A review by cfleisch10
The Girl With No Reflection by Keshe Chow

adventurous

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No

3.0

Was so disappointed by this book. The premise is amazing and I was so excited to read it, but while it started strong it just fell apart. The main character is insufferably dumb, bordering on stupid at times, and is either being aggressively rude, obsessing over one of the love interests that she barely knows, or blacking out. Everyone around her loves her and I couldn’t fathom why. Characters just disappeared from the story, the villains were painfully cartoonish and easy to spot, even when presented as “twists,” and something was resolved every chapter by the protagonist “just knowing” the answer - usually after blacking out. Rules of the world appeared at random and were constantly changing. And if I had to hear them say “war is coming” one more time - on the exact day that the villains told them they were going to invade in their evil plan monologue - I was going to scream. 

That said, the premise was fascinating, the world-building really interesting - would have loved more of it, and the history to better explain it - and I loved the tie-ins to Chinese mythology. I might be interested to see the author take time to develop an adult fantasy, because clearly the ideas are there. And this is a debut, to be fair, so execution can definitely improve. I think there might have just been too much going on - too many tropes, too many storylines, too many random plot points that went nowhere, too much of trying to appeal to too many audiences - to execute well. 

Probably more of a 2.75 for me, but it’s a debut and I thought the ideas were really good so rounding up.