“The greater the desire, the greater the suffering, and now she desired greatness itself.”
I’ll preface this review by saying that although I did get an eARC from Netgalley I did read my own purchased illumicrate copy of the book.
I truly don’t know where to begin with this, the premise of the book is just incredible. A girl determined that she will have the greatness her brother was promised, in a Shakespearean twist she takes his identity and fate as her own she joins a monastery in order to survive. The fantasy is set within 14th century China which is under Mongol rule, and depicts the struggle for power between the rebels and the Mongol rulers. The story paints a vivid picture of life within the time and the struggles faced by the poor and by women, but also introduces genderqueer characters who dance along the lines of femininity and masculinity.
I have seen people compare this to Madeliene Miller’s The Song of Achilles and while it has been a while since I read TSOA, I cannot see the comparisons. This is a heavy and brutal tale about chasing fate, betrayal and in many ways the idea of ‘a means to an end’. At times the plotting and politics involved was too dense for me to follow, around the middle of the book I really began to struggle in following the plot and became confused when things would happen later on.
However, this may not entirely be Shelley Parker-Chan’s fault as I think I was trying to push my way through a reading slump. Their writing is definitely intense and dense at times but the first 120 odd pages I read in one sitting and loved. The setting up of the story was probably my favourite part of the book, but as it went on my confusion grew and the potential reading slump worsened. Therefore, this book didn’t live up to the hype and expectations I had for it though I think that is partly down to me and the time I read it, so I am willing to try again at a later date. However, I do also feel that the middle of the book did slow down drastically in comparison to the beginning and end, though plot wise it makes sense to set things up for later, I just struggled with it.
I loved the writing though, especially the way that Parker-Chan wrote their character, especially the main characters Zhu and Ouyang. As frustrating as I found them at times, the main characters drew me in with their clear motivations and the ruthlessness used to pursue them, as well as the complexities of their feelings about doing so. I thought that Parker-Chan did an incredibly good job at making out two main characters similar but also so different, it helped mark them as individuals (though at times I did find the switching perspectives quite jarring - though again that could be me not reading it at the right time).
The relationships were also done incredibly well, romantically and platonically. Because you were rooting for the characters slightly the relationships worked well, despite the difficulties within them. They are painful but beautifully written, which brings me on to my next point. Parker-Chan’s writing, though dense at times, is beautiful. The way that they described the complexities of gender identity faced by the characters, as well as their relationships with others and the burning passion for their goals was beautiful. It’s such a shame that I was struggling to read it as I think there are some beautiful sentences that I have probably missed out on.
My final point is probably to do with the fantasy elements, though there are fantasy elements to the book I found that they were fairly light until the end when more was explained though I was still left confused about the fantasy elements. I’ll be intrigued to see if this is something that is explained more in the sequel as throughout the book I often forgot that it was a fantasy as opposed to a historical fiction. However, again that could just be down to me reading it when I did.
Overall, I think this is one that I will definitely have to read again when I am ready for a denser book in order to fully appreciate it.
Love,
Carey
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