A review by lezreadalot
In the Vanishers' Palace by Aliette de Bodard

4.0

The dragon’s eyes were a light grey, the color of storm clouds gathering. She was looking straight at Yên with an expression that was half-irritation, half-hunger, as if she would gobble Yên whole, given half a chance. 

And what scared Yên most? This might, in the end, be just what she longed for.

A hugely imaginative fantasy tale (with a good dose of sci-fi) that tackles colonialism, imperialism and a Beauty and the Beast-esque narrative in a Vietnam-inspired world. It's got magic! It's got romance! It's got a really hot dragon! I wanted for nothing.

Or, well, I wanted for a little bit, but that's honestly more my fault than the book's. Nothing is over-explained, and there's no huge info-dumping or exposition about the world, which is a very good thing. But it did mean that it kind of took me a while to grasp the threads of the plot and the world that the story was taking place in. (I probably didn't help matters by not having read the blurb.) I was fuzzy on a lot of details and while I really enjoyed the book my mood/mind has been all over the place, so I don't think I took in everything as well as I could? I already want to reread this.

But I did really really enjoy it. I loved the creativity that was put into the world, the casual gender diversity, all the nuances of language that were spoken about. I loved that pronouns and forms of address in Vietnamese (and the levels of intimacy implied) were highlighted. I really REALLY enjoyed the romance. It's not the main focus of the plot, but it did get more screen time than expected, which I was thrilled about. Vu Côn is a dreamboat, and I love romances where the parties are attracted to each other even in situations where it's definitely not advisable, so it was easy to identify and sympathise with Yên. "This dragon lady might want to eat me... but oh no, she's hot!" It was super intense and romantic, and maybe a little too fast, but I was wholly invested. I loved all the secondary characters and just the lushness in general of this broken world. The plot did lose me a few times, but it was easy enough to pick up the thread.

I definitely recommend this to fans of queer sff. Great read.