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jennifersiyuanzhou 's review for:
The Emperor and the Endless Palace
by Justinian Huang
idk what did i just read lmao, its not that it was weird, that's not the point. the setup is actually extremely up my alley, i like these kinda weird, folkloric, magical stories and istg this soulmate through reincarnation is probably my FAVORITE trope ever
the writing was not my cup of tea....like i can excuse the old timey talk (tho yes i agree the sex scenes were trying a bit too hard to be lyrical, a little unnecessary and i was def making faces at the book) but the modern conversations were so....unnatural. river & his sister garden dont talk like normal people, calvin i actually really like somehow also does not talk like a normal person. also wtf is the role of calvin, he doesnt exist in the previous 2 reincarnations??? he's just??? in love with river because....???
the ending was...not an ending??? i guess it was trying to say something about how river is done with this reincarnation stuff, joey cannot escape from winston and river is done with all of it but it wasn't super clear. even though its not a super long book, towards the end it got a little repetetive river was just so so confused all the time, dong xuan was stupid through and through and i still dont really know whats going on in his situation like the political intrigue was pretty bad, he sichuan was also just confusd confused confused (but there was magic in that storyline so it was more intriguing).
anyway, great premise, not fleshed out but interesting and compelling characters, execution was just....not it....and im very sad about it. but i still had fun reading it, it was quick and nice to just pick up randomly on vacation.
the writing was not my cup of tea....like i can excuse the old timey talk (tho yes i agree the sex scenes were trying a bit too hard to be lyrical, a little unnecessary and i was def making faces at the book) but the modern conversations were so....unnatural. river & his sister garden dont talk like normal people, calvin i actually really like somehow also does not talk like a normal person. also wtf is the role of calvin, he doesnt exist in the previous 2 reincarnations??? he's just??? in love with river because....???
the ending was...not an ending??? i guess it was trying to say something about how river is done with this reincarnation stuff, joey cannot escape from winston and river is done with all of it but it wasn't super clear. even though its not a super long book, towards the end it got a little repetetive river was just so so confused all the time, dong xuan was stupid through and through and i still dont really know whats going on in his situation like the political intrigue was pretty bad, he sichuan was also just confusd confused confused (but there was magic in that storyline so it was more intriguing).
anyway, great premise, not fleshed out but interesting and compelling characters, execution was just....not it....and im very sad about it. but i still had fun reading it, it was quick and nice to just pick up randomly on vacation.