Thorough World Building

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Lee does extensive work setting the scene and building up the world Xiang and Ahn inhabit so that you can see, taste, and smell it as you read. It is incredibly well done, and the setting is beautifully rich with different languages and cultures. It was wonderful to see a classic and well known story retold with girls as the main characters and without a white-centric narrative.
I loved all the details and stories we here about the glory days of the pirates and how the Head of the Dragon rose to power and kept her power in a world of men. I just wish there had been more pirate stuff and more action.
Lee remained very true to the original in that most of the action takes place on the island, and that there aren't many big dramatic battles. And while I loved the way the pirates were defeated at the end I was a little disappointed that there weren't more adventure elements throughout the story.
Overall it was an enjoyable read and clever remix on a classic.