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A review by lydiacatherine
The Girl King by Mimi Yu
2.0
3 stars for the writing and the world building [and the cover art!], which was stunning; 2 for the plot/pacing/character development/characters
4 word review: Less Good Princess Mononoke
*Potential spoilers ahead*
PROS:
- Stunning world building/descriptions
- Beautiful writing
GRIPES:
- False advertising of intense sibling rivalry: They barely interacted for 90% of the book, and then suddenly Min does a 180 on her loyalty to her sister, purely because she's a half sister? Dude. I don't even have any siblings and I doubt that's how it would play out. They didn't even have that much friction between them beforehand?
- Random romance subplots?? Why... Why is this necessary? What does this add?
- No emotional connection to the characters at all
- Character motivations and intentions: So Lu wants the throne, yet is widely regarded as a prissy, entitled princess, it seems she wants to prove everyone wrong but why does she add in something about saving the people of the Northern lands? Why does she care so much about them? Am I missing something here?
- Slow/non-existent/predictable plot: (in which nothing happened for 90% of the book, till the climax in the last 40 pages or so)
- So much confusion: ... I'm not even sure what I don't know? Something about them knowing each other as children? The random Gods added in?? The lake?? wut
- Magic and Gods and magical people ... wut?
- Non existent character development?
- The ending ... wut
It started so strongly and I was so intrigued by this book, but the more I find myself reflecting on it, the more likely I am to downgrade it. Shame.
4 word review: Less Good Princess Mononoke
*Potential spoilers ahead*
PROS:
- Stunning world building/descriptions
- Beautiful writing
GRIPES:
- False advertising of intense sibling rivalry: They barely interacted for 90% of the book, and then suddenly Min does a 180 on her loyalty to her sister, purely because she's a half sister? Dude. I don't even have any siblings and I doubt that's how it would play out. They didn't even have that much friction between them beforehand?
- Random romance subplots?? Why... Why is this necessary? What does this add?
- No emotional connection to the characters at all
- Character motivations and intentions: So Lu wants the throne, yet is widely regarded as a prissy, entitled princess, it seems she wants to prove everyone wrong but why does she add in something about saving the people of the Northern lands? Why does she care so much about them? Am I missing something here?
- Slow/non-existent/predictable plot: (in which nothing happened for 90% of the book, till the climax in the last 40 pages or so)
- So much confusion: ... I'm not even sure what I don't know? Something about them knowing each other as children? The random Gods added in?? The lake?? wut
- Magic and Gods and magical people ... wut?
- Non existent character development?
- The ending ... wut
It started so strongly and I was so intrigued by this book, but the more I find myself reflecting on it, the more likely I am to downgrade it. Shame.