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A review by pennin
The Last Concubine by Lesley Downer
2.0
This book wasn't bad but it was so much longer than it has to be, the plot was too drawn out and it became very repetitive . The book included so many unnecessary filler scenes of the characters just travelling around and waiting for something to happen. The book would benefit so much from just omitting things that weren't actually relevant to the 'plot' (and I use that term very lightly).
If you were to plot the graph of the tension in this book, it would be a straight horizontal line. For most of the book, it felt like the plot was just going nowhere. There's no real overarching goal the characters were working towards (apart from surviving, which isn't enough) and nothing for readers to look forward to. Instead the Sachi was just moving from one trivial goal to another one over and over again. This kind of story that involves a seemingly never-ending journey can work, but for that there needs something to make the me want to continue reading. Interesting characters who I care about, relationships I'm rooting for, a high stakes plot that keeps me on the edge of my seat...this book has none of that. Everything just felt flat.
I think the book would have benefitted from also including Shinzaemon's perspective. It would help developed his character further beyond just being this hot-headed samurai with a cool tattoo and reading from his perspective during a battle would be much more interesting and high stakes than reading about Sachi just waiting around not really doing anything.
I will say that I do appreciate how the author stayed true to the standards of those times. Most historical fiction authors can be tempted to apply modern day social standards to characters that are supposed to be living in the past, which can come off as contrived when not done right. However, while I can understand that Sachi is operating by a different norm as we are nowadays, reading her condescending judgements towards people who are supposedly 'lower' in social class than her is not going to make me like her. Given that she came from a poor rural village, I wouldn't hurt to make her more empathetic towards other people's circumstance.
It doesn't help that Sachi's character was also as flat as a paper and being reminded of her pale skin (colourism says hi), oval face, small nose, pretty lips and green eyes over and over again also got annoying real fast. We get it. Once is enough to illustrate that point. Also, where did the green eyes come from? Why can't it just be brown like every other Asian person out there. It literally doesn't make any sense and doesn't add anything to the story. This kind of thing always makes me mad because I have to wonder if the author just added this because green eyes, a Western trait, is supposedly more 'attractive' than brown eyes, an Asian one. That is a load of bullshit right there. [b: Memoirs of a Geisha|929|Memoirs of a Geisha|Arthur Golden|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1409595968l/929._SY75_.jpg|1558965] also did this but with grey eyes and guess what, it's also written by a white author.
Props to Lesley Downer for all the research she did for this book though, I always love reading her afterword where she would clarify which parts of the novel were historically accurate and which parts were changed to fit the story. I think that this should be something included in every historical fiction novels to avoid any misconceptions that can potentially arise.
Spoiler
to the point where there were literally three identical scenes of the female characters being attacked by the 'lowly southeners' and then fighting them off without any real difficultiesSpoiler
For example, what was the point of Edward's character apart from being the obligatory white character? You can literally take him out of the story, have Daisuke replace his role in helping Sachi, and the story would not change in any meaningful way. Even more so, what was the point of the romance between Sachi and Edward? The only thing it did was make Sachi's love for Shinzaemon come off as fickle. Edward's character didn't create any conflict, didn't offer any new insights into the story, his character was meaningless.If you were to plot the graph of the tension in this book, it would be a straight horizontal line. For most of the book, it felt like the plot was just going nowhere. There's no real overarching goal the characters were working towards (apart from surviving, which isn't enough) and nothing for readers to look forward to. Instead the Sachi was just moving from one trivial goal to another one over and over again. This kind of story that involves a seemingly never-ending journey can work, but for that there needs something to make the me want to continue reading. Interesting characters who I care about, relationships I'm rooting for, a high stakes plot that keeps me on the edge of my seat...this book has none of that. Everything just felt flat.
I think the book would have benefitted from also including Shinzaemon's perspective. It would help developed his character further beyond just being this hot-headed samurai with a cool tattoo and reading from his perspective during a battle would be much more interesting and high stakes than reading about Sachi just waiting around not really doing anything.
I will say that I do appreciate how the author stayed true to the standards of those times. Most historical fiction authors can be tempted to apply modern day social standards to characters that are supposed to be living in the past, which can come off as contrived when not done right. However, while I can understand that Sachi is operating by a different norm as we are nowadays, reading her condescending judgements towards people who are supposedly 'lower' in social class than her is not going to make me like her. Given that she came from a poor rural village, I wouldn't hurt to make her more empathetic towards other people's circumstance.
It doesn't help that Sachi's character was also as flat as a paper and being reminded of her pale skin (colourism says hi), oval face, small nose, pretty lips and green eyes over and over again also got annoying real fast. We get it. Once is enough to illustrate that point. Also, where did the green eyes come from? Why can't it just be brown like every other Asian person out there. It literally doesn't make any sense and doesn't add anything to the story. This kind of thing always makes me mad because I have to wonder if the author just added this because green eyes, a Western trait, is supposedly more 'attractive' than brown eyes, an Asian one. That is a load of bullshit right there. [b: Memoirs of a Geisha|929|Memoirs of a Geisha|Arthur Golden|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1409595968l/929._SY75_.jpg|1558965] also did this but with grey eyes and guess what, it's also written by a white author.
Props to Lesley Downer for all the research she did for this book though, I always love reading her afterword where she would clarify which parts of the novel were historically accurate and which parts were changed to fit the story. I think that this should be something included in every historical fiction novels to avoid any misconceptions that can potentially arise.