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mainereading's review against another edition
4.0
I loved this book and had a blast reading it! Although I do have to say in my opinion, the first one is better and is also my favorite of the two. This book brought out a lot of emotions and had me laughing one moment and sobbing the next. Kyoshi and her allies were awesome characters, but Yun has to be my absolute favorite character and my heart broke for him. He deserved so much better.
kitty77044's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
densorcell's review against another edition
adventurous
lighthearted
3.5
Prequels always worry me, but this one did a good job! It paid enough fan service to go “oh how fun, I remember those animals that can sniff people out,” but not too much that I (who’s only seen Avatar once and retained very little) couldn’t follow the story because it relied too heavily on existing material. The lore dumps and morals might’ve been a bit on-the-nose, but this was meant to be a light read, and it succeeded on that front.
Could’ve been more gay though. The two MCs didn’t break out of old patterns of friendship when they became lovers except for a single, admittedly-passionate kiss. That being said, I’d much prefer a “content but boring” couple in the sequel than a “manufactured argument to keep things interesting” couple. I think the queer rep is cool, but we could probably have BETTER queer rep. This walked so others could run.
Could’ve been more gay though. The two MCs didn’t break out of old patterns of friendship when they became lovers except for a single, admittedly-passionate kiss. That being said, I’d much prefer a “content but boring” couple in the sequel than a “manufactured argument to keep things interesting” couple. I think the queer rep is cool, but we could probably have BETTER queer rep. This walked so others could run.
michaeldp12234's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
toridawn817's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
medium-paced
3.5
Again I just wanted it ti be more gay and romantic but it's a YA read so it was very tame lol. Still a great book
literatelizard's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
inquesoitrust's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
bookdragons's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
3.0
john_nygma's review
adventurous
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
While entertaining, this was not as good as the first book of this mini-series, so this second instalment gets a 3.75 from me. This book brings some fun and interesting elements to the world of Avatar and the story of Kyoshi, however, this book's unfocused storyline and treatment of certain Avatar lore, kept me from enjoying this one as much as the previous book.
I still massively enjoy Kyoshi as a character. The first book was her accepting that she is the Avatar, and in the second book we see her truly being the Avatar for the world as she has to save people and entire nations from being destroyed. I liked that we see Kyoshi struggle, not everything comes easy to her and she definitely feels the weight of being the Avatar more than ever. While I wished that the success rate of Kyoshi's plans had been a little more balanced, I much more prefer seeing Kyoshi having to come up with new ideas, instead of everything working out immediately because she's super special. I still think her bending powers develop too quickly considering the timeline, however, it was interesting to see all the different kinds of new techniques she has acquired since the last book. In general, I loved seeing all the different and creative types of bending in this story, e.g. glass being a form of earth bending or freezing a body's insides.
The secondary characters in this are entertaining enough, however, they're not on par with the group from the last book. Rangi still reigns as number one fire girlfriend and I liked that her and Kyoshi's relationship had to survive some wobbles but remained strong until the very end. However, I do wish the two of them had spent more time together as an actual couple, it felt a little too casual at times. I like that we get to know Rangi's mum a bit more in this, especially her relationship with her daughter and seeing how she navigates the fire nation traditions. While I do think some of the other new side characters are interesting, e.g. the Fire Lord or the unconventional water healer, they never reach the same level of entertainment and depth that I felt for the secondary characters of the previous book. I also think Yun had the potential to be a much more fascinating character and I think his relationship with Kyoshi and Rangi should've been explore more. His motivations were also still a little too simple and vague by the end, so I felt like I bearly knew him by the time the book ended.
Concerning the story, this book was a bit too confusing at times. Yee went a bit overboard with his purple prose in this one, there also didn't seem to be one coherent focus point the story was fully hinging on. This led to a story that felt really convoluted and overly complicated at times. However, I did enjoy all the details we got on Fire Nation traditions and culture. Seeing Kyoshi trying to navigate the Fire Nation's etiquette and how those rules impacted her and the people around her, was very interesting to get into. I also like that the story attempted to pull in some other Avatars and have Kyoshi try and communicate with them, even though she struggles with the spiritual elements of her avatarhood. I like that we get to know more about Avatar Kuruk, however, I have to question the background we get for him. Because there's virtually no mention of what we know of him from the cartoon. He talks about fighting spirits a lot. But what about the stuff he mentioned to Aang: that he lived in a relatively peaceful time, that he was a happy guy who met the love of his life, and how said love then lost her face to the face stealer ghost. There's literally zero mention of any of that in this book and I find that very strange. It almost feels a bit like a redcon, or at least a very big oversight and I don't understand how no one in editing picked up on it.
So I did enjoy this book , but it also had some bigger flaws that dragged the overall reading experience down for me. I appreciate the attempt to show Kyoshi's origin and the expansion on the Avatar world. With this book I just hoped the story could've been more cohesive and focused on or two major points instead of constantly taking detours. I'd still recommend this to fans of the show, but perhaps turn down your expansions a little.
I still massively enjoy Kyoshi as a character. The first book was her accepting that she is the Avatar, and in the second book we see her truly being the Avatar for the world as she has to save people and entire nations from being destroyed. I liked that we see Kyoshi struggle, not everything comes easy to her and she definitely feels the weight of being the Avatar more than ever. While I wished that the success rate of Kyoshi's plans had been a little more balanced, I much more prefer seeing Kyoshi having to come up with new ideas, instead of everything working out immediately because she's super special. I still think her bending powers develop too quickly considering the timeline, however, it was interesting to see all the different kinds of new techniques she has acquired since the last book. In general, I loved seeing all the different and creative types of bending in this story, e.g. glass being a form of earth bending or freezing a body's insides.
The secondary characters in this are entertaining enough, however, they're not on par with the group from the last book. Rangi still reigns as number one fire girlfriend and I liked that her and Kyoshi's relationship had to survive some wobbles but remained strong until the very end. However, I do wish the two of them had spent more time together as an actual couple, it felt a little too casual at times. I like that we get to know Rangi's mum a bit more in this, especially her relationship with her daughter and seeing how she navigates the fire nation traditions. While I do think some of the other new side characters are interesting, e.g. the Fire Lord or the unconventional water healer, they never reach the same level of entertainment and depth that I felt for the secondary characters of the previous book. I also think Yun had the potential to be a much more fascinating character and I think his relationship with Kyoshi and Rangi should've been explore more. His motivations were also still a little too simple and vague by the end, so I felt like I bearly knew him by the time the book ended.
Concerning the story, this book was a bit too confusing at times. Yee went a bit overboard with his purple prose in this one, there also didn't seem to be one coherent focus point the story was fully hinging on. This led to a story that felt really convoluted and overly complicated at times. However, I did enjoy all the details we got on Fire Nation traditions and culture. Seeing Kyoshi trying to navigate the Fire Nation's etiquette and how those rules impacted her and the people around her, was very interesting to get into. I also like that the story attempted to pull in some other Avatars and have Kyoshi try and communicate with them, even though she struggles with the spiritual elements of her avatarhood. I like that we get to know more about Avatar Kuruk, however, I have to question the background we get for him. Because there's virtually no mention of what we know of him from the cartoon. He talks about fighting spirits a lot. But what about the stuff he mentioned to Aang: that he lived in a relatively peaceful time, that he was a happy guy who met the love of his life, and how said love then lost her face to the face stealer ghost. There's literally zero mention of any of that in this book and I find that very strange. It almost feels a bit like a redcon, or at least a very big oversight and I don't understand how no one in editing picked up on it.
So I did enjoy this book , but it also had some bigger flaws that dragged the overall reading experience down for me. I appreciate the attempt to show Kyoshi's origin and the expansion on the Avatar world. With this book I just hoped the story could've been more cohesive and focused on or two major points instead of constantly taking detours. I'd still recommend this to fans of the show, but perhaps turn down your expansions a little.
sydney_jane's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75