bookdreamer 's review for:

3.0

Grace Lin weaves together Chinese mythology and fiction to tell the story of Pinmei, the storyteller's granddaughter, who finds her own voice when she undertakes a quest to save her grandmother from the tyrannical Tiger King. Along the way she pauses to tell what I assume are traditional Chinese stories, which end up weaving into the people Pinmei encounters along her journey. I appreciated how well-researched and integrated the story was, the world building was solid and I felt I had a better understanding of some traditional Chinese stories. This book is also formatted beautifully. The accompanying illustrations and chapter title designs are stunning ad capture Chinese-style artwork.

I was interested in Pinmei's own story, but not completely gripped. Towards the end I found her defeat of the Tiger King hard to follow, I ended up skimming the last few chapters and was happy to know the story ended happily ever after. I enjoyed the stories interested throughout the book more. When visiting a place with bad wifi with my younger sister I ended up cherry-picking a few stories from this book to read aloud while Netflix loaded, and they were greatly enjoyed. This book is worth a read but may not be for everyone.