Reviews - Legend of the White Snake

596 reviews for:

Legend of the White Snake

Sher Lee

3.94 AVERAGE

sethxo's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous emotional medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Disclaimer: About halfway through this book, I decided to look up the original legend. This surprisingly did not backfire on me, as I was already pretty confident about who the antagonist of the story was, and the fact that the book absolutely pivots from the original tale at about the halfway point, to my delight.

The story starts off setting up the stakes well, with a slower build that eventually led into everything unfolding fairly quickly, but it never felt particularly fast-paced to me, though some may disagree with that assessment. It also does not shy away from descriptions of snakes, so if the title didn’t warn you off...there are definitely snakes in this. I like snakes, so that was fine, even when the description of one snake didn’t quite match up with any snakes I knew of. However, given this takes place in ancient China, I wasn’t too fussed about it.

Xian and Zhen are both delightful characters. Xian’s love for his mother is very touching, and I was actively rooting for him to succeed in saving her life. His relationship with his father was also nice, which was refreshing to see.

Honestly, I liked just about every character bar a few, and even ones I’d had issues with earlier on I ended up softening towards (again, bar a few). I quickly decided Qing deserved everything in life, and we had the fun fact in common of missing a gallbladder! I would also fight to the death to protect Zhaoye. As a horse person, I deem him best boy, and while he didn’t have that much page-time, he was a delight to read about every time he showed up.

The relationship between Xian and Zhen was likeable and flowed at a nice pace. Xian was polite and respectful (we love consent!), and seeing Zhen being the one to make those decisions was lovely. Their discussions were always nice to read, with one in particular causing me to possibly flail about like a small child.

Xian had some wonderful character growth over the course of the story. Honestly, character growth almost seemed to be an underlying theme throughout it, and I loved every single one of those moments.

The climax, while overall quickly resolved, was solid and answered a lot of questions, and the ending had me beaming. I enjoyed this book very much.

purrtypan's review

4.0

adventurous emotional funny hopeful lighthearted relaxing 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

A very easy to digest and quick read that pulls at the heart strings and leaves you rooting for the characters. Also some unexpected plot twists!

im_guppie's review

4.0

emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Loveable characters: Yes

Content Warnings

miderfly's review

5.0

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

hello_lovely13's review against another edition

3.75

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: No

I was surprised how much I enjoyed this. I basically read the entire second half of the book in one sitting. The last 15% made me cry. I like the story beats and how things weren’t dwelled on for too long, which would have made the reading experience more anxious for me. Zhen and Xian’s relationship can come off a bit like the insta-love trope, but I think that their chemistry carries it, and I like their dynamic. I personally preferred being in Zhen’s perspective over Xian’s, but I also don’t think that I would have liked his character as much if we didn’t also read from his perspective. Overall, I do like how their romance played out.

Zhen’s identity as an animal spirit being revealed at the halfway point was a good decision because it limited how much of their relationship was founded on lies. The conflict between the two afterwards, and then their eventual reconciliation due to Zhen sacrificing himself (first for Xian, then Xian’s mother (I still can’t believe he actually DIED, but I’m glad he came back for a happy ending), as well as them working together to overcome Wang and Fa Hai’s plots) was very well done.

I was very engaged and invested once the two met each other. Zhen’s sister, Qing, was also a great addition, and the same goes with Xian’s bodyguard, Feng. I figured that the final conflict would play out similarly to how it did, but I still wasn’t expecting part of the twist.

I knew Wang would come back into play, and I also knew that Fa Hai was suspicious and was definitely plotting, but I had no idea that Fa Hai and the turtle spirit, Hei Xing, would be the same person plotting against Zhen to get the pearl back.

Kudos! I also liked that they brought Deng, the courtesan, back because it made him a more three dimensional character and made the story less fragmented by extending his presence on the page past

his punishment and Zhen’s identity reveal

. I was surprised at the sexual content since this is YA, but it is pretty fade-to-black, so it can pass as an older YA book that adults would also enjoy. This was so bingeable and enjoyable, including all of the different types of relationship dynamics. It maybe wasn’t the deepest or most original (I mean, it’s literally a retelling, but relationship/romance-wise as well), but it was definitely fun, and I want my own copy so that I can reread it.

Content Warnings