A review by trash_candra
Phoenix Extravagant by Yoon Ha Lee

3.0

The book was definitely fun, but the world-building just wasn't good enough to support the moving parts of the story. The political tension was well done and destroying art to fuel magic was thematically appropriate, but the magic system and technology were not up to the same standard. I honestly can't say much about the magic system besides "it's done through using differently colored pigments from crushing art." because it felt like it just happened. There was a Chekov's gun get-introduced-and-used-later aspect to it but it didn't seem to have limits or rules that governed it.

There were also multiple times where I was confused whether something was literal or not because fantastic elements were just sprinkled into the world and didn't get any explanation and didn't ever feel like they were actually a part of a living, breathing world and were just like accessories to spruce up the setting.