Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo

48 reviews

fox_at_the_circus's review

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adventurous emotional mysterious sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

This book really has everything a mystery, power struggles and intrigue at court, a love story and a talking bird/neixin.
I love how most of the chapters are structered with an inventory of objects first and then part of the empress's story related to the objects and then a dialogue between Rabbit and her listener. It's a really interesting wax to build a story and also give a sense of the setting.
And the "love" story in the book was just so good. It's nice that it focuses on a non romantic love, and the more you (re)read the more you notice, how some things Rabbit says have double meanings and what we know about their relationships grows so nicely from chapter to chapter. With the power dynamic between the two and everything that happens, there's really a lot of room for interpretation, about what kind of love it was, or if it even was love. It adds to the whole mystery feeling, too. how this book explores two women, who were forced into difficult situations and are trying to make the best out of it and navigating their relationhip, is written very beautifully.

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kingcrookback's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No
I've (as of writing this review) only read one other work of Vo's, Siren Queen, and I find that I much prefer Empress of Salt and Fortune. They're both frame stories that dip in and out of the embedded narrative, but there's something to Empress's setting and pacing that does it for me in a way that Siren Queen didn't. Empress moves along deftly (though I wouldn't necessarily say that it's swift), and the Vo treads the line between detail and ambiguity. Neither detailed to the point of bogging anything down nor ambiguous enough to be called vague. Rabbit's story is both touching and gripping, albeit hazed by time and memory. A nice little capsule.

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sarahsbooklife's review against another edition

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fast-paced

3.0


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thereadinghammock's review against another edition

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mysterious reflective relaxing slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? N/A
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.0

So much of this book just, sort of, happens around you (as a reader), that it's not until, maybe the last 30 minutes of the book that I had any idea what was actually going on. The world is fascinating, but the delivery is too prosaic for me. It's beautifully written, stunning prose, and I love the respect for archival history threaded throughout the book; but it's simply a case of just not the writing for me--and that's OK!!

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camryndaytona's review

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challenging emotional hopeful mysterious slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5


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piastri's review

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adventurous hopeful lighthearted fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

really quick read but vo did not miss whatsoever. the world building is amazing, the prose is beautiful and it’s gay! literally what more could you want. 

i also loved the way that the story emerged throughout the book, and how the reader gets to figure things out along with Chih

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aritag's review

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mysterious reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.5


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fraise's review

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mysterious reflective 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

5.0


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rtaire's review

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emotional mysterious reflective 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? No

4.0


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turtlebrainlibrarian's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious 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

4.0


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