This book is outright overwhelming, in every sense in the word. It is intense, brutal, grotesque, and beautiful. It's everything I want in a dark fantasy: a slow, sometimes excruciating burn (yet captivating all the way through), moral ambiguity, and plenty of introspection. By the end of the story, Kuang has cranked up the dial all the way to 11, or maybe even 12, and -- most importantly -- for very clear reasons.
This book kinda shattered me. I am absolutely in love with it.
I feel a bit broken and shaky, like I'll probably cry when I get a chance. I’d been warned that there were very graphic depictions of trauma in this book, so I spent the first three quarters wondering whether I just had a high threshold for fictional depictions of trauma or if I just hadn’t gotten to the worst of it yet. I just hadn’t gotten there. There are some things so awful that just saying what they are is enough to turn your stomach, and the litanies of events in this war are such things. It's not made any easier by knowing that they're based on real events, for more information please refer to "A Note from the Author" at the back of the book. These events are crucial to the plot, as it's a story about how a teenage girl gradually breaks from a focused and idealistic war …
I feel a bit broken and shaky, like I'll probably cry when I get a chance. I’d been warned that there were very graphic depictions of trauma in this book, so I spent the first three quarters wondering whether I just had a high threshold for fictional depictions of trauma or if I just hadn’t gotten to the worst of it yet. I just hadn’t gotten there. There are some things so awful that just saying what they are is enough to turn your stomach, and the litanies of events in this war are such things. It's not made any easier by knowing that they're based on real events, for more information please refer to "A Note from the Author" at the back of the book. These events are crucial to the plot, as it's a story about how a teenage girl gradually breaks from a focused and idealistic war orphan into a shape driven to wield rage and wage war, and how the power she intends to wield is so immense and all-consuming that only the driven and damned would court it.
The characters are vibrant and distinct, even the ones the MC doesn't like are interesting as individuals. I felt like I really got to know them during the first half or so of the book. It showed at times how individual characters understand the same events differently, and I didn't always find myself agreeing with the MC's interpretation. I understood why even some minor characters made their choices. The narrative continually conveys nuanced and varied interpretations of events, making it feel simultaneously like there were so many better options and also like, for these particular characters, there was no other way. It's deftly done.
Read this if you like books featuring war in a fantasy setting with excellent worldbuilding and a large cast of complex characters. Read it when you're ready to feel broken.
Started out very promising, with excellent world building based on early 20th century China and a good underdog character who thinks outside the box. But then the main character turns into a sullen, whiny, genocidal monster who sees the entire world in black and white, ignoring the abuse she receives from her own allies even as she ceases to view the enemy as human. The really dark parts, which are based on actual history, felt shoehorned in as a lazy way to show just how bad the enemy was.
