It’s been about a year and a half since I read this series over the course of a month, so I was a bit worried I wouldn’t remember enough for these short stories. Luckily, the way these short stories have been designed and written, they’re fantastic to read almost whenever, either right after finishing Jade City or the whole series, or even months or years after finishing. The stories remind you of what you need without getting bogged down by it, and it was honestly really nice to revisit these characters after so long.

These stories can be seen as prequel stories, all occurring before Jade City, but they showcase events we’ve heard about throughout the trilogy already. While in that way nothing truly ‘new’, is being revealed or shown here, it does give a different perspective on events we already thought we knew. We got to see Anden’s mother, before she succumbed to the itches, and we got to see Lan before the events of Jade City changed him. We also got to see Wen and Hilo falling in love, and see Shae before she was shaped by studying in a foreign country. In a way, it really felt like fanfiction about characters we’ve already come to know and love, and it made the stories so easy to read, even if the content was not very light.

I think my favorite thing, though, were the author’s notes added after each story. It explained Fonda’s motivation for writing each story, and gave more insight both on the events themselves and how she thought about certain aspects of this series, and why she made the choices she did. I feel like I got a look behind the curtain of this series, and I honestly loved it!

Overall, this is a perfect, brief addition to a series I already love with my whole heart, and while I wouldn’t say it’s a necessity, it is also a fantastic way to dive a bit deeper into the world of Janloon and the Green Bones.