Duology Review: An East Asian Retelling of the Evil Queen Fairytale
This duology by Julie C. Dao had been sitting on my physical TBR for about a year, so I finally picked them up a couple weeks ago. If you love fairytale retellings, morally gray characters, and villain origin stories, you might love this duology. But be warned, they have a bit of a meandering pace, but if you don’t mind that, and you’re looking for a lush folklore-filled East Asian setting, they’re worth picking up. I’d give both of these books three stars.
Things to know:
Snow White + the Evil Queen retelling
It’s YA, but be prepared for gore and violence
Both books are full of fables and folklore
Little people are represented
Book One: Forest of a Thousand Lanterns
“She was a poem come to life, and each vein was a lyric.”
The first book in this duology is told from the perspective of Xifeng, a poor but beautiful young seamstress who is abused by her “evil aunt” who also tells her she’s destined to become the Empress of Feng Lu, the forest kingdom. Her childhood love is this character that honestly reminded me a bit of Peeta from The Hunger Games. However, unlike Peeta, his dream is to become a soldier in the Imperial Army. He just wants her to be at home, raising their future children.
You know this relationship isn’t going to end well.
It was heartbreaking seeing Xifeng descend into madness because at the beginning of the story you feel so bad for her, and can’t imagine her becoming “the evil queen” we know from the fairytale. But she slowly chips away at her morality and what she’s willing to do and sacrifice to achieve her destiny.
“Cry not, for your tears are no more than rain upon your enemy’s face.”
It’s a very dark retelling. And to be honest, by the end, I wasn’t rooting for her at all. Be prepared for a lot of vanity (she is the fairest after all). It’s also quite slow. I loved the Empress most of all, and I wish we had more page time with her. Xifeng’s relationship with her is so interesting because the Empress must die in order for Xifeng’s destiny to be realized, and yet, she’s the only healthy mother figure Xifeng has.
Overall, this first book was extremely slow and frustrating at times, but somehow I had to know how this little girl was going to transform into one of the worst villains we know.
Book Two: Kingdom of the Blazing Phoenix
“But then again, we all have dreams within reach. We have only to shape them to fit ourselves.”
In this second installment we follow White Jade, the “Snow White” character, and the last true daughter and heir of the emperor. I was hoping we would get a dual POV here between her and Xifeng, as I thought that would have made for a super interesting take. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen.
It’s also heavy on fables. The author uses them as a device to move the plot forward constantly, and as much as I love fables, it did get a little old. I did really appreciate the representation of little people, and you can’t help but love a reluctant hero.
Princess Jade was a bit naive, but she was raised away from court in a monastery, and other than knowing she’s the crown princess, she doesn’t really have any sense of court politics or how a royal should behave. The side characters were some of my favorite parts of this book.
However, this was yet another extremely slow novel. It took almost 100 pages to get to any sort of plot. I missed the complex MC we had in Forest of a Thousand Lanterns, and I found myself waiting for Xifeng to make a reappearance, which took a while.
While the first book was more interesting from a complex character perspective, we get to see a bit more of the world and magic system in this one. It’s 100% a quest story, which I normally love, but this one didn’t quite hit the mark.
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