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A review by mspilesofpaper
Of Jade and Dragons by Amber Chen
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for sending me an eArc.
For the record: I was very excited about the book and thought that it would be a great YA fantasy read but oh boy, I was in for a disappointment because ultimately, the novel feels very half-baked and unfinished.
Ultimately, the novel doesn't just feel very unfinished, it also seems to be aimed at the wrong target group. Based on Ying's age (18 years), I would have expected something that is aimed at 16+ but it reads as if it should be aimed at younger readers (e.g., Middle Grade). The only aspect that is slightly too much for Middle Grade is the light violence, the brothel scene (although it's mild), the romance and Ying's age herself.
Aside from this, my main issues are:
1) The engineering focus is lacking. The setup makes it seem as if it will be on the engineering aspect as Ying also enrols in the equivalent of a university for engineering that offers academic competition. It could have been great to highlight how technologically advanced the nation is and could have been used to showcase Ying's genius for engineering. Instead, it is shoe-horned into the plot instead of acting as a well-incorporated device for plot and character development. If I'm not mistaken, there are four scenes where Ying does something related to engineering. The author mentions multiple times how much Ying loves engineering, how much she learned from her father by shadowing him and being trained by him, so I would have assumed that her skill would be a major key element to solve the murder mystery. Instead, Ying just shows her skills when she meets her love interest, during two trials, and when she develops two weapons in the last 80%. It is very underwhelming because the author could have done so much with engineering in an Asian-inspired fantasy world.
2) The lack of character development for Ying and the side characters. Ying is the main character who is 18 years old, is the oldest daughter of her family and has ultra manly brother (yes, she highlights that Wen is very manly in comparison to the boys/young men that she meets in the Guild), and several younger siblings. Unfortunately, she acts much younger than her 18 years because she is reckless, hot-headed and never thinks things through. Concerning her siblings: as oldest daughter, I would have expected her to step up into a mother-like role as it would fit into the expectations of their society/culture. Instead, she seems not to be involved in their upbringing at all. Further, she is completely unchanged and unfazed by the deaths of her parents. Yes, she is angry at her father's death, and whines that neither him nor her mother fought enough to stay alive, but she never truly grieves. He's dead, they hold the funeral and then she is off to find revenge. Of course, she's a special snowflake who survives everything by luck or because of the side character.
The side characters are two-dimensional, stereotypical-like, underdeveloped and often inconsistent. There's Ye-kan who is feisty/bratty/selfish/entitled/angry/... and whose behaviour differs in terms of "Does it benefit Ying or not?". Chang-en is supposed to be Ying's best friend in the Guild but you could swap him for anyone else and it wouldn't make a difference. His only personality trait is to rile up another character. Ye-yang, the love interest, is as grey and bleak as his eyes.
3) The romance happens out of nowhere. It felt very unrequired to begin with as it quickly becomes just a plot device to add some tension. Aside from that, it is instant love/attraction after one scene and I don't understand what they saw in each other.
4) The world-building doesn't exist. The book starts on Ying's home island and highlights that they live in tents and have a semi-nomadic lifestyle. Then, Ying travels to the neighbouring island which has solid houses and already fancy technology. Then, she ends up on the main island with the capital and here, the world-building just leaves the book. The city is barely described and when it is described, I cannot get an image of it in my mind. There's the guild, the new palace, the most famous brothel, tons of canals, a bridge that's 10 stories high (???), and an artificial forest outside of it. Apparently, there are six more islands (technically seven islands but the 10th island is forbidden and the kingdom's leader even wages war against the 10th island although one of his wives/concubines came from there) but names are never mentioned. In general, the entire political aspect of the kingdom's clans & co is extremely underdeveloped. An important aspect of the novel is engineering and how technologically advanced they are with airships, robots, and steam-powered carriages, ... - it's very futuristic in some aspects but there's no explanation of how they got to it aside from "yeah we basically copied the airships from the Jade Empire and the green-eyed strangers". There's also no explanation for why the capital is so advanced while Ying's island has no technological tools to use.
TL;DR
A Middle Grade novel in the trenchcoat of a Young Adult novel. Extremely underdeveloped in terms of writing, world-building, plot and characters. The engineering and competition aspect is reduced to the sidelines and the plot is inconsistent and jumps from chapter to chapter. The murder mystery is no true mystery and the author throws a romance into the mix to keep the reader from figuring it out too early. The only reason why I gave it two stars instead of one star is that there's nothing truly problematic in the book. It just needs more editing and a few more rounds of revisions. And another marketing strategy that pushes it to younger readers in the Middle Grade age range.
For the record: I was very excited about the book and thought that it would be a great YA fantasy read but oh boy, I was in for a disappointment because ultimately, the novel feels very half-baked and unfinished.
Ultimately, the novel doesn't just feel very unfinished, it also seems to be aimed at the wrong target group. Based on Ying's age (18 years), I would have expected something that is aimed at 16+ but it reads as if it should be aimed at younger readers (e.g., Middle Grade). The only aspect that is slightly too much for Middle Grade is the light violence, the brothel scene (although it's mild), the romance and Ying's age herself.
Aside from this, my main issues are:
1) The engineering focus is lacking. The setup makes it seem as if it will be on the engineering aspect as Ying also enrols in the equivalent of a university for engineering that offers academic competition. It could have been great to highlight how technologically advanced the nation is and could have been used to showcase Ying's genius for engineering. Instead, it is shoe-horned into the plot instead of acting as a well-incorporated device for plot and character development. If I'm not mistaken, there are four scenes where Ying does something related to engineering. The author mentions multiple times how much Ying loves engineering, how much she learned from her father by shadowing him and being trained by him, so I would have assumed that her skill would be a major key element to solve the murder mystery. Instead, Ying just shows her skills when she meets her love interest, during two trials, and when she develops two weapons in the last 80%. It is very underwhelming because the author could have done so much with engineering in an Asian-inspired fantasy world.
2) The lack of character development for Ying and the side characters. Ying is the main character who is 18 years old, is the oldest daughter of her family and has ultra manly brother (yes, she highlights that Wen is very manly in comparison to the boys/young men that she meets in the Guild), and several younger siblings. Unfortunately, she acts much younger than her 18 years because she is reckless, hot-headed and never thinks things through. Concerning her siblings: as oldest daughter, I would have expected her to step up into a mother-like role as it would fit into the expectations of their society/culture. Instead, she seems not to be involved in their upbringing at all. Further, she is completely unchanged and unfazed by the deaths of her parents. Yes, she is angry at her father's death, and whines that neither him nor her mother fought enough to stay alive, but she never truly grieves. He's dead, they hold the funeral and then she is off to find revenge. Of course, she's a special snowflake who survives everything by luck or because of the side character.
The side characters are two-dimensional, stereotypical-like, underdeveloped and often inconsistent. There's Ye-kan who is feisty/bratty/selfish/entitled/angry/... and whose behaviour differs in terms of "Does it benefit Ying or not?". Chang-en is supposed to be Ying's best friend in the Guild but you could swap him for anyone else and it wouldn't make a difference. His only personality trait is to rile up another character. Ye-yang, the love interest, is as grey and bleak as his eyes.
3) The romance happens out of nowhere. It felt very unrequired to begin with as it quickly becomes just a plot device to add some tension. Aside from that, it is instant love/attraction after one scene and I don't understand what they saw in each other.
4) The world-building doesn't exist. The book starts on Ying's home island and highlights that they live in tents and have a semi-nomadic lifestyle. Then, Ying travels to the neighbouring island which has solid houses and already fancy technology. Then, she ends up on the main island with the capital and here, the world-building just leaves the book. The city is barely described and when it is described, I cannot get an image of it in my mind. There's the guild, the new palace, the most famous brothel, tons of canals, a bridge that's 10 stories high (???), and an artificial forest outside of it. Apparently, there are six more islands (technically seven islands but the 10th island is forbidden and the kingdom's leader even wages war against the 10th island although one of his wives/concubines came from there) but names are never mentioned. In general, the entire political aspect of the kingdom's clans & co is extremely underdeveloped. An important aspect of the novel is engineering and how technologically advanced they are with airships, robots, and steam-powered carriages, ... - it's very futuristic in some aspects but there's no explanation of how they got to it aside from "yeah we basically copied the airships from the Jade Empire and the green-eyed strangers". There's also no explanation for why the capital is so advanced while Ying's island has no technological tools to use.
TL;DR
A Middle Grade novel in the trenchcoat of a Young Adult novel. Extremely underdeveloped in terms of writing, world-building, plot and characters. The engineering and competition aspect is reduced to the sidelines and the plot is inconsistent and jumps from chapter to chapter. The murder mystery is no true mystery and the author throws a romance into the mix to keep the reader from figuring it out too early. The only reason why I gave it two stars instead of one star is that there's nothing truly problematic in the book. It just needs more editing and a few more rounds of revisions. And another marketing strategy that pushes it to younger readers in the Middle Grade age range.