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azrah786's review against another edition
3.25
**I was provided with an ARC through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review**
CW: violence, blood, injury, war, death, animal death, death of parents (off page), vomiting, physical abuse, terminal illness, grief
It breaks my heart to say this but I did not enjoy this book as much as I had hoped to :(
I absolutely loved both of Joan He’s previous books, I just felt like there was something missing for me in this one that I can’t entirely put my finger on.
Strike the Zither is a reimagining of the Chinese epic Three Kingdoms with the twist that the leading characters are predominantly female – it has such an noteworthy and unique premise but I just couldn’t click with the story.
Don’t get me wrong He’s writing and twisty storytelling is as brilliant as ever here and the characters were interesting and well established enough. However, the fast pacing with not much action was reminiscent of She Who Became the Sun and Daughter of the Moon Goddess, two other reads that I didn’t vibe with this year for similar reasons.
Everything was happening too fast for me, relationships and alliances included, and then the big plot twist didn’t shock me at all, I just skimmed over it and continued reading without much other thought.
Maybe being more familiar with the original story that this was inspired by would have given me a better understanding and appreciation for the nuances and links but unfortunately this wasn’t my cup of tea so I doubt I will be picking up the sequel.
If you’re a fan of historical c-dramas and Wuxia then I’d definitely recommend checking it out though!
Final Rating – 3.25/5 Stars
CW: violence, blood, injury, war, death, animal death, death of parents (off page), vomiting, physical abuse, terminal illness, grief
It breaks my heart to say this but I did not enjoy this book as much as I had hoped to :(
I absolutely loved both of Joan He’s previous books, I just felt like there was something missing for me in this one that I can’t entirely put my finger on.
Strike the Zither is a reimagining of the Chinese epic Three Kingdoms with the twist that the leading characters are predominantly female – it has such an noteworthy and unique premise but I just couldn’t click with the story.
Don’t get me wrong He’s writing and twisty storytelling is as brilliant as ever here and the characters were interesting and well established enough. However, the fast pacing with not much action was reminiscent of She Who Became the Sun and Daughter of the Moon Goddess, two other reads that I didn’t vibe with this year for similar reasons.
Everything was happening too fast for me, relationships and alliances included, and then the big plot twist didn’t shock me at all, I just skimmed over it and continued reading without much other thought.
Maybe being more familiar with the original story that this was inspired by would have given me a better understanding and appreciation for the nuances and links but unfortunately this wasn’t my cup of tea so I doubt I will be picking up the sequel.
If you’re a fan of historical c-dramas and Wuxia then I’d definitely recommend checking it out though!
Final Rating – 3.25/5 Stars
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, War, and Death
Moderate: Grief, Terminal illness, and Physical abuse
Minor: Death of parent, Animal death, and Vomit
maaikereadsbooks_'s review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Many thanks to Text Publishing and Joan He for the advanced copy of Strike the Zither via NetGalley, in return for my honest and unbiased review. Quick note: I don’t recap plots in my reviews, as it’s easy enough to read the book’s synopsis and blurbs, I purely focus on my feelings & opinions of how the books makes me feel.
Strike the Zither is a fascinating re-imagining of the Three Kingdoms. I will admit that I went into this book not knowing anything about the Three Kingdoms at all. But I can imagine it was a very male-heavy affair. Strike the Zither, on the other hand, has been written with a female majority of characters. Male characters, while present, are in the minority. However, rather than making them inferior (as would be the case in a gender-switch reimagining), He also wrote male characters into positions of political and strategic power in the story.
It took me a bit to get the feel of the story and I found it difficult to fully immerse myself in it. The way it is written would make it work very well as a graphic novel or screen adaptation. There is a large switch of viewpoint in the middle of the book, which again threw me, as I’d not long gotten into the rhythm of the story, and this did detract from the story somewhat for me. Overall, I just felt a little something was lacking. It felt a little shallow, the characters lacked in depth and there were sudden leaps in time with little explanation.
Really, I feel Joan He did not do herself justice. She could have split this book into two. The ‘before’ and the ‘after’. With more depth of the characters and explanations, it would have felt like an even richer, deeper story.
It was a brilliant idea, well executed. But, with more time and over two volumes, would have been immense. It could have been MORE. For this reason I just couldn’t love it.
Spice: 0/5
Trigger warnings: Amputation, Blood/Gore, Death, Death of a family member, Guns/weapons, Murder, Physical or mental abuse, Physical illness, Poisoning, Violence, War
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and War
Moderate: Blood, Death, Child death, Murder, and Physical abuse
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