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A review by readingal07
Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Almost DNF'd at around 50% - I continued as I was reading this for a book club... Very glad to be finished and able to move on
Characters
The writing very much held the characters at bay. We never got to know any of the characters deeper than surface level, even our MC was only skin deep.
Xingyin - While I enjoyed Xingyin strong sense of her own morals and values, I was so often frustrated with the writing style that the frustration transferred to our main character. I felt like she was very oblivious to very obvious things and, especially near the beginning, I found her to be melodramatic. Another thing to mention was that things often just happened to Xingyin with no other reason than she was our MC. She would easily survive in situations just so the plot could progress. She was extremely oblivious to certain things that were common sense, however, when the plot called for it she was suddenly a master mind with unimaginable insight and wisdom.
Liwei - I liked Liwei quite a bit. I enjoyed the banter he shared with Xingyin and I found him to be genuine and authentic all the way through. He's a human and he acted like it. If anything, I found him to be a bit much at times, however, I find I didn't mind it too much.
Wenzhi - I was very much neutral towards Wenzhi for a majority of the book. In part three, my love for him very much rose and then came back down once again. But as with all the other characters, he was very surface deep and we didn't get to explore him thoroughly.
Atmosphere
I loved the atmosphere of the book. It was very surreal and elegant. I found myself picturing very bright colours and pastels... Despite the writing, I was still able to envision the settings and found them to be beautiful.
The descriptions of surroundings was very thoroughly described, if a little too much at times. But it did invoke a lot of imagery which set the scene quite beautifully.
Writing
The writing did NOT sit well with me. I did not enjoy the writing style at all and spent a lot of the time irritated or frustrated with how things were explained. So often I found things to be very obvious and plain and yet they were explained.
Very clear and obvious things were "revealed" as if they were meant to be a surprise. We would spend pages (sometimes several chapters) exploring and going through an event only for it to be summed up and explained as if we hadn't been along for the journey the whole time.
And while so many extremely obvious things were spelled out for us, other things were purely given to us through the internal monologue. Stuff would happen and the internal monologue would open up these questions which I never would have asked and then those questions would turn out to be the truth behind the matter. I felt like certain could have been laid out for us instead of outright spelled out.
Plot
I found the pacing to be odd. While I was reading, I found the book hard to put down, yet when I did put it down, it was nearly impossible to pick back up. I was not invested enough in the characters to care much about the story. Along with the situation of hating the writing, I was often so frustrated that I couldn't fully dive into the story.
However, I didn't mind the adventures we went on. They were interesting, even if the intrigue was spelled out for us. I appreciated that the author never spent more time on something than she deemed necessary and skipped over needless information (even if I was hungry for the drama those scenes would have brought.)
Characters
The writing very much held the characters at bay. We never got to know any of the characters deeper than surface level, even our MC was only skin deep.
Xingyin - While I enjoyed Xingyin strong sense of her own morals and values, I was so often frustrated with the writing style that the frustration transferred to our main character. I felt like she was very oblivious to very obvious things and, especially near the beginning, I found her to be melodramatic. Another thing to mention was that things often just happened to Xingyin with no other reason than she was our MC. She would easily survive in situations just so the plot could progress. She was extremely oblivious to certain things that were common sense, however, when the plot called for it she was suddenly a master mind with unimaginable insight and wisdom.
Liwei - I liked Liwei quite a bit. I enjoyed the banter he shared with Xingyin and I found him to be genuine and authentic all the way through. He's a human and he acted like it. If anything, I found him to be a bit much at times, however, I find I didn't mind it too much.
Wenzhi - I was very much neutral towards Wenzhi for a majority of the book. In part three, my love for him very much rose and then came back down once again. But as with all the other characters, he was very surface deep and we didn't get to explore him thoroughly.
Atmosphere
I loved the atmosphere of the book. It was very surreal and elegant. I found myself picturing very bright colours and pastels... Despite the writing, I was still able to envision the settings and found them to be beautiful.
The descriptions of surroundings was very thoroughly described, if a little too much at times. But it did invoke a lot of imagery which set the scene quite beautifully.
Writing
The writing did NOT sit well with me. I did not enjoy the writing style at all and spent a lot of the time irritated or frustrated with how things were explained. So often I found things to be very obvious and plain and yet they were explained.
Very clear and obvious things were "revealed" as if they were meant to be a surprise. We would spend pages (sometimes several chapters) exploring and going through an event only for it to be summed up and explained as if we hadn't been along for the journey the whole time.
And while so many extremely obvious things were spelled out for us, other things were purely given to us through the internal monologue. Stuff would happen and the internal monologue would open up these questions which I never would have asked and then those questions would turn out to be the truth behind the matter. I felt like certain could have been laid out for us instead of outright spelled out.
Plot
I found the pacing to be odd. While I was reading, I found the book hard to put down, yet when I did put it down, it was nearly impossible to pick back up. I was not invested enough in the characters to care much about the story. Along with the situation of hating the writing, I was often so frustrated that I couldn't fully dive into the story.
However, I didn't mind the adventures we went on. They were interesting, even if the intrigue was spelled out for us. I appreciated that the author never spent more time on something than she deemed necessary and skipped over needless information (even if I was hungry for the drama those scenes would have brought.)