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3.53 AVERAGE
3.53 AVERAGE
I enjoyed this book and honestly loved so much about it, including the play with timeline and fantasy elements. But I found it really hard to hold all the threads together. Reading it on paper might have been easier than audiobook, so I could have flipped back to remember the minor details that suddenly become hugely important later on.
mysterious
medium-paced
i fear that 2.5 is actually quite generous but there are three aspects that contributed: (1) the prose is so, so clunky and the dialogue is inconsistent (some v unnatural turns of phrase), (2) plot is v superficial and all over the place—in trying to be clever is just becomes confusing, (3) truly feel like the smuttiness of it is just not for me as an audience—there’s v little emotional core to the sex, and that can be fine but then it just doesn’t land w any sort of real impact—maybe that’s just my own preference for smut tho
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
🦊 Mixed feelings on this one, reads as very gay, folk lore inspired revenge romance? (Is that a genre?). Unapologetically Asian (good for them! 🥳)
🦊 I really loved the premise, but I just got a bit lost and didn’t vibe with any of the characters. (Or drug fuelled LA orgies)
🦊 a lot of really unexpected random sex scenes. (I think there was like 4, at 26 pages in).
🦊 I really loved the premise, but I just got a bit lost and didn’t vibe with any of the characters. (Or drug fuelled LA orgies)
🦊 a lot of really unexpected random sex scenes. (I think there was like 4, at 26 pages in).
I was not getting connected with the story or characters at all, at 21% in. I don't think I got enough time in each era to really feel like I knew the characters or what they were about. The writing felt detached.
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I’m torn about this one. The first 40% or so were very enjoyable — the writing flowed, the free inclusion of sex was refreshing and fun, and I was really curious to see where the three stories were going. I mean, exorcism of a vicious fox spirit; intrigue at old Chinese court; a heady contemporary ever-so-slightly futuristic mystery with drugs, heists and a touch of the supernatural — what’s not to love?
But after the 40% mark the book started to lose me. There were some laughable revelations only weakly supported by the previous text (if at all); there were summaries or explanations of the plotline that likewise didn’t really mash with what we were actually shown earlier in the book; and I still don’t understand the significance of the jade stamp (if the revenge was entirely the Emperor’s decision, what does the stamp have to do with anything? My best idea is that the Emperor was of the lineage cursed with the stamp, and this curse is what brought about all this other mess ). Also, I wasn’t really convinced of the tremendous love that was supposed to be there…
One last thought — how many lives have these guys gone through? I’ve seen some reviews complaining that there were lots of lives and we only got to see three — but I’m inclined to think there only were three, or at least there were only three in which the protagonists met.The fox spirit says he was the Emperor, then after much deliberation reincarnated as the fox spirit and roamed the Earth until he found his lover again — that’s 2 lives without any more in between. There could technically be some between nr. 2 and the slightly-futuristic one, but there’s literally zero hints pointing that way.
But after the 40% mark the book started to lose me. There were some laughable revelations only weakly supported by the previous text (if at all); there were summaries or explanations of the plotline that likewise didn’t really mash with what we were actually shown earlier in the book; and I still don’t understand the significance of the jade stamp (
One last thought — how many lives have these guys gone through? I’ve seen some reviews complaining that there were lots of lives and we only got to see three — but I’m inclined to think there only were three, or at least there were only three in which the protagonists met.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Drug use, Infidelity, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Schizophrenia/Psychosis