leslie_mg 's review for:

The Night Ends with Fire by K.X. Song

3.0

adventurous tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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This was pretty solid, but not a new favourite. I was excited for another Mulan retelling and a lot of it was very promising. I appreciated the fact that the author changed up the MC’s motivations for going to war, as it made the story a bit more unique. The world and magic system were interesting, and I liked that a lot of the characters were morally grey, as it made it feel a tad more complex. 

I think my main issue with this were the characters. I found lot of the characters to be quite bland and underdeveloped, and I felt like we didn’t actually spend that much time getting to know them. The MC is quite awkward and keeps to herself, so she doesn’t really have that camaraderie with her fellow soldiers that makes the story more well-rounded. While I liked that Meilin knew what she wanted and decided to go after it, I did feel like she made a lot of stupid decisions and had some not-like-other-girls syndrome. For the romance(s) (there’s a love triangle), I didn’t feel like we saw them spend THAT much time together and explore their connection, so it felt like it came a bit out of left field when there was a love confession. 

I also found the writing wasn’t quite to my taste. There was quite a bit of telling instead of showing and I found that the pacing felt off at some points - some things were very repetitive (especially the kidnapping scenes), but then some important scenes felt rushed, and there were also time jumps that made things feel kind of choppy. 

Overall, not a bad time and the promise was interesting, but it wasn’t totally for me. I would also say this much more YA than adult, so keep that in mind!