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currerbell47 's review for:
Four Treasures of the Sky
by Jenny Tinghui Zhang
I was so torn about what to rate this book, but my visceral reaction after finishing was that I hated it so I’m going with 2 stars.
The writing itself doesn’t deserve 2 stars. It’s beautifully written. I really cared for Daiyu and I loved the reoccurring spirit of her namesake that visits her.
However, it’s brutal to read a story that is so devoid of any joy or hope. The time period is dark with so much anti-Chinese racism and violence in the West. That’s where the fiction of historical fiction comes in though. I need a little kernel of hope to hold onto somewhere or it’s just torture as a reader.
Also, it really bugged me in the end that no one discovered Daiyu was a girl and not Jacob. How did she share a jail cell with 4 men for days using a bucket toilet and no one figured it out?!
The writing itself doesn’t deserve 2 stars. It’s beautifully written. I really cared for Daiyu and I loved the reoccurring spirit of her namesake that visits her.
However, it’s brutal to read a story that is so devoid of any joy or hope. The time period is dark with so much anti-Chinese racism and violence in the West. That’s where the fiction of historical fiction comes in though. I need a little kernel of hope to hold onto somewhere or it’s just torture as a reader.
Also, it really bugged me in the end that no one discovered Daiyu was a girl and not Jacob. How did she share a jail cell with 4 men for days using a bucket toilet and no one figured it out?!