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A review by daisyandherbooks
Phoenix Extravagant by Yoon Ha Lee
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
🐉 Phoenix Extravagant by Yoon Ha Lee ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️🐉
Jebi a painter, finds themselves jobless and has to turn to their people’s enemy - the Razanei - who occupied their country, for work. Jebi works for the government by painting mystical sigils on the automaton soldiers masks which animate them. Jebi also has to help fix the dragon automaton Arazi for the leaders. But Jebi uncovers the horror of what the Razeni government has done, and plans to help the dragon - a pacifist - to escape.
What I liked:
✨Jebi is non binary
✨ There is a queer romance
✨World was super interesting
✨Arazi the talking dragon was my FAVE!!
✨The integration of art, war, rebellion and politics merged into one made the plot really interesting and you wanted to know what happened next.
✨Set up nicely for the next book in the series
✨Poetic writing style
What I disliked:
✨At the beginning there was lots of world building, and so it confused me at first - but is the same with any epic fantasy book (especially the first in the series)
✨Lots of characters were introduced at once, and was difficult to keep track of them.
Overall I’m really excited to see what happens in the next book! This story was really interesting and I’d reccomend to anyone who likes Leigh bardugo or books about technology, with a hint of rebellion on the side!
Jebi a painter, finds themselves jobless and has to turn to their people’s enemy - the Razanei - who occupied their country, for work. Jebi works for the government by painting mystical sigils on the automaton soldiers masks which animate them. Jebi also has to help fix the dragon automaton Arazi for the leaders. But Jebi uncovers the horror of what the Razeni government has done, and plans to help the dragon - a pacifist - to escape.
What I liked:
✨Jebi is non binary
✨ There is a queer romance
✨World was super interesting
✨Arazi the talking dragon was my FAVE!!
✨The integration of art, war, rebellion and politics merged into one made the plot really interesting and you wanted to know what happened next.
✨Set up nicely for the next book in the series
✨Poetic writing style
What I disliked:
✨At the beginning there was lots of world building, and so it confused me at first - but is the same with any epic fantasy book (especially the first in the series)
✨Lots of characters were introduced at once, and was difficult to keep track of them.
Overall I’m really excited to see what happens in the next book! This story was really interesting and I’d reccomend to anyone who likes Leigh bardugo or books about technology, with a hint of rebellion on the side!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Blood, Death, Murder, Violence, and War