Jade City

Book Title: Jade City

Author: Fonda LEe

Date Started: March 12th 2023

Date Completed: April 13th 2023

Genres: Thriller, Fantasy

Quality Rating: Five Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Four Star

Final Rating: Four Stars

Review:

I wasn't expecting an incredibly detailed and political gangster-clan war story when I picked this up. And yet, while it came as a surprise to me, you can't oppose that the hype is founded; Lee's grasp and exploration of sometimes incredibly violent, sometimes incredibly vulnerable, complex characters - her humanisation of them and ability to lift them beyond their actions alone, into their motivations, vices, and ambitions - rival and surpasses classic gangster or even epic fantasy tropes.

It's undeniable that the worldbuilding is simply lush. The fantasy elements are so naturally constructed and fit into the story it comes across closer to magical realism, where the fantastical elements heighten the stakes and drama of the otherwise familiar characters, dynamics and narrative.

If you enjoy watching characters you've come to feel (for over the course of years in-story) making terrible decisions, and yet being unable to disagree with them, then this is probably going to be a wild ride for you - and a very good one.

Yellowface

Book Title: Yellowface

Author: R.F. Kuang

Date Started: February 11th 2023

Date Completed: March 11th 2023

Genres: Contemporary, Literary

Quality Rating: Four Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Three Star

Final Rating: Four Stars

Review:

◆ Thank you to NetGalley for this ebook for review ◆

Yellowface is one of those books that I find it hard to write a review for (the irony is not lost on me). In both academic and emotional terms it struck a chord with me to the point I was swearing out loud. Still, at the same time, I often found it unpleasant to read (again, I appreciate why) and towards the end, things dipped into melodrama for the sake of a wrapped-up plot.

Regardless, I kept picking it up. I wanted to know where it went, who would connect the dots, and how the wrong-doers would get their comeuppance - which in itself is a sad reflection of the human impulse Kuang often looks at in the story. The ending (once past the climax that felt sort of forced) was no surprise, and there's no denying that it was a joy to read Kuang embody yet another genre, time and cohort of characters.

Yellowface is a book with a lot of courage to point and prod at everything wrong with the publishing industry, an industry that like several profiting off the creative arts pigeonholes, rigs, discriminated, tokenises, torments, strings along and creates a respectable about the identity of its storytellers. Poignantly aware of the wider social, economic and political frameworks established to keep everything circulating back to the same status quo, Kuang brings the narrative back down to the responsibility, and humanity, of the individual, whether it be writer, reader, reviewer, publisher or witness.

Strike the Zither

Book Title: Strike the Zither

Author: Joan He

Series: Kingdom of Three #1

Date Started: January 28th 2023

Date Completed: February 11th 2023

Genres: Fantasy, Adventure, Romance

Quality Rating: Four Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Four Star

Final Rating: Four Stars

Review:

◆ Thank you to NetGalley for this ebook for review ◆

The mandatory 'thank you NetGalley' line is above this, but I feel like an extra thank you is required for introducing me to the powerhouse of a writer that Joan He is. With each book, I'm more enthralled with her stories. This time she makes the transition from stand-alone novels to a series (and perfectly executed as well), and it's just as clever and utterly absorbing at her other books.

I found Zepher's narration a bit hard to get into at first, but it's purposefully written to be aloof and pedantic for further character development later on down the line. It still made this a little harder to get into, but worth the wait. Zepher's character in general is worth the wait of her build-up - and something He wrote in the afterword has stuck with me. Before being a strategist, a warrior, a god or anything else, she wanted to write Zepher as a person. In a lot of authors' afterwords, the intention isn't necessarily essential or tangible to the book you've just read - but here it felt significant.

Plot-wise, Strike the Zither is perhaps the most twisty and turny from He yet - and that's saying something when her midpoint twists are always quite something to behold (this edition, of course, doesn't disappoint). But I loved that so much attention was given to expanding the worldbuilding and constructing a YA romance that didn't give in to sickly cliche temptations. Like the classical poems the story is adapted from, it felt like everything was so perfectly orchestrated, pre-ordained in events and relationships in a godlike way. And yet the characters were so desperately pushing for their own agency within it - that's what makes them human. And that's what the whole book is about.

Strike the Zither definitely made me want to go away and read the Three Kingdoms itself, but I'm not sure if I want to spoil myself on the potential ending ahead of this book's sequel. I'm sure He has retold a lot of things in her own way, and will still have a staggering finale ready for us next time.

For The Throne

Book Title: For the Throne

Author: Hannah Whitten

Series: For the Wolf #1

Date Started: January 22nd 2023

Date Completed: January 28th 2023

Genres: Fantasy, Adventure, Romance

Quality Rating: Three Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Four Star

Final Rating: Three Stars

Review:

◆ Thank you to NetGalley for this ebook for review ◆

I had a lot of fun with For The Wolf, finding the creative inspiration of various fairy tales really satisfying while appreciating how it gave itself plenty of creativity to create its own story. It's at times a little cliche and angsty, but For The Throne was still an enjoyable read to close off the tale.

You can get away with a lot if you have good characters, and the Wilderwood duology is a good example of that. The ensemble wanes from falling into tropes, and while it's apparent effort is made to make them their own thing, it often does slip in favour of the angsty moments. But in those moments that might have me rolling my eyes in other circumstances, I'm happy to let go when there's a connection between characters. I have a lot of love for Neve in particular so was happy to see she got to take centre stage this time around. What I really wish was that there was a bit more adventuring in the series as a whole, to spend more time building these characters and relationships up to make them really move me, over just being cute. (The romantic ones not so much, but the platonic friendships that are so deeply routed in this story, but often aren't given the limelight.)

For The Throne was particularly cool in the worldbuilding department. Last time we had the Wilderwood, but now we get to explore the underworld, which is both creepy and spectacular. In the first book I was fascinated by the religion, customs and tradition and how it moved the characters and their stories (Neve was so intrinsic to this theme and was what made her really stand out to me). This is lost a bit in the sequel, but the imaginative landscapes are still a strength, and so much of the events of the book first map out the arcs that are finalised here.

Overall, these books have been very enjoyable, if a little more predictable having seen where the first one went. Nevertheless, I had a lot of fun with For The Throne, and am eager to see what Whitten has brewing up next (and I'd be more than happy to visit this world again, as its cast are so well set up for a spin off).

The Firebrand

Book Title: The Firebrand

Author: Marion Zimmer Bradley

Date Started: October 15th 2022

Date Completed: January 22nd 2022

Genres: Fantasy, Historical, Adventure

Quality Rating: Five Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Five Star

Final Rating: Five Stars

Review:

Kassandra has always been my favourite classical figure, and now this is undeniably my favourite retelling of her story. Not only is it a creative, feminist, kickass way to tell it, but it brought new things even to my own knowledge. I genuinely didn't know the inspiration for the ending existed.

You can tell that the book was made with such love for the original myths - and every corner of the Ancient Greek world and beyond we get to visit in its pages. The Firebrand is such a humanising but imaginative way to retell this story that has been told a thousand times over. These characters I know so well are materialised so vividly. Myths are designed to be elevated, spectacular, and slightly other. And yet Bradley makes everything flow so neatly, the relations are built from emotions as well as blood, the places our heroine visits are truly part of a sprawling map rather than fragments of some long forgotten, fantastical landscape.

What really makes this novel click, in a way that many retellings don't quite achieve, is the ability to recentre a seasoned story around a different character than traditionally told through, and the skill to change where the agency of the tale comes from. Especially in the current era of myth retellings we're experiencing, I'm always disappointed when a myth is retold from another character's perspective (very often a woman's) but they are an observer to the classical story, grieving for their lack of power in a history already written (yes, we all understand the meta-narrative, we get it). The Firebrand, despite everything, is Kassandra's story. And she is firmly in charge of it.

For the Wolf

Book Title: For the Wolf

Author: Hannah Whitten

Series: For the Wolf #1

Date Started: October 3rd 2022

Date Completed: October 15th 2022

Genres: Fantasy, Adventure, Romance

Quality Rating: Three Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Four Star

Final Rating: Three Stars

Review:

◆ Thank you to NetGalley for this ebook for review ◆

For the Wolf starts off slow, predictable and frankly eye-rollingly cliche, but somehow I have to admit that the second half was really compelling and went in new directions. The main crux is a typical YA romance (and, honestly, the first half is the same scene of the Wolf reluctantly saving Red six times over); it's the outside threads that make it worthwhile. And the sickly unfaltering dedication from certain characters remains, but the plot finally grows into something really quite interesting, beckoning whatever's ahead while still resolving this novel's story well enough to be satisfying for now.

A bit more time spent at the novel's beginning establishing three-dimensional characters could've also turned around the opening acts. I ended up liking many of them by the final act, and I want to know what happens to them next, but they were paper archetypes at the start more from a desire for the angst than an initial equilibrium. I wonder if the desire to echo the fairy tale (which seems more Beauty and the Beast/Snow White and Rose Red than Red Riding Hood) was a bit distracting to begin with, before the story took its own roots.

I'm actually really looking forward to this novel's follow-up (which is already in my library), as I trust the story has come into its own now and can continue in this new and exciting direction, fleshing out the side characters even more as they become more integral to the story.

While I Live

Book Title: While I Live

Author: John Marsden

Series: The Ellie Chronicles #1

Date Started: September 4th 2022

Date Completed: October 3rd 2022

Genres: Adventure, Thriller

Quality Rating: Four Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Four Star

Final Rating: Four Stars

Review:

For once, I'm so happy there's a sequel series to an original. The Tomorrow series was incredibly influential to me as a teenager, and remains one of the best explorations of war, survival, friendship and bravery I've ever come across. It's such a shame it isn't as well known outside of its native Australia. The Ellie Chronicles, taking place (spoiler) after the end of the war that fractured the protaginst's existence over the course of seven books, follows the endlessly conflicted and clever Ellie trying to work out what to do with her life next. 

I'm always a bit mystified how Marsden can make the everyday, however grim the circumstances, compelling and immersive. Ellie spends most of this book at home trying to work out how to balance her finances while looking after her cattle and getting into arguments with people trying to help. It's so far removed from my usual preferences, but it felt like visiting dear friends.

Ellie is one of the few protagonists that's ever felt truly real to me - and that goes for all of Marsden's characters. She's written to be so human, to the point where she's really vindictive sometimes and the narrative doesn't lay any judgement on her at all. She's constantly pissed of and tired and trying and that's the closest thing I've ever related to with fictional characters. Don't get me wrong, we don't have to feel like we are a character to relate and love them - but it's something special when it does happen.

I think part of this comes from the fact that Ellie is only as strong as her relationships, and the other people in her life are so influential and important to her growth. The familiar faces from the original series are so naturally featured, without being shoehorned in for a quick reference. The friendships are so tactile and precious; characters don't have to be joined at the hip and speak every day to be close, as I think the representation often becomes. Months go past without Ellie speaking to dear friends, and when she does see them it can be awkward and hesitant. But they're still so close, and that's something that so many struggle to translate to the page.