A review by maple_dove
Jade Fire Gold by June CL Tan

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Hmmmm....

I really liked this book but this book overall--wasn't for me.  After reading the sypnosis, I figured from the start it wouldn't become one of my favorites.  However, I still wanted to read it. 😊

I Liked:
  • The messiness of the main characters
  • Tai Shun (I just do)
  • How the Obsidian Sword and the White Jade sword turned out to be one-and-the-same.  It's like how good and evil aren't exactly two separate things
  • The slowwww burn
    (Even at the end!  How Ahn was like, "I need time to think about it"!)

There was something that concerned me.

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“Men are simple,”  she tells me in a conspiratorial tone after the waiter leaves with a self-satisfied smile on his face.  “Make a man feel like he’s your hero and he’ll do whatever you want.” (Pg. 308)

Like the main character in The (Un)Popular Vote by Jasper Sanchez, that kind of feminism throws transmasculine people under the bus.  Without acknowledging how masculinity harms males and nonbinary people too.

She's heard me rant enough times about how transmasculine people get thrown under the bus in this kind of totalizing discourse, where any and all masculinity must be sacrificed at the altar of entry-level Feminism, but I can't say anything now.  Any nuanced attempt to deconstruct toxic masculinity would be condemned as mansplaining.  Clary would snicker not all men before I got a full sentence out,  without a thought to how masculinity harms men and nonbinary people, too. (Pg. 117 - The (Un)Popular Vote by Jasper Sanchez)
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