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A review by sethxo
Legend of the White Snake by Sher Lee
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Disclaimer: About halfway through this book, I decided to look up the original legend. This surprisingly did not backfire on me, as I was already pretty confident about who the antagonist of the story was, and the fact that the book absolutely pivots from the original tale at about the halfway point, to my delight.
The story starts off setting up the stakes well, with a slower build that eventually led into everything unfolding fairly quickly, but it never felt particularly fast-paced to me, though some may disagree with that assessment. It also does not shy away from descriptions of snakes, so if the title didn’t warn you off...there are definitely snakes in this. I like snakes, so that was fine, even when the description of one snake didn’t quite match up with any snakes I knew of. However, given this takes place in ancient China, I wasn’t too fussed about it.
Xian and Zhen are both delightful characters. Xian’s love for his mother is very touching, and I was actively rooting for him to succeed in saving her life. His relationship with his father was also nice, which was refreshing to see.
Honestly, I liked just about every character bar a few, and even ones I’d had issues with earlier on I ended up softening towards (again, bar a few). I quickly decided Qing deserved everything in life, and we had the fun fact in common of missing a gallbladder! I would also fight to the death to protect Zhaoye. As a horse person, I deem him best boy, and while he didn’t have that much page-time, he was a delight to read about every time he showed up.
The relationship between Xian and Zhen was likeable and flowed at a nice pace. Xian was polite and respectful (we love consent!), and seeing Zhen being the one to make those decisions was lovely. Their discussions were always nice to read, with one in particular causing me to possibly flail about like a small child.
Xian had some wonderful character growth over the course of the story. Honestly, character growth almost seemed to be an underlying theme throughout it, and I loved every single one of those moments.
The climax, while overall quickly resolved, was solid and answered a lot of questions, and the ending had me beaming. I enjoyed this book very much.
The story starts off setting up the stakes well, with a slower build that eventually led into everything unfolding fairly quickly, but it never felt particularly fast-paced to me, though some may disagree with that assessment. It also does not shy away from descriptions of snakes, so if the title didn’t warn you off...there are definitely snakes in this. I like snakes, so that was fine, even when the description of one snake didn’t quite match up with any snakes I knew of. However, given this takes place in ancient China, I wasn’t too fussed about it.
Xian and Zhen are both delightful characters. Xian’s love for his mother is very touching, and I was actively rooting for him to succeed in saving her life. His relationship with his father was also nice, which was refreshing to see.
Honestly, I liked just about every character bar a few, and even ones I’d had issues with earlier on I ended up softening towards (again, bar a few). I quickly decided Qing deserved everything in life, and we had the fun fact in common of missing a gallbladder! I would also fight to the death to protect Zhaoye. As a horse person, I deem him best boy, and while he didn’t have that much page-time, he was a delight to read about every time he showed up.
The relationship between Xian and Zhen was likeable and flowed at a nice pace. Xian was polite and respectful (we love consent!), and seeing Zhen being the one to make those decisions was lovely. Their discussions were always nice to read, with one in particular causing me to possibly flail about like a small child.
Xian had some wonderful character growth over the course of the story. Honestly, character growth almost seemed to be an underlying theme throughout it, and I loved every single one of those moments.
The climax, while overall quickly resolved, was solid and answered a lot of questions, and the ending had me beaming. I enjoyed this book very much.