A review by ryxuu
A Song to Drown Rivers by Ann Liang

emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.0

I enjoyed the premise of the book as well as a lot of the syntax and imagery; the author paints many beautiful pictures with her words throughout. I read this pretty quickly, finding myself compelled to keep reading as the story unfolded, curious to know what would happen next. I read the last third of the book in a frenzy, genuinely shocked by moments as they unfolded. Ultimately, though, I think the book covers far too much time for it's own good, leaving the pacing to feel quite rushed and the relationships underdeveloped. I think this easily could've been a duology; the first covering xishi's training and developing her relationship with fanli, and the second covering her and zhengdan's time in the wu kingdom. 

it's hard for me to be invested in xishi and fanli's relationship when they spend so little time together; it's one thing for her to have a crush on him and want to get back home so their relationship can grow, but she talks about him like they've been in love for decades and her desperation to get back to him feels incredibly undeserved. it doesn't help that in the time that they are together, he spends all of it being stubbornly stoic and unfeeling (i understand he's experiencing inner turmoil with this, but the point still stands).


i also don't think the book did a good enough job of making me feel conflicted about fuchai, because i was very endeared by him quite quickly when all he ever asked of xishi was her time and company. he's evil in some ways but it rarely feels like he relishes in that evil, moreso that he just does what has been asked of him by his birthright and father's looming shadow, and has simply grown indifferent to a violence he's known his entire life. he reads as a boy of circumstance rather than a genuinely tyrannical king, and so, I found myself hoping that xishi would soften towards him sooner, despite her understandable hatred for what she thinks he is/what he represents. it's also wild to me that she's able to kill him so easily and quickly? the most physically harm she'd ever personally caused another person was throwing that rock at the soldier in the beginning, so to think that she could simply stab this man who she'd grown to not completely hate through the heart within seconds of him handing her his sword felt very fast and very strange.


I really didn't like losing both zhengdan and xishi in the way that we did. it would've been so much more impactful had zhengdan killed general ma in that arena and been stricken down with her head held high as opposed to letting him frame her like that. and having xishi be literally tossed into into the river after all she'd achieved felt a bit like a slap in the face. i understand the historical context and truths that exist in their deaths but i'm very much of the mind that fictional stories need not be bound by the truths of our own realities. if these women must die, why not allow them a noble death, a death by their own hands, by their own choices? it's also interesting that fanli doesn't choose to meet xishi in the afterlife almost immediately, considering how deeply in love they both claimed to be. to think that she just sat in the underworld waiting for him when he could've been there instantly makes her death feel even more...sad? i'm not saying tragedy can't be just as good as a happy ending, i'm not even saying i wanted a happy ending, i just think the deaths of our two female leads could have been handled with far more agency than they were given.
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