A bit disappointing
I was so, so excited for this book when I first found out about it. It has character portraits and a map and A TABLE OF CONTENTS! With CHAPTER TITLES! The plot was intriguing as well. So I read the book and… lets just say that my thoughts are mixed. I also want to preface this by saying that I am not familiar with the Three Kingdoms, so I have no idea how accurate this retelling is. I know that many of the characters are genderbent, but that is it. All the opinions I'm expressing are solely based on the story as it is presented in this book.
The first half of the book was amazing. The scheming! The espionage! The abundance of strong, well-written female characters! I was loving it! I loved Zephyr, especially. It was very refreshing to get a female protagonist who showed us that she was smart through her actions, instead of just telling us. I was very invested in her and what was going on. The other characters were fine, I don't really remember much about them but they served their purpose well enough. I didn't even really mind Zephyr's weird little romance with Crow. I don't really like straight romances in YA fantasy (or YA in general) because they tend to overtake the plot so much that its less of a fantasy novel and more of a romance novel with some magical elements and a vague, uninteresting war. But this one wasn't too intrusive, and the main focus was always on the war and politics. Everything was going so well, and I was really enjoying myself!
And then the twist happened.
Oh god, the twist.
I'm going to be perfectly blunt- I hate the twist. And this is coming from someone who loves magic and mythology and all that garbage. I'm going to be as vague as I can because I'm trying to keep this spoiler free, but its awful. It just totally took me out of the story and frustrated me. I don't like that not only is Zephyr not actually herself for the second half of the book, but it takes away another character I really liked in the process! I liked them a lot, and now they are probably never coming back. This next point is more spoiler-y, so proceed with caution, but it also kind of ruins Zephyr's character for me. I liked that she was this clever, capable young woman! But now, this stupid twist reveals that actually she isn't that, and her smarts come from something else. Its annoying. At the very least, there is still Zephyr being clever in the second half, but I just don't like that part.
Overall, I think I did like the book despite the very not so good parts of it. This is supposed to be a series, and I think I'll continue reading it just to see what happens next. I do like the world and Zephyr, so I'm willing to ignore the bits I don't like. Oh, and I guess its also worth mentioning that there is some background sapphics in this book. They don't do much together, and it's really only mentioned briefly like twice but maybe they'll get more development in the next book.
The first half of the book was amazing. The scheming! The espionage! The abundance of strong, well-written female characters! I was loving it! I loved Zephyr, especially. It was very refreshing to get a female protagonist who showed us that she was smart through her actions, instead of just telling us. I was very invested in her and what was going on. The other characters were fine, I don't really remember much about them but they served their purpose well enough. I didn't even really mind Zephyr's weird little romance with Crow. I don't really like straight romances in YA fantasy (or YA in general) because they tend to overtake the plot so much that its less of a fantasy novel and more of a romance novel with some magical elements and a vague, uninteresting war. But this one wasn't too intrusive, and the main focus was always on the war and politics. Everything was going so well, and I was really enjoying myself!
And then the twist happened.
Oh god, the twist.
I'm going to be perfectly blunt- I hate the twist. And this is coming from someone who loves magic and mythology and all that garbage. I'm going to be as vague as I can because I'm trying to keep this spoiler free, but its awful. It just totally took me out of the story and frustrated me. I don't like that not only is Zephyr not actually herself for the second half of the book, but it takes away another character I really liked in the process! I liked them a lot, and now they are probably never coming back. This next point is more spoiler-y, so proceed with caution, but it also kind of ruins Zephyr's character for me. I liked that she was this clever, capable young woman! But now, this stupid twist reveals that actually she isn't that, and her smarts come from something else. Its annoying. At the very least, there is still Zephyr being clever in the second half, but I just don't like that part.
Overall, I think I did like the book despite the very not so good parts of it. This is supposed to be a series, and I think I'll continue reading it just to see what happens next. I do like the world and Zephyr, so I'm willing to ignore the bits I don't like. Oh, and I guess its also worth mentioning that there is some background sapphics in this book. They don't do much together, and it's really only mentioned briefly like twice but maybe they'll get more development in the next book.