Reviews

Zhara by S. Jae-Jones

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librarylandlisa's review against another edition

4.0

I am excited to have a YA book to recommend to the younger kids (middle school) as this has only 2 baby swears in it and the violence is small and the romance is PG. There is some innuendo that I do not think you could get unless you were older, and it is not dirty at all.

merada01's review against another edition

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3.0

It was just ok. I can’t put my finger on why. Almost stopped reading a few times mainly bc I didn’t care what happened until about 75% thru. Then it got interesting. Also the fmc giggling annoyed the crap out of me. Could’ve done with less of that for sure.

rorystoryhour's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

Fun concept, extra fun ending, but felt pretty slow. Will be reading any more books that come out though.

nekoneko_'s review against another edition

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2.0

*Sucks teeth*

Not sure how I ultimately felt about this one. The first few pages made me so glad to have been able to get this ARC, but as the story went, I felt less and less sure.

**MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD**

-To start, I LOVE the premise.
-I definitely noticed the cinderella inspired bits, but the way in which they were used in the story felt too on the nose-especially her leaving her shoe at the ball.
-Zhara's character confused me. She went from super confident and flirty at the start to then thinking she was worthless by the end.
-Zhara was the GUARDIAN OF FIRE and yet she pretty much never uses fire. The moments when she was able to use/not use magic were WAY too convenient.
-Things happened a little too easily, like the first attack by the abomination...which lowers the stakes of finding out the truth behind what was happening
-There were too many "Han is a dolt" moments, especially surrounding lines of poetry with heavy euphemisms or dialogue with Xu. It was also hard to believe because come on, he's a 17 year old boy, and poetry was supposed to be his thing...?!
-Another caveat to the above, who is this book for? At times, it felt MG and others YA and still others Adult.
-The "big reveals" didn't feel big at all. The moment the northern princess was described as having red hair, I knew she was the magician Zhara had seen in the pits. And I knew she would ultimately be another guardian.
-I sort of wish the plot had just been the romance between Zhara and Han because that's where the story shined best while the whole abomination/rising of the demons plot was thin at best
-I wish the "I don't just want to live, but thrive" phrase wasn't inserted in at random moments. Maybe I was annoyed by this phrase because it didn't jibe with the Zhara in the beginning? She just suddenly says this phrase midway through the book and then repeats it every other chapter
-My biggest critique is the twist at the end with Zhara's sister locking her up in the kitchen....like WHAT?! There was no hint of any of the hatred she expressed in that moment laced throughout the book. It always seemed they loved each other and I just couldn't believe that the sister would betray Zhara like that because she was a magician
-This is one of those books that you also can sense halfway through that nothing is going to happen because there's going to be a sequel, which is annoying. The most exciting part of the story comes at the last 50 or 75 pages and it didn't hit me in the way it ought to have. WHAT happened at the ball? WHAT happened to the Chancellor? We don't get any of this but for a few lines in the epilogue
- I wish it had been a standalone, just beefed up a bit.

Yeah. One of the best aspects of this book was the writing--it was very easy to read in that sense, but as for the plot and characters...**shrugs**

curly_haired_chaos_gremlin's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

Pretty cliched but cute.

soartfullydone's review against another edition

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adventurous funny mysterious medium-paced

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

2.0

I was so excited for S. Jae-Jones' Guardians of Dawn series on its announcement, and that anticipation only grew with the long wait to publication. I've always thought that Wintersong deserved a much better reception than it got and consider most readers to be sleeping on it. And with Guardians of Dawn being inspired by the likes of Sailor Moon and C-dramas? Surely, this is going to be so fun!

Well, fun is certainly how this first book of the series, Zhara, started for me. I enjoyed the titular character, how much of a dreamer and romantic she was; how loyal she was to her family, even to a fault; and her struggle to figure out how she wanted to live her life. This struggle is compounded by the fact that Zhara is a magician in a land that forbids magic, meaning her life is always in danger and her peace is fragile.

For once, also, the comps were correct for this book. The setting immediately recalls the historical look of a fantasy C-drama, and the Sailor Moon aspects jump out at you. But which version of Sailor Moon? There's the original manga with its ethereal style, serious tone, and a plot that takes off and never stops. There's the 90s anime with its dreamy art direction, melodramatic romance, and teenage exuberance. There's the Crystal anime with its wobbly start in art and story but stronger finish, and of course, the live action version with its new ideas and an absurd Luna cat plushie that I'm oddly fond of.

The answer, for me, is the 90s anime, especially in tone. I think people are so nostalgic for the original anime that they often forget how goofy and silly it is, and I mean that in the best way. Zhara, on purpose or not, committed to that goofiness and silliness as if it were incapable of taking itself seriously. This choice lended to its fun and adventurous atmosphere at the start, but I fear it ultimately came to weigh down the narrative in the long run, specifically because it never found ways to ground itself like Sailor Moon does. Its characters are too flat and shallow, and, worst of all, they rarely feel genuine.

Zhara's main plot focuses on a string of seemingly random demon possessions upon magicians hidden in society, which leads to an investigation of the Mother of Ten Thousand Demons and her Four Demon Lords. It's giving Queen Beryl/Queen Metalia and the Four Heavenly Kings, right? And the B-plot is the romance between magical girl Zhara and Han, a prince in disguise. Usagi Tsukino and Mamoru Chiba, anyone?

God, do I wish.

It's here that the books shifts away from Sailor Moon and move towards Cinderella, and let me tell you, it was such a let-down. Jae-Jones seemed to embrace all the most shallow aspects of the fairytale from its most shallow versions, and paired with the deeply unserious tone, the book fell apart from there.

Because yeah, evil stepmother? Check. Blind but secretly resentful stepsister? Check. Insta-love romance with no further substance? Check. A midnight party and symbolic slipper? Double-check.

I've read this before. I've seen the dozens of movies. What I haven't seen is someone try to make something as iconic as Sailor Moon work as purely text but in a new way. Why did we back away slowly from the promise we had here?

It didn't happen immediately, either. I was genuinely enjoying myself for the first 40-50 percent and was certain I'd give it four stars for a good time, despite how young the writing skews. But there's one thing that increasingly ruined my enjoyment.

Han and his deeply unnecessary point of view. Yes, the prince and First Heir made me appreciate the depth and care that went into Mamoru Chiba's character, a sentiment I never thought I'd have. I will just never, ever, ever understand or get with the Himbo agenda the girlies want me to embrace. Particularly the agenda that makes a male character dumber than a bag of hammers, too dumb to even understand the most obvious sexual innuendo or what pornography is, and then proceeds to harp on how stupid he is constantly and how he only cares about working out. Does this really do anything for anyone? Yikes.

I probably would've landed on 3 stars for this book if Han's chapters were removed. He was just so exhausting, a loyal yet dumb dog personified, and I'm just not much of a dog person anymore, okay? I felt so sorry for Zhara to be attracted to him based on... nothing. No star-crossed past life like the doomed lovers, Prince Endymion and Princess Serenity. Not even a shared moral compass. Zhara would give up everything for her sister. Meanwhile, Han immediately forgets about his demon-possessed and endangered younger brother the moment he needs to make sure Zhara will come to the masquerade ball with him oh pls don't be mad and hurt, Zhara 🥺 I just can't. Put him in the meat grinder.

And I was desperately hoping that the much-referenced romance epic, The Maiden Who Was Loved by Death, would be symbolic of Zhara and Han's romance in SOME way. Not necessarily that they were the Maiden and Death in a past life or something, but like... Something? Maybe they would form a similar relationship that is as deep as it is fraught with obstacles? Nope. Not even a sliver of true yearning and emotion to be found here. They just like the same book? Oh my word.

Because that's something else about the 90s Sailor Moon anime. It might be silly and melodramatic, but it was also deeply romantic and full of teenage yearning for love. All of the Sailor Scouts yearn for a love and romance of their own at some point, caught between their young lives and their enormous responsibilities. All of them also depend on the love they have towards each other, this love saving their lives and the world time and time again.

What I got in Zhara in terms of romance and love was sex jokes, incredibly cringy and poorly-timed flirting, and the Good-Looking Giggles. No, I will not elaborate. There wasn't even an incredibly flamboyant, bitchy villain team where one or more villains are weirdly obsessed with the heroine or one of her friends. What's the point?

I mean, did the same person who wrote the haunting, sweeping, all-encompassing, and dark romance in Wintersong actually write this? Clearly not. Sometimes, people change, and it's a shame.

So yeah, I wanted to love this so much more, but once it became apparent that I wasn't getting an engaging romance or deep female friendships between Zhara, the other Guardians, or normal friends, I just sighed and committed to finishing it. Apparently, the sequel is some blend between Sailor Moon and Beauty and the Beast, and why? Why? Normally, I love the latter, but I've SEEN it! I've read it! Why are we falling back on Western fairytales when there's so many non-Western stories to tap into?

I will commend S. Jae-Jones on the risk she took in writing her prose more towards Asian social contexts and language conventions. If you've watched a lot of anime in Japanese, played otome games or the Chinese/Korean equivalents, or watched Asian dramas, then I daresay some of this will be familiar to you. I took to it quickly and also thought it was interesting how characters would be referred to as "they/them" until they gendered themselves. I also liked how she showed levels of formality between the characters based on age and social station, something that's difficult to show in English. These choices will naturally alienate some readers, but oh well. It was a good risk, and I hope more POC writers will experiment with English this way. I actually think the author could've used even more Chinese and Korean terms and done less hand-holding, but I'm vicious that way.

That being said, S. Jae-Jones' writing quality in general here wasn't the strongest. The above isn't the reason why. It's mostly because she relied too much on stupid dialogue lines, characters parroting each other, and repetitive plot points. I mean, we got, not one, not two, but three kids who were possessed by a demon as a major reveal and they were all boys. Were there not... other people to choose from? Could we have cut one of these? Yes, honestly. It just stopped being a surprise after the first time. This whole book would've benefited from much tighter editing. I thought her descriptions were, generally, vivid and quite nice. What I didn't think was nice was how Yulana's companion beast was described as being "usually a raptor" when it had always been described as a kestrel.

Honestly, this wasn't the worst I've read, but my disappointment is boundless.