Intricately Detailed With An Interesting Plot

I am surrounded by many splendors, and yet I
Am alone.

Thoughts💡

This was a beautiful story with a detailed world and exquisite details. I loved Xue, she was demi and an outcast so I felt immediately drawn to her. She had dreams and wishes but was extremely pragmatic about her circumstances and tragedy.

I thought it was really interesting how the story was formatted. It was separated into parts with verses with interludes that were distinctly different.

✨Note✨standalone

⚠️Content Warning ⚠️

Death of parents (off page), Grief, death of Fantasy Animals

Stats📊

Characters💙💙💙💙💙

YA Romantic Fantasy: slow burn, Chinese dramas/folklore, gothic influences, gods and

monsters, quiet longing, who is she to you

First Person, Past Tense, Single POV

Content Warnings

madamenovelist's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense 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

5.0

Content Warnings

sweetteaandfiction's review

Go to review page

emotional inspiring medium-paced

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

5.0

Song of the Six Realms by @judyilinauthor had me screaming and crying and laughing with joy

PROS:
🥮Make mythology feel real
🥮World Building
🥮Character Growth
🥮Destiny
🥮Pacing

CONS:
🥮Just like the Book of Tea Duology, I want more of this world and these characters.

#bookstagram #books #book #booklover #booknerd #bookaddict #readinglist #readinggoals #readingchallenge #hungryminds #judyilin #judyilinauthor #judyilinbook #judyilinbooks #songofthesixrealms #chinesemythology

Content Warnings

pm_me_book_recs's review

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional tense 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? No

5.0

I watch a lot of Wuxia and C-Drama, so the mythology and pantheon were very familiar and was easy for me to recognize and follow. Love Between Fairy and Devil felt like it was represented as part of the lore in this story, but also same vibes overall.

I'm a total sucker for gothics, this checked all my boxes. Tragedy, heartbreak, hope, reclamation, empowerment, and a soft close with loose ends tied to hope.

Xue is believably capable and heartening, Jinglang is not the typical brooding gothic interest (refreshing!), side characters are wonderfully complex albeit a little transparent at times, queerness is normalized and not shunned or forbidden, the magic is ethereal, the mystery and intrigue are multifaceted.

I was so excited to read this, and was not disappointed!

Thank you Netgalley for approving me for an ARC in return for an honest review!

Content Warnings

More...