A review by sarah984
Siren Queen by Nghi Vo

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

3.0

I love Nghi Vo's novellas (When The Tiger Came Down The Mountain is one of my favourite books) but this book did not work for me. I'm not surprised to find in the author's note that chronologically this is their first novel because it really does feel like a debut. There is not enough story to sustain a full length novel, but somehow the book still feels long. The writing style is also extremely fanficcy (the "all [noun] and [noun]" physical descriptors, the characters making parenthetical interjections throughout for no reason) and the romances are silly and over the top. None of the prominent characters are that interesting, and the book does that annoying thing from historical fiction where the character lays out the hardships of a certain setting and then goes, "but not me though!" as if they're better than all the real people who went through those situations.

I will say though that the world was very interesting (even if we didn't get to see a lot of it) and the way the magic was used to emphasize real world issues was mostly well done.
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