libwithattitude 's review for:

The Beast Player by Nahoko Uehashi

3.0

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I wanted to love this book and I did enjoy it - magical beasts and a female central character - but unfortunately one thing spoilt my enjoyment. It seemed like every few pages a character was in tears, for the vast majority of time a female character, I can only recall one incidence of a male character being unable to prevent a tear from falling. Now I am fully aware of it being a good thing to let your emotions out this way but the fact that it was used so prolifically as a way to show the empathy and sensitivity of female characters was jarring and won’t give the right impression to middle grade readers in my opinion. Disappointing.