Reviews

Getting through this book was the most painful experience I have had to go through lately. I dreaded every second of it and I'll never get that time back.

I think one of the main reasons for my dislike is that this is a story about people who hate themselves, specifically because of their queerness and of their womanhood/femininity, or the womanhood that was imposed on them. So I couldn't allow myself to be fully immersed into the story. And the fact that until the end that womanhood is hidden, shoved into the darkness, and denied just didn't sit right with me.

The titles of these 2 books are so misleading because I was more than halfway through the book and I still wasn't sure who is "he who drowned the world."

The text was too challenging for me. I don't know whether it was because I didn't feel engaged in the story or it was the actual writing, but the amount of times i had to reread a whole page because I felt like I was reading nothing, was insane.

Felt no connection with the characters, and out of all of 3 of them, Baoxiang was probably the only one with some sort of development.....

I HATED HATED the multiple POVs. for this duology the best thing the author could have done was to have only 2 POVs of the 2 main (?) characters, instead of throwing us into the minds of everyone else just to fill in the voids.

mikilla's review against another edition

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This is a not right now for me. I need to reread the first book and be reading fewer fantasies at the same time.

kaulhilo's review against another edition

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5.0

i really loved this a lot. this book is such an excellent study in pain and misery, in all its types and forms, that i’m astounded, finishing this, how spc managed to narrate quite this many layers of grey to the same overarching emotion: grief. it’s done explicitly and wonderfully, written out in brutal details and confessions and moments of shame, painted in contrast to the possibility of glory and achieving makebelieve self-realization. the writing is exquisite, with sharp turns and angles, taking our characters from where they left off in the first novel, in something of a stalemate, to the climax and conclusion of one of the most fascinating and riveting retellings i’ve personally read, of chinese history. it’s a wonderful book. we go through fallacies and ruin, through self-doubt and hate, and there are several, several moments that had me scared of which way this book was going to go. there’s so much an author, and then the book they write in turn, hold in their hands, and i’ve never been so utterly aware of it as in this book, where a deficient resolution would’ve wrecked most of what the duology was trying to do. but - the ending lands perfectly, it creates space for something that held so much value in the face of strife and suffering, brings the characters to a resolution they were “destined” for, and was truly - really - earnestly, immaculate. AND i’m saying this knowing full well the author has revised the arc to make the final edition somehow even better, and there are just no words for how excited i am to get to read that when it releases.

thank you to tor books for the arc. (5/5)

nlonghi's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

chaithra's review

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dark emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

add this to the weavers of alamaxa and the blood trials in the "this would've been so much better if there was a book 3" club. the story felt rushed, the deaths felt incomplete and even the ending felt a little rushed. i enjoyed the story and will probably reread in a better state of mind. i do think this is worth your time if you are looking for a dark fantasy with elements of gender exploration and what it means to have a fate but i just wish parker-chan made this a trilogy.

tenaciousz's review

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The book was good, it was just too dark and grim a mood for what I wanted at the time. Will probably pick back up again later

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