A review by blockofsoy
Apricot's Revenge: A Crime Novel by Song Ying, 松鹰

2.0

I honestly cannot finish this book - I am sure it's a great read in its native language (Chinese) but the translated version falls very flat. The story is uninteresting, the characters are hard to get into because they don't seem to have personalities or thoughts, and it reads at a very slow pace. The issue with translating the Chinese language is that the language in itself is very poetic; there may be 10 ways to describe one thing, and it isn't possible to capture that poeticism with the English language. The result is a very dulled and dumbed down version of the story. Perhaps the original is just as bland, but for now, this one will be put back on the shelf and not read again.