A review by wchereads
A Palace Near the Wind by Ai Jiang

3.0

Thank you to Ai Jiang for providing an e-arc for review purpose! This book releases on April 15, 2025.

I struggled to get into it for the majority of the book but I did enjoy it when I understood what was going on.

Some of the main issues for me are

1. following along a protagonist who knows absolutely nothing about what's going on and being simply led from places to places (something the protagonist herself also dislikes) for the majority of the book
2. for the length of a novella, this book tried a bit to be too much. For example, the horror elements seemed out of place (even if I adore the author's horror work)
3. going back to the length: the time the protagonist spent
   bumping around the Palace like a headless fly
   simply dragged on and I wish we spent more time learning about the setting of the world instead, since without more introductions of/information about the various regions and peoples of the land, a lot of the dynamics make no sense
4. I read a review that said the "Environmentalism elements bordered on white veganism" (from @gigireadswithkiki ) before I read the book and I was confused by what they meant (and what white veganism even was)... and then I started reading it. I get it now. Oof. Though this may not be as big of an issue had I got to know Feng (and the rest of the world) better I think

I am still looking forward to the next in the duology.