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A review by catbag
The Shadow of Kyoshi by F.C. Yee
4.0
The Shadow of Kyoshi ✵ F.C. Yee
“‘No Avatar is ever the same person. You and the flame change with every moment, every generation. You are one flame, and you are many.’”
I really enjoyed The Shadow of Kyoshi and would highly recommend this series to any fan of Avatar: The Last Airbender. This one had less of a definitive climax than The Rise of Kyoshi and its themes were much more subtle, but I loved where Yee decided to take the series.
“It took so long for the threads of mistakes and monstrous deeds to stop weaving into the future, to just tie themselves off and end. Maybe they never ended.”
While the first book in this series was about the drama surrounding Kyoshi’s becoming the Avatar, this book was much more about her coming into her own. It explored more of what it means to be the Avatar and included two past reincarnations. I absolutely adored their inclusion, as their appearances centered around what the true heart of the book was. The Shadow of Kyoshi was about Kyoshi learning that everyone else, including past Avatars, made their own mistakes and did things their own way. It was about needing to learn to forgive and to overcome expectations in order to truly grow and come into her own. Kyoshi had to come to the realization that everything around her went deeper than she had initially suspected and with that we got an expansion of canon that I very much enjoyed learning about.
“‘I have to make peace with my own choices, just like everyone else.’”
The only drawback I found was the fact that some of the themes weren’t explored and connected further. The climax with Yun in particular didn’t feel like it was emotionally fleshed out enough. Kyoshi and Yun were set up to be foils, and both struggled to come to terms with their pasts. Kyoshi seeing Yun fail to do so felt like it should’ve had more of an emotional impact on her than it did. The secondary and more emotional climax with a past reincarnation was great too, but the two plots weren’t really given the time to tie together like I felt they could've been. Despite that, The Shadow of Kyoshi was still a very enjoyable and exciting book. If there were another hundred pages or so it could have been even better, but I don’t really think it needed any more than it had to be good and I still loved this installment.
I love this series because it doesn’t try to be anything it isn’t. Everything feels faithful to the original canon, but it explores themes like honor and questions what it means to be an Avatar. Even though it’s written with a very direct approach and with a younger audience clearly in mind, like the original show, I think Yee does a fantastic job not shying away from important themes. Making mistakes and growing are a huge part of both the show and these novels and I’m just so happy these books exist in the way that they do.
Overall I really enjoyed The Kyoshi Novels. Both books could’ve been longer to explore some themes more, but I’m happy with what I got. Yee said gay rights and expansion of canon so I say I will support these books until my last dying breath
“‘No Avatar is ever the same person. You and the flame change with every moment, every generation. You are one flame, and you are many.’”
I really enjoyed The Shadow of Kyoshi and would highly recommend this series to any fan of Avatar: The Last Airbender. This one had less of a definitive climax than The Rise of Kyoshi and its themes were much more subtle, but I loved where Yee decided to take the series.
“It took so long for the threads of mistakes and monstrous deeds to stop weaving into the future, to just tie themselves off and end. Maybe they never ended.”
While the first book in this series was about the drama surrounding Kyoshi’s becoming the Avatar, this book was much more about her coming into her own. It explored more of what it means to be the Avatar and included two past reincarnations. I absolutely adored their inclusion, as their appearances centered around what the true heart of the book was. The Shadow of Kyoshi was about Kyoshi learning that everyone else, including past Avatars, made their own mistakes and did things their own way. It was about needing to learn to forgive and to overcome expectations in order to truly grow and come into her own. Kyoshi had to come to the realization that everything around her went deeper than she had initially suspected and with that we got an expansion of canon that I very much enjoyed learning about.
“‘I have to make peace with my own choices, just like everyone else.’”
The only drawback I found was the fact that some of the themes weren’t explored and connected further. The climax with Yun in particular didn’t feel like it was emotionally fleshed out enough. Kyoshi and Yun were set up to be foils, and both struggled to come to terms with their pasts. Kyoshi seeing Yun fail to do so felt like it should’ve had more of an emotional impact on her than it did. The secondary and more emotional climax with a past reincarnation was great too, but the two plots weren’t really given the time to tie together like I felt they could've been. Despite that, The Shadow of Kyoshi was still a very enjoyable and exciting book. If there were another hundred pages or so it could have been even better, but I don’t really think it needed any more than it had to be good and I still loved this installment.
I love this series because it doesn’t try to be anything it isn’t. Everything feels faithful to the original canon, but it explores themes like honor and questions what it means to be an Avatar. Even though it’s written with a very direct approach and with a younger audience clearly in mind, like the original show, I think Yee does a fantastic job not shying away from important themes. Making mistakes and growing are a huge part of both the show and these novels and I’m just so happy these books exist in the way that they do.
Overall I really enjoyed The Kyoshi Novels. Both books could’ve been longer to explore some themes more, but I’m happy with what I got. Yee said gay rights and expansion of canon so I say I will support these books until my last dying breath