Review by nnylsea - Song of Silver, Flame Like Night

nnylsea 's review for:

Song of Silver, Flame Like Night by Amélie Wen Zhao

DID NOT FINISH: 63%

dnf at 63%. i really really wanted to like this book but i just could not connect to the main characters at all. lan was way too “not like other girls” for me. she barely interacted with any other women, and when she did, she was not very kind to them or did not think highly of them, the only exception being her memories of her mother. zen felt like a copy-paste of every other brooding male love interest, not much more to say about him because there’s literally nothing else to his character. the plot was compelling at times but would abruptly slow to a snail’s pace. despite the many infodumps, i was left with many questions that, upon reading other reviews, seem to never be answered.

what made me decide not to finish the book in the spoilers below

when zen fulfilled his contract with the demon and killed 100 people, and lan told him “it’s okay pookie, that wasn’t you”…like, what was that? zen spent the entire first half of the book talking about how he was aware he needed to control the demon and he never bothered to learn how? lan just met him last week and watched him murder an entire outpost and is still head over heels for him, no reservations at all? it was just very frustrating to read and i was fed up with the characters by then.

i also had several other books on my tbr that i was excited to read, so i figured i may as well start reading something i would hopefully
enjoy more. as others said, the plot was predictable the whole time and was overall not executed very well. however, if you enjoy YA, the “not like other girls” trope doesn’t bother you, and you don’t have anything else to read, you might enjoy it more than i did.

Content Warnings