A review by zeph1337
Jade Legacy by Fonda Lee

dark emotional 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

5.0

Unfortunately I'm gonna have to start this review by saying. This was a tiny bit of a letdown. 

Then afterwards I have to immediately remedy that bit by saying "compared to my last time reading this book."

When I initially finished Jade Legacy I was completely over the moon about it. It was one of the first times where I really binged a book extremely hard and just couldn't put it away. And I was like "this might have the best book ever!"

I still thought the book was excellent on my reread and the audiobook narration continues to be top tier. But I can confidently say that I liked Jade War more by quite a bit. Especially the emotional bits in that one hit way harder for me. 

Jade Legacy is kind of a rollercoaster. You have so many time jumps and so much plot crammed into this book and I feel like the moments where it needs to slow down don't hit as hard as a result. Also obviously knowing where everything was going did not help this sort of storytelling.

I still think the resolution of this series is beautifully done though and especially as a Trilogy this series is ranking very highly for me. Just not among my absolute favorite series anymore. 

I made a rule for my rereads that I wouldn't change rating unless it's a wildly different experience (at least a full star) and I am gonna stick to it here. But realistically this time I would have been more like 4.5 for me.