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challenging
dark
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This is not a book I would have picked up myself, but I am glad a friend encouraged me to read it. A story about colonialism and loyalty to an identity that doesn’t necessarily fit told with a layer of fantasy. I read this book as I am teaching the historic setting (British imperialism and the Opium Wars) to high schoolers, and I found the ways in which Kuang wrote about the experience through fantasy and character to be quite helpful for finding language to teach the subject. That being said, I felt it dragged at parts and the world building could be too dense at parts. I came to dislike the footnotes because they read more as an unnecessary academic flex to reveal the credentials of the author rather than an organic part of the story.