A review by mitskacir
Four Treasures of the Sky by Jenny Tinghui Zhang

5.0

The writing in this book was absolutely beautiful. The sentences themselves were full of imagery and flowed with the story, but never sacrificed the story line or characters for the sake of poetry. The author ties together the past, present, and mythical narratives to create a fluid, introspective, and perceptive character. I loved the main character's practice of calligraphy and how she uses it to understand herself and others around her (especially the way she writes the name "Swallow" and how it changes throughout her life). This book is brutal in many many ways, but the author and the characters fill it with beauty.