A review by kylek
The Sword of Kaigen by M.L. Wang

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Her body was angled slightly to hide the sword at her hip, giving the appearance of a diminutive housewife. In it's own way, that was better cover than any shadow.

I had been expecting the first half of this to be very boring and just not good because of how people talk about it, but I did not find it boring at all, nor was it bad. Was it slow? I guess. It's the type of slow that you'll find in any epic fantasy/sci-fi. It took like 35% to set up the world and characters, which to me was pretty standard for epics.

With that said this is a very tough one to read in one go because it's so heavy. It was just a lot and for a long time. I think I continuously cried for a solid 30-35% of this book. It just broke my heart over and over again. This book deals with very heavy themes, like TRIGGER WARNINGS
marital rape, rape, suicide, PPD, miscarriage, death, multiple types of abuse. I'm probably missing more. Some of these were on page and graphic, like the deaths
and in my opinion, I thought they were handled well.

I don't want to say much more than this, just that after this and Blood Over Bright Haven, ML Wang is now an autobuy author.
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