxia/xianxia dramas.
As much as there are many elements that you would find in a Chinese fantasy web novel it is clearly different - first noticable difference being the language it is written in. After all despite translations the cadences and writing styles of each language are vastly different and it is clear that SWBS was written for English not transformed into it as an afterthought. Therefore it proves a much easier and smoother read while having the same overall tone.
From what I had heard about the novel I didn't expect it to have such a profound message pertaining to conceptions of gender. That was what honestly drew me in more and more with each chapter - the construction of gender in a highly patriarchal society - the existence of Other gendered states of being in such a space. My favorite character of course ended up being Ouyang because there was something so incredibly fascinating about him. Actually in the first book I'd say the romance between Ouyang and Esen is much more well-developed and intriguing compared to the main couple - who despite having more actual moments are on a smoother path. I've always been into the tragic love stories.
Anyways, I rate this book highly - had to hesitate between a 4 and a 5, but ended up giving it a 5 because I know I can't apply my classical lit standards to everything. Think of it as a rounded up 4.5.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Blood, Body horror, Body shaming, Child death, Colonisation, Death, Death of parent, Dysphoria, Gore, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Slavery, and War
body mutilation one of the important characters is an eunuch and it's a very important part of his character arch. so constant comments about this etc.ireadinbed's review
dark
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
slow-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
Honestly this book is amazing.
I found that I felt the troubles of the characters deep in my heart. It hurt but I was so invested in the outcomes I couldn't stop reading. And honestly it was all very. . . satisfying isn't the right word but the ending was exactly what it was meant to be.
Would absolutely read again.
I found that I felt the troubles of the characters deep in my heart. It hurt but I was so invested in the outcomes I couldn't stop reading. And honestly it was all very. . . satisfying isn't the right word but the ending was exactly what it was meant to be.
Would absolutely read again.
Content Warnings
Graphic: War, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Abandonment, Body horror, Body shaming, and Child death
Moderate: Misogyny, Homophobia, Transphobia, Sexual content, and Racism
sarah_lynggaard's review
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Well I wouldn’t say the characters were diverse, but also it’s 14th century china there’s literally only Asian people there how can it be diverse. Also ma deserves better<3
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Grief, War, and Violence
Moderate: Death of parent and Child death
cadenlock's review
adventurous
dark
inspiring
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
I loved reading Zhu's story, and I liked how Ma's perspective supported it. I didn't feel like I gained a ton from Ouyang's perspective. There were a lot of surprises, which were frustrating because I knew they were coming since it was teased (many times it would say, "She knew what she had to do," or the like), but I had to wait until it actually happened.
This is a story about ambition and desire for greatness, no matter what it takes. I'm excited to read the sequel to find out all that Zhu will achieve and what she will do to get there.
This is a story about ambition and desire for greatness, no matter what it takes. I'm excited to read the sequel to find out all that Zhu will achieve and what she will do to get there.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Death of parent
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Body shaming, and Body horror
Minor: Child death
fuguefire's review
adventurous
inspiring
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Great book with fantastic cultural insight! I have a few gripes regarding LGBT+ matters in the book: I found it frustrating that the main character continuously referred to themselves as “she”? Perhaps it is a cultural thing I’m not seeing, but it seems to me that the mc would have definitely preferred to refer to themselves (in their head) as “he”… obviously they saw themselves as more of a “woman disguised as a man” but there is a point where it kinda just becomes reasonable to use “he/him” pronouns because the flipping of POV made it very confusing. I understand if this is not supposed to be a story about a trans man, since the mc is only transitioning because of their own ambition, but it was very clunky to have the mc see themself as a man, refer themself a woman, then be intermittently referred to as he and her by the supporting characters Please let me know if I am missing some aspect of LGBT+ Gender theory here, and perhaps I feel this way because I come from a western culture, I just felt like this one specific aspect of the book could have been dealt with better. I would also be interested to hear what Chinese tans/non-cis people thought about it! Other than that, I loved this book, the characters unerring drive for their goal, and the flaws that create in them.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Deadnaming, Death of parent, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, and Body horror
Moderate: Abandonment
Minor: Adult/minor relationship
References Genital mutilation, non graphic