There is nothing I love more in YA right now than the #OwnVoices movement, and the fact this this is a fairy tale-esque story only makes it better. As someone who was brought up on tales of good, evil and love conquering all, I appreciated this East Asian spin on a somewhat familiar background story.
Bao, a young physician’s assistant, is desperately seeking the affection of his long time-crush Lan, but due to his involvement in a less than advisable scheme on behalf of his employer, he ends up heartbroken. Lan herself, after realizing she has been played the fool, is understandably upset and says some really regrettable things to poor Bao. Bao goes off to lick his wounds and ends up being cursed by a witch (something that has happened to all of us, I’m sure). The curse is that he will be trapped in his favorite possession, a bamboo flute, until true love sets him free, because of course that’s where the story is going, it’s a fairy tale after all!
The best part for me to read was the journey to how all that plays out. There are a several interesting elements in this novel that intrigued me, most notably the class disparity and the illegal distribution of a drug that is a thinly veiled reference to opium. There is romance as well (naturally) but I enjoyed the honest approach to two people getting to know each other throughout the course of the story, instead of the insta-love that seems to crop out of no where in the typical fairy tale. I enjoyed the character’s growing understanding of what love really means, not just the face value of the emotion.
Overall, I think this is a great replacement for the fairy tales of old, and I hope young people will read this and appreciate the cultural elements present here, because I think that is the most interesting story of all.
Bao, a young physician’s assistant, is desperately seeking the affection of his long time-crush Lan, but due to his involvement in a less than advisable scheme on behalf of his employer, he ends up heartbroken. Lan herself, after realizing she has been played the fool, is understandably upset and says some really regrettable things to poor Bao. Bao goes off to lick his wounds and ends up being cursed by a witch (something that has happened to all of us, I’m sure). The curse is that he will be trapped in his favorite possession, a bamboo flute, until true love sets him free, because of course that’s where the story is going, it’s a fairy tale after all!
The best part for me to read was the journey to how all that plays out. There are a several interesting elements in this novel that intrigued me, most notably the class disparity and the illegal distribution of a drug that is a thinly veiled reference to opium. There is romance as well (naturally) but I enjoyed the honest approach to two people getting to know each other throughout the course of the story, instead of the insta-love that seems to crop out of no where in the typical fairy tale. I enjoyed the character’s growing understanding of what love really means, not just the face value of the emotion.
Overall, I think this is a great replacement for the fairy tales of old, and I hope young people will read this and appreciate the cultural elements present here, because I think that is the most interesting story of all.