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A review by mariahistryingtoread
Forest of a Thousand Lanterns by Julie C. Dao
1.0
(I chose this as part of the 2020 asianreadathon. It was challenge #3: read a book featuring an Asian character or written by an Asian author that is different from you.)
I picked this book because an origin story for the Evil Queen from Snow White is about as different from my life as you can probably imagine. And I love retellings already so this seemed like a no brainer. Unfortunately, this book failed in every single way. It's way too long, the main character is horribly underwritten, the world-building is poor, the plot goes nowhere until the very end and the characters are flat.
Xifeng has been groomed her entire life by her abusive aunt Guma to be Empress one day. Guma says magic is in their bloodline, and is able to read the future in her special tarot block/card set. She is adamant that one day Xifeng will one day achieve this destiny even if Xifeng is unsure of how one lowly peasant girl - even an educated, beautiful one - will be able to reach the palace at all let alone become all powerful ruler over the kingdom. Besides that Xifeng is terrified of the parts of herself she may have to sacrifice to get there.
First off, the magical part of this book is all but forgotten after the first couple chapters. There also isn't a system in place or any rules or restrictions. There are magical creatures apparently and the people believe in Gods, but this has no real bearing on anything. And despite the synopsis literally saying that Xifeng might have to dabble in blood magic to achieve her goals Xifeng doesn't do anything remotely magic related after the beginning of the book.
Onto Xifeng as a character. I hated her. And not in the way you're supposed to either. This is the 'evil queen' story so I expected to see a good girl go bad, or an already bad girl get even worse. Xifeng is smack dab in the middle in the worst way. More than halfway through the book all Xifeng did was *think* about doing terrible things. She didn't get involved in any palace gossip. She only set in motion one plan - which failed spectacularly. She didn't scheme with any friends. She barely manipulated anyone. If she wasn't so selfish or vain she would have been a hollow shell. The author also tried to set it up like Xifeng was a tragic heroine forced on this path by events outside of her control, however, that did Xifeng a disservice as well because it removed a lot of agency from her. And it felt really weird too because this is a story of an evil queen. I'm reading this already knowing the ending. I know she's going to do bad things so let her do truly bad things and revel in it. Let her know she's being awful, but just not care because it gets her what she wants. There was too much waffling. Xifeng was aware of what she had to do to achieve her goal, but most of the book was Xifeng doing nothing and just sort of hoping that it would turn into her being Empress eventually.
I had no idea how much time was passing. Seemingly momentous events would happen (like a festival for example) and get swept under the rug immediately. Xifeng only took a chance to use a special occasion for some mischief Once. Other than that, there were absolutely no interesting political machinations whatsoever. Everyone's motives were super obvious. The writing wasn't descriptive enough either. I couldn't get a sense of what life was truly like for anyone -which is related to two larger issues; the characters being severely underdeveloped and the lack of world building.
None of the characters mattered. There's a brief character rundown at the beginning and a pronunciation guide for their names. That quick fact guide is the most you get out of any of the characters at all. It is a major case of telling instead of showing. The book tells us Xifeng is seen as a daughter to the Empress only for Xifeng to have only like three actual conversations with the Empress; one of which being after Xifeng has supposedly fallen out of favor with her. The book tells us the other girls resent Xifeng only for Xifeng to literally never speak to any of the other servants at all. The eunuchs are built up as the secret advisors to the crown only for Xifeng to only interact with one. Xifeng has no rivals or co-conspirators. She has nothing to really lose making her whole plight seem ridiculously easy if only she would actually do something. She can't even form attachments for show. Her 'best friend' doesn't even appear outside of a handful of times.
I've seen a lot of reviewers mentioned the women can't be friends/women hating women trope as a criticism as well. I have a problem with that, but it does fit into the larger framework of none of the characters having any substance. Women hate each other in this book and it makes some sense because of the cutthroat nature of palace life, but it doesn't work here in comparison to other books that have similar themes because the other characters are little more than cardboard cut-outs. Xifeng is supposed to view other people as little more than pawns; it's a facet of her upbringing. The problem is that the writing is so shallow that this is not conveyed as a failing on her part or a reflection on the misogynistic system they've been forced into. Instead, it's treated as if Xifeng is simply smarter than the other women. And I keep saying other women implying many, but honestly there's only like two other women who factor in. We get no hint of what other women are doing despite living within a totally female populated community (the Empress' private lodgings require this as the Emperor doesn't want her or his concubines interacting with men) and we don't even really get to see how society is run.
Xifeng comes from a village but I don't know what village life is like. I don't get how it differs from palace life because Xifeng's duties are the same everyday and don't get expounded on in greater detail anyways. I don't know how Mengs', the Emperor's newest concubine, life changed after the Emperor essentially kidnapped her for his harem. She's labeled unstable, but again Xifeng doesn't even try to use that so I don't know how her village might have been better or worse off than Xifeng's. I don't know how money worked. I don't know what public opinion was on the Emperor or the Empress' reign. The Emperor was the Empress' second husband who came from nothing and I had no idea how the nobility perceived this kind of rags to riches story. I don't know what the infrastructure of their society even was. What was valued? Merchants or artists? What was their chief export? What did they stand to gain by going to war (a minor plot point, again only presented at the beginning and very end)? All of this was information Xifeng would have majorly benefited from knowing, but was either glossed over entirely or just ignored. She acted as if trying to become Empress made her so independent yet she was so utterly passive.
I had so, so many issues with this book, but this is already getting really long so I'm going to stop here. Point is, the book tries to present Xifeng as some ruthless, cunning woman so much so that the Emperor is enamored enough by her to eschew his other concubines, but put none of the work into prove it. It sounds like a feminist tale on paper, but I'd say if you care about plot or character development don't even bother with this book.
I picked this book because an origin story for the Evil Queen from Snow White is about as different from my life as you can probably imagine. And I love retellings already so this seemed like a no brainer. Unfortunately, this book failed in every single way. It's way too long, the main character is horribly underwritten, the world-building is poor, the plot goes nowhere until the very end and the characters are flat.
Xifeng has been groomed her entire life by her abusive aunt Guma to be Empress one day. Guma says magic is in their bloodline, and is able to read the future in her special tarot block/card set. She is adamant that one day Xifeng will one day achieve this destiny even if Xifeng is unsure of how one lowly peasant girl - even an educated, beautiful one - will be able to reach the palace at all let alone become all powerful ruler over the kingdom. Besides that Xifeng is terrified of the parts of herself she may have to sacrifice to get there.
First off, the magical part of this book is all but forgotten after the first couple chapters. There also isn't a system in place or any rules or restrictions. There are magical creatures apparently and the people believe in Gods, but this has no real bearing on anything. And despite the synopsis literally saying that Xifeng might have to dabble in blood magic to achieve her goals Xifeng doesn't do anything remotely magic related after the beginning of the book.
Onto Xifeng as a character. I hated her. And not in the way you're supposed to either. This is the 'evil queen' story so I expected to see a good girl go bad, or an already bad girl get even worse. Xifeng is smack dab in the middle in the worst way. More than halfway through the book all Xifeng did was *think* about doing terrible things. She didn't get involved in any palace gossip. She only set in motion one plan - which failed spectacularly. She didn't scheme with any friends. She barely manipulated anyone. If she wasn't so selfish or vain she would have been a hollow shell. The author also tried to set it up like Xifeng was a tragic heroine forced on this path by events outside of her control, however, that did Xifeng a disservice as well because it removed a lot of agency from her. And it felt really weird too because this is a story of an evil queen. I'm reading this already knowing the ending. I know she's going to do bad things so let her do truly bad things and revel in it. Let her know she's being awful, but just not care because it gets her what she wants. There was too much waffling. Xifeng was aware of what she had to do to achieve her goal, but most of the book was Xifeng doing nothing and just sort of hoping that it would turn into her being Empress eventually.
I had no idea how much time was passing. Seemingly momentous events would happen (like a festival for example) and get swept under the rug immediately. Xifeng only took a chance to use a special occasion for some mischief Once. Other than that, there were absolutely no interesting political machinations whatsoever. Everyone's motives were super obvious. The writing wasn't descriptive enough either. I couldn't get a sense of what life was truly like for anyone -which is related to two larger issues; the characters being severely underdeveloped and the lack of world building.
None of the characters mattered. There's a brief character rundown at the beginning and a pronunciation guide for their names. That quick fact guide is the most you get out of any of the characters at all. It is a major case of telling instead of showing. The book tells us Xifeng is seen as a daughter to the Empress only for Xifeng to have only like three actual conversations with the Empress; one of which being after Xifeng has supposedly fallen out of favor with her. The book tells us the other girls resent Xifeng only for Xifeng to literally never speak to any of the other servants at all. The eunuchs are built up as the secret advisors to the crown only for Xifeng to only interact with one. Xifeng has no rivals or co-conspirators. She has nothing to really lose making her whole plight seem ridiculously easy if only she would actually do something. She can't even form attachments for show. Her 'best friend' doesn't even appear outside of a handful of times.
I've seen a lot of reviewers mentioned the women can't be friends/women hating women trope as a criticism as well. I have a problem with that, but it does fit into the larger framework of none of the characters having any substance. Women hate each other in this book and it makes some sense because of the cutthroat nature of palace life, but it doesn't work here in comparison to other books that have similar themes because the other characters are little more than cardboard cut-outs. Xifeng is supposed to view other people as little more than pawns; it's a facet of her upbringing. The problem is that the writing is so shallow that this is not conveyed as a failing on her part or a reflection on the misogynistic system they've been forced into. Instead, it's treated as if Xifeng is simply smarter than the other women. And I keep saying other women implying many, but honestly there's only like two other women who factor in. We get no hint of what other women are doing despite living within a totally female populated community (the Empress' private lodgings require this as the Emperor doesn't want her or his concubines interacting with men) and we don't even really get to see how society is run.
Xifeng comes from a village but I don't know what village life is like. I don't get how it differs from palace life because Xifeng's duties are the same everyday and don't get expounded on in greater detail anyways. I don't know how Mengs', the Emperor's newest concubine, life changed after the Emperor essentially kidnapped her for his harem. She's labeled unstable, but again Xifeng doesn't even try to use that so I don't know how her village might have been better or worse off than Xifeng's. I don't know how money worked. I don't know what public opinion was on the Emperor or the Empress' reign. The Emperor was the Empress' second husband who came from nothing and I had no idea how the nobility perceived this kind of rags to riches story. I don't know what the infrastructure of their society even was. What was valued? Merchants or artists? What was their chief export? What did they stand to gain by going to war (a minor plot point, again only presented at the beginning and very end)? All of this was information Xifeng would have majorly benefited from knowing, but was either glossed over entirely or just ignored. She acted as if trying to become Empress made her so independent yet she was so utterly passive.
I had so, so many issues with this book, but this is already getting really long so I'm going to stop here. Point is, the book tries to present Xifeng as some ruthless, cunning woman so much so that the Emperor is enamored enough by her to eschew his other concubines, but put none of the work into prove it. It sounds like a feminist tale on paper, but I'd say if you care about plot or character development don't even bother with this book.