Reviews

Phoenix Extravagant by Yoon Ha Lee

aatiii's review against another edition

3.0

For a book with a dragon, quite dull.

In fact the dragon is incidental to a story about colonialism—like the dessert after dinner. The romance felt forced.

trash_candra's review against another edition

3.0

The book was definitely fun, but the world-building just wasn't good enough to support the moving parts of the story. The political tension was well done and destroying art to fuel magic was thematically appropriate, but the magic system and technology were not up to the same standard. I honestly can't say much about the magic system besides "it's done through using differently colored pigments from crushing art." because it felt like it just happened. There was a Chekov's gun get-introduced-and-used-later aspect to it but it didn't seem to have limits or rules that governed it.

There were also multiple times where I was confused whether something was literal or not because fantastic elements were just sprinkled into the world and didn't get any explanation and didn't ever feel like they were actually a part of a living, breathing world and were just like accessories to spruce up the setting.

vitoxiii's review against another edition

mysterious medium-paced

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

3.25

cosmic_cozy's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious 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? N/A

4.25

dododenise's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

I really thought this book would get to me but sadly it never quite got there. The world building is amazing with a really intriguing magic system. I loved that the main character was nonbinary and used they/them pronouns. Everything was set up for this to blow me away. 
Where it fell flat for me were the characters and the plot. The story starts quite cosy, which was unexpected but I liked. But then the world building expanded and I saw the possibilities of a big scale plot. The story gave me hints of that, but then immediately retreated again. Most of the story stayed pretty slow paced until there were weirdly short action scenes. That change of pace was disorienting and pulled me out. 
None of the characters and their relationships were particularly interesting either. None of them grew close to my heart and their arcs weren’t enticing either.
This ended up being a great concept with an execution that fell flat for me. 

princearthurs's review against another edition

adventurous fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

excavatinglizard's review against another edition

medium-paced

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

3.0

I loved ninefox gambit and really wanted to like this, but while the discussions of imperialism, art and rebellion interested me, as well as the magic system, I found all of the characters so incredibly boring. Jebi irritated me at the best of times, and while I did like Vei I felt we didn’t truly get enough insight into her. The pacing was also a bit of a mess. Fine book, but not one I’d read again. 

kmowery's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

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

2.75

Far more YA than I expected.

alana_readsbooks's review against another edition

It was going to end up a 3 and I just couldn’t be bothered reading the rest 

leonidskies's review against another edition

adventurous fast-paced

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

3.0

I wish I could say I really loved this book (I was so excited to read something with a nonbinary main character!), but unfortunately I didn't. The premise was really strong, and I liked the characters quite a lot, but the book as it was felt distinctly under-edited. The plot was unsubtle and ended with a few unsatisfying and unresolved plot points, and the pacing felt strange. I liked the setting and adored the themes and relationship arcs, but it absolutely could have done with another 50-100 pages to flesh out what it was going for. The magic system and world building was interesting, and the prose was strong enough to keep me all the way to the end, but I couldn't help but want more.