𝑾𝒂𝒓 𝒅𝒐𝒆𝒔𝒏'𝒕 𝒅𝒆𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒆 𝒘𝒉𝒐'𝒔 𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕. 𝑾𝒂𝒓 𝒅𝒆𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒔 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒓𝒆𝒎𝒂𝒊𝒏𝒔.

𝑾𝒂𝒔 𝒔𝒉𝒆 𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒂 𝒈𝒐𝒅𝒅𝒆𝒔𝒔 𝒐𝒓 𝒂 𝒎𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓? 𝑷𝒆𝒓𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒔 𝒏𝒆𝒊𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓. 𝑷𝒆𝒓𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒔 𝒃𝒐𝒕𝒉.
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I'm in two minds about this book.

On the one hand - it has a lot of stuff I'm really a fan of. It's Asian history, it's using fantasy elements to explore a darker side of history. It's shining a light on an important and oft ignored part of Asian history. It's dealing with some big moral questions and grappling with uncomfortable and seriously large topics. I love fantasy that does all that. It's got a strong and bloodthirsty FMC, it's got found family (as far as grimdark goes!) It's got morally grey choices and uncontrollable dark powers.

All really great. So why am I struggling with my rating?

I've said about Kuang before, I think I suffer in my reading of these novels of hers because I do have a solid grounding in a lot of areas of history. I feel like I'm frequently being spoon fed stuff. None of this felt remotely subtle to me. The parallels with real life events (Nanjing, Hiroshima) are really quite explicit. Now I don't have a problem with this from a moral or ethical standpoint and the arguments that you wouldn't get away with it for Western atrocities doesn't hold weight for me. Rather it's more a question of imagination. I like to have to work a bit at making the parallels and there was none of that here. I also found it tricky to connect to any of the characters really. I'm not sure if this was a pacing problem, or whether I just didn't feel they were particularly well drawn. For its length, we don't get a lot of character development aside from our two main characters.

Having said all of that, I still enjoyed the story and I'll continue with the trilogy, I'm interested in what happens to Rin and I'm hoping for more connection as the novel progresses.