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3.93 AVERAGE
3.93 AVERAGE
adventurous
emotional
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Torture, Classism
(Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)
Seemingly doomed from the start, Legend of the White Snake is a book about love and empathy. We love a cute meet cute where one doesn't realize the other is royalty. What follows is a precious book about love in unexpected places. It's about someone who just pulls our heart no matter how difficult or seemingly impossible it can be. The heart wants what the heart wants. It was fun to see human interactions from the perspective of Zhen! But what drew me to the story is Zhen's mindset.
Seemingly doomed from the start, Legend of the White Snake is a book about love and empathy. We love a cute meet cute where one doesn't realize the other is royalty. What follows is a precious book about love in unexpected places. It's about someone who just pulls our heart no matter how difficult or seemingly impossible it can be. The heart wants what the heart wants. It was fun to see human interactions from the perspective of Zhen! But what drew me to the story is Zhen's mindset.
DNF. I can tell there was a lot of love in put into the setting and plot. I am just too old for this type of YA novel. The characters were too young and acted very much their foolish youthful age for me to relate to them or want to experience their lives. I am the wrong age demographic for this. The prose is super straight forward and easy to read, but I just couldn’t care less about Xian. I didn’t finish this but, but I will put it at 2.5 stars rounded to three because 15 year old me would have loved this book.
emotional
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Book Review
Title: The Legend of the White Snake by Sher Lee
Genre: Historical, Folklore, Romance, Queer
Rating: 3.5 Stars
I wasn’t aware of Legend of the White Snake before signing up for the tour, but regular readers of my blog will know I am huge fan of anything to do with Asian mythology and folklore. Some of my favorite books in the genre would be Daughter of the Moon Goddess and Wicked Fox so I was excited to pick this one up. Like Daughter of the Moon Goddess this is still a young adult novel at its heart, but it features all the hallmarks of the genre. For someone looking to break into Asian mythology and folklore especially Chinese dramas then this might be the book for you. I hadn’t read Sher Lee’s other novel, Fake Dates and Mooncakes but it is something I will seriously consider picking up in the future because of how much I enjoyed this one.
Going into the book, I must agree with some other reviewers that the romance does feature insta-love, but in a lot of folklore this is a feature, so I wasn’t too bothered by it. However, there wasn’t much more development in the relationship after it is established. A lot of the relationship issues come from how deeply it is tied to the plot and how little development there is between Zhen and Xian. The stakes are quite high throughout the book, but I didn’t really like the aspect of Zhen hiding his identity from the person he claims to love. However, I do see how this will work for some and not for others and I personally fall somewhere in the middle as there were a lot of things I enjoyed but some I didn’t.
Zhen and Xian do spend a lot of time together throughout the book and we are able to see a lot of their personalities individually as well as a couple. This helped me appreciate the romance more despite the insta-love and it was cute enough that it didn’t distract me too much from the story. One thing I did adore about Legend of the White Snake was the cultural aspects, as this is a retelling of the legend in Chinese folklore. One of the twists is that instead of there being a female snake spirit falling for a young man we have a male spirit falling for the Crown Prince. One thing I will add is that despite there being a lot of inspiration from Chinese culture, Chinese mythology and philosophy it can be a bit confusing if you aren’t familiar with the legend being told so I would advise looking that up before beginning the book.
Overall, the characters and the relationship were good with some development, but the author could have taken some more time to develop the feelings between the characters and explaining the mythology a little more, so the reader doesn’t have to look up the legend in question. I personally found the author’s world building to have so much potential that was wasted here since the world building was severely lacking in places. That being said, these problems weren’t large enough for it to affect my overall enjoyment of the book, but it did leave me wanting a lot more than what I got in the end.
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
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:
Complicated
adventurous
emotional
fast-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:
Complicated
I obtained an early reader's copy of this through edelweiss so my review is going to be on that and may not fully reflect the final copy.
I thoroughly enjoyed this. I think it has quite a few flaws hence the four stars. Some things happened a little too easily, some parts were a bit corny and some lines were repeated a little too often. Plus the timeline is pretty short so it can be seen to be a bit insta lovey and the relationship does hinge quite a bit on the concept of fate and destiny. Disregarding all of that, I absolutely loved reading this. I'm not familiar with the story of the white snake so I can't comment on how it compares to the original story. I did like the author's note explaining her inspirations and I may check it out at some point since it's a classic Chinese folktale.
Anyway, this made me pretty emotional. I laughed, I cried, I got mad. It was an overall fun read for me. I just really enjoyed the ride and I will for sure get my hands on a physical copy when this releases.
I thoroughly enjoyed this. I think it has quite a few flaws hence the four stars. Some things happened a little too easily, some parts were a bit corny and some lines were repeated a little too often. Plus the timeline is pretty short so it can be seen to be a bit insta lovey and the relationship does hinge quite a bit on the concept of fate and destiny. Disregarding all of that, I absolutely loved reading this. I'm not familiar with the story of the white snake so I can't comment on how it compares to the original story. I did like the author's note explaining her inspirations and I may check it out at some point since it's a classic Chinese folktale.
Anyway, this made me pretty emotional. I laughed, I cried, I got mad. It was an overall fun read for me. I just really enjoyed the ride and I will for sure get my hands on a physical copy when this releases.
a prince and a snake spirit's fate was intertwined that momentous day 7 years prior to the book's main timeline. the prince was having a rare pearl to heal his mother from severe illness, and a white snake swallowed that pearl. the prince had been hunting for snakes since. 7 years later, the oracle prophesied that the antidote can be found at a certain city. the prince went to that mission. lo and behold, the snake he was searching for was closer than he was expected.
this book was a grower. i didn't really sure at the beginning, but it progressively get more interesting as the story went on. at 50% mark, i was hooked. a lot of things i still couldn't completely understand, idk what cultivation is and i dont really get what the extend of the snake spirit's ability. but the main couple dynamics was nice, the plot twist was unpredictable, and the ending was acceptable even though it made me frown a bit. pretty fine for a standalone.
this book was a grower. i didn't really sure at the beginning, but it progressively get more interesting as the story went on. at 50% mark, i was hooked. a lot of things i still couldn't completely understand, idk what cultivation is and i dont really get what the extend of the snake spirit's ability. but the main couple dynamics was nice, the plot twist was unpredictable, and the ending was acceptable even though it made me frown a bit. pretty fine for a standalone.
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Loveable characters:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
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
I’d requested an advanced copy of this book from an interest to read more fantasy novels with elements from Chinese legends, mythology and history – particularly with LGBTQIA+ representation. Plus, the stunning cover art was a great motivator and added bonus!
As a queer retelling of the titular Chinese legend, the interactions between the two protagonists Xian and Zhen took centre stage and their dynamic was delightfully sweet and amusing. Although relying a little bit on instant attraction, the light-hearted moments between the two were incredibly addictive. I found myself wishing for more of those intimate, everyday interactions to deepen their connection and better justify some of their feelings and actions. Especially as the side character banter was just fantastic.
The beginning of the book does start out as more of an introduction to Chinese history and its customs. Whilst I appreciated the clear knowledge and research involved, the information did feel awkwardly shoehorned in at times which detracted from the immersion (e.g. having a character ‘casually’ bring up how food is preserved in the time-period). However, this level of context means it would be suitable as an introduction to danmei and xianxia fiction. The balance of gritty action to more sedate moments also improves as you read further.
If it wasn’t for the sexual content/allusions (although it is a closed-door romance), the narrative style along with the plot, characters and humour would lead me to recommend this to the younger side of YA. I’d suggest this title for fans of Marvellous Light (Freya Marske) or Reforged (Seth Haddon) for their LGBTQIA+ rep, fantasy settings, the relationship development and the balance of serious to light-hearted elements.
Many thanks to Netgalley, Sher Lee and Macmillan Children's Books for providing me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book. This review is available on both Netgalley and Storygraph.
As a queer retelling of the titular Chinese legend, the interactions between the two protagonists Xian and Zhen took centre stage and their dynamic was delightfully sweet and amusing. Although relying a little bit on instant attraction, the light-hearted moments between the two were incredibly addictive. I found myself wishing for more of those intimate, everyday interactions to deepen their connection and better justify some of their feelings and actions. Especially as the side character banter was just fantastic.
The beginning of the book does start out as more of an introduction to Chinese history and its customs. Whilst I appreciated the clear knowledge and research involved, the information did feel awkwardly shoehorned in at times which detracted from the immersion (e.g. having a character ‘casually’ bring up how food is preserved in the time-period). However, this level of context means it would be suitable as an introduction to danmei and xianxia fiction. The balance of gritty action to more sedate moments also improves as you read further.
If it wasn’t for the sexual content/allusions (although it is a closed-door romance), the narrative style along with the plot, characters and humour would lead me to recommend this to the younger side of YA. I’d suggest this title for fans of Marvellous Light (Freya Marske) or Reforged (Seth Haddon) for their LGBTQIA+ rep, fantasy settings, the relationship development and the balance of serious to light-hearted elements.
Many thanks to Netgalley, Sher Lee and Macmillan Children's Books for providing me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book. This review is available on both Netgalley and Storygraph.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Physical abuse, Torture
Moderate: Death, Violence
Minor: Blood, Grief, Sexual harassment