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heyjaycee's review
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Lin is a princess of a valley kingdom, where royalty, aka Jewels, are attended upon by servants, called Lapidaries, who can manipulate the will of the valley's native magical gemstones. Lin is a young woman trained for nothing but courtliness and a good marriage. Sima is her lapidary, daughter of the king's lapidary but unskilled, only able to manipulate the most basic gems. When treason strikes and these two are the only members of the court left alive, Lin and Sima must find a way to thwart the invading nation's plans to conquer the valley.
This is a story of death and despair. We see the valley only after it has fallen, alternating between Sima and Lin's viewpoints and the epigraphs taken from a travel guide set far in the future. As these snippets imply from the very beginning, Sima and Lin are doomed to fail. There are only small victories available to them, and to achieve them they must sacrifice everything.
I've been meaning to read this one since it came out and I heard a lot of good buzz about the queer f/f romance. Having finally got around to it, I sort of wish I hadn't. Altogether too much wallowing in exquisite grief for my taste, and not enough actually doing anything at all. There is one triumphant action in this novella, and it happens right at the end, and it is thoroughly paid for—and I still don't understand why it had to be Sima to do that, and not Lin.
I'm just not super onboard with stories where the servant has to die so the noble can live—even if they're in love. Maybe especially if they're in love. Your mileage may vary.
This is a story of death and despair. We see the valley only after it has fallen, alternating between Sima and Lin's viewpoints and the epigraphs taken from a travel guide set far in the future. As these snippets imply from the very beginning, Sima and Lin are doomed to fail. There are only small victories available to them, and to achieve them they must sacrifice everything.
I've been meaning to read this one since it came out and I heard a lot of good buzz about the queer f/f romance. Having finally got around to it, I sort of wish I hadn't. Altogether too much wallowing in exquisite grief for my taste, and not enough actually doing anything at all. There is one triumphant action in this novella, and it happens right at the end, and it is thoroughly paid for—and I still don't understand why it had to be Sima to do that, and not Lin.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence
There is a lot of murder in this, therefore a lot of corpses, and alsomal_eficent's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
fast-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This was so interesting as a tiny snapshot into the world – though I was left slightly disappointed by the amount of story we got. It felt like we were thrown mid story into a world that was fully functional, which I always love, but then that the story never actually...finished. It might be because the narrative is split between the travel guide from years in the future and the character perspectives, which technically does fill in the gaps, but I still felt like it cut off suddenly. I'll forgive it for that, though, as I loved guide inserts being used so much in this novella format.
If you can go with a different version, don't pick up the audiobook version of this. While the narrator is pretty good, the publisher has not paid enough attention to the editing. There's quite a few sentences that are just repeated for seemingly no reason. If this is also in the text, then I'll take my words back, but I'd also knock off a star as it's incredibly jarring.
If you can go with a different version, don't pick up the audiobook version of this. While the narrator is pretty good, the publisher has not paid enough attention to the editing. There's quite a few sentences that are just repeated for seemingly no reason. If this is also in the text, then I'll take my words back, but I'd also knock off a star as it's incredibly jarring.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, Suicide, and Kidnapping
Moderate: Forced institutionalization
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