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carmine_b 's review for:
Phoenix Extravagant
by Yoon Ha Lee
adventurous
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The plot and characters are interesting, conceptually, but the execution wasn't all that compelling to me.
The writing style is very straightforward and, personally, I'm a fan of more descriptive, flowery writing, so the book was doomed to be an average read from the start for me. But, in addition to that, I felt like so much focus was given to Jebi's personal concerns and their lack of understanding what was going on a lot of the time that the plot fell a bit flat. Reluctant heroes are a common trope, but Jebi went beyond being a reluctant hero to feeling like a side character surrounded by main characters that somehow became our lead anyway, which, while, not entirely unenjoyable became tiring/irritating at a certain point.
Plus a lot of the progress felt it was pushed forward by Jebi's impulsiveness, things happening to Jebi that they had no control over, or other characters suddenly bowing to the whims of what the plot demanded and it made a lot of the developments feel forced/unnatural. The character relationships also felt less developed than I would have liked them to be.
The writing style is very straightforward and, personally, I'm a fan of more descriptive, flowery writing, so the book was doomed to be an average read from the start for me. But, in addition to that, I felt like so much focus was given to Jebi's personal concerns and their lack of understanding what was going on a lot of the time that the plot fell a bit flat. Reluctant heroes are a common trope, but Jebi went beyond being a reluctant hero to feeling like a side character surrounded by main characters that somehow became our lead anyway, which, while, not entirely unenjoyable became tiring/irritating at a certain point.
Plus a lot of the progress felt it was pushed forward by Jebi's impulsiveness, things happening to Jebi that they had no control over, or other characters suddenly bowing to the whims of what the plot demanded and it made a lot of the developments feel forced/unnatural. The character relationships also felt less developed than I would have liked them to be.