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A review by kaypat23
Saga Crónicas Lunares by Marissa Meyer
4.0
I'm currently on a mission searching for problematic authors and unfortunately, Merissa Meyer has made the list. https://problematicauthors101.tumblr.com/tagged/marissa-meyer
It's kind of sad that so many authors that I loved as a teen ended up writing things that are actually quite harmful on second or third reading. I will be re-reading this soon to see if I spot anymore of these harmful tropes but for now:
There were some problematic elements that I cannot ignore in the first novel such as:
1. Amalgamation of Asian traits and cultural heritage. Prince Kaito is coded Japanese but the entire Asian city is just a mess of what white culture calls "Asian" (eg: Buddha statues, wonton, chopsticks, noodles etc.). The book takes place in New Beijing but the characters use Korean honorifics. What language are they even speaking in? Did the author do her research before mashing all the Asian traits together? Cinder at times is racially ambiguous and I think that is another mistake people make when they claim Cinder is about an Asian protagonist because it was never confirmed. Just because she lives in New Beijing does not mean that she is Asian. I think it is a little unrealistic and messy upon second reading.
It's kind of sad that so many authors that I loved as a teen ended up writing things that are actually quite harmful on second or third reading. I will be re-reading this soon to see if I spot anymore of these harmful tropes but for now:
There were some problematic elements that I cannot ignore in the first novel such as:
1. Amalgamation of Asian traits and cultural heritage. Prince Kaito is coded Japanese but the entire Asian city is just a mess of what white culture calls "Asian" (eg: Buddha statues, wonton, chopsticks, noodles etc.). The book takes place in New Beijing but the characters use Korean honorifics. What language are they even speaking in? Did the author do her research before mashing all the Asian traits together? Cinder at times is racially ambiguous and I think that is another mistake people make when they claim Cinder is about an Asian protagonist because it was never confirmed. Just because she lives in New Beijing does not mean that she is Asian. I think it is a little unrealistic and messy upon second reading.