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S. L. Huang: The River Judge (2024, Tor.com) 4 stars

In this prequel novelette to the critically acclaimed THE WATER OUTLAWS, nine-year-old Li Li is …

A young girl does all the hard work and finally shows what she is made of

4 stars

An interesting story of a young girl who helps her mother and father run an inn by the river. Only, she and her mother do all the hard work of keeping the inn running while the father does other 'monetary activities' and they have to clean up after him.

That cleaning up includes getting rid of the corpses of officials and others that the father kills to prevent them interfering with his business of making money. Resentment builds up in the girl when she sees her father been flattered by the villagers while she and her mother are ignored.

But it all comes to a head when a ghost appears and exposes the whole operation. And now, the girl must act in the only way she can to save the business, even if it means being mean to her father.