khyie's Reviews (267)

 Satisfying is probably the best way to describe my overall impression of this book. It brought closure to all of the main plotlines, set a hook for continuing adventures if Bardugo decides she wants to come back to the Grishaverse, had some really damned cool elements and some not so cool elements but I was in general satisfied with the conclusion. Bardugo's had a lot of growth as a writer since Shadow & Bone and I will continue to be excited about new books coming out by her.

Things I loved:
1. Best thing hands down was

DRAGON!ZOYA

. Totally saw it coming but it was still soooo damned cool. 
 2. Definitely did not see

Queen!Zoya

coming but I'm not mad about it.
3. I will go down with all these ships. You cannot take them from me. They are all my precious babies.
4. The different plotlines tied together much better in this book. What Nina was doing and what Nicolai/Zoya were doing did not feel as disconnected so there wasn't that jarring feeling like you were reading two different books at once this time.
5. Alina, Mal, and the Darkling were still characterized as I remembered them. I've seen so many fan interpretations since I read that trilogy that had made me start doubting how I recollected the characters, especially since I only read the series once, but I was pleased that this book pretty much did confirm the things I already thought about them. Not getting on a soapbox here but yo. Sometimes I genuinely wonder if I read the same books as everyone else when I see some of the stuff put out there. 
6.

I was crazy worried at the end of King of Scars that this was going to end up being a the Darkling redemption story. I don't feel like it really swung in that direction. I could see how interpretation is going to try and paint that picture because of what the Darkling did on the battlefield and his sacrifice at the end of the book, but I think Bardugo did a pretty decent job showing that his motivations were still always inherently selfish. He wants to be the savior, no matter what the cost, but for once that cost is to himself instead of others. He's still willing to pay it but I think if he thought he could make himself MORE appreciated by the populace by sacrificing someone else to that weird tree, he would've done that instead. He's still a shit terrible person who has done and probably would continue to do shit terrible things for his own desires, but it just so happened that to work out in everyone else's favor this time around.

 Things I was ambivalent about:
1. The Darkling. I still hate him. I will probably always hate him. But I didn't hate how he was characterized or developed in this story.
2. Hanna. I loved what Bardugo was trying to do with the character and I love the trans rep, but I just wish we'd gotten more from Hanna's perspective. More development, more time spent on it... just something so they felt as developed as the other characters. They just felt... underutilized and underdeveloped, especially when character work is where Bardugo excels as a writer.
3. The stuff with Shu Han. It did shed more light on the Grishaverse as a whole, expanding the world and it did so while still remaining plot relevant, but there was a LOT going on in this book and it kind of blurred into "just another event" instead of being interesting and intriguing in it's own right.
4. This still doesn't feel like Nicolai's story. He's an important piece to the story, of course, and he is having his own journey and development but Zoya's is still weightier than his. It isn't a bad thing, it's still really well written, but it's just a touch jarring when everything outside of the book wants me to see this as Nicolai's story and it is, but Zoya still overshadows him. YMMV on whether this is a good thing or a bad thing. 

 

Things I didn't like:
1. The cameos. Gods, I wanted to. I LOVE the SoC characters. I wanted to be happy to see them. It's just that all of their appearances felt so forced. I kind of wish they hadn't happened. I would've been fine if they hadn't happened, especially not like that.
2. Leigh. Leigh Bardugo. Why did you have to do Genya like that? Like, I get that you like to make characters suffer, but that was so awful. Thumbs down. Do not like.

 Ahhhhhh, this story massacred me. I had so many feelings while reading this. From my indignant fury with the Emperors and the nobility of this world, to my heart melting over just how good Yan Xiaohan and Fu Shen were to each other, and my sincere appreciation over the healthiness of their relationship. Continuing in the vein of FLFL, these two actually talk to each other! They communicate! They love each other but they don't stop functioning without the other in their lives. Golden Stage does take a bit to pick up in the beginning because it does kind of feel like a lot of info dumping but when it picks up, it unfolds into a beautiful relationship and a whole lot of political and wartime shenanigans. Fu Shen might not be in the best place politically at the start of this novel, but he doesn't remain that way and both Yan Xiaohan and Fu Shen are very powerful and very capable people and it's just so damned nice to read a Chinese webnovel where the relationship actually feels balanced.
Also balanced, healthy, and beautiful is their intimate relationship. Fu Shen gives just as good as he gets and the pages are almost entirely blissfully free of him acting like shrinking virginal shou or complaints after every act of intimacy of being broken because the gong was too rough with him. I think it did makes it's appearance once, maybe twice, but there were circumstances around it and every time he willingly went into it and often instigated their encounters.
Minor CW for a dubcon scene

Yan Xiaohan gets dosed with an aphrodisiac and Fu Shen has to sleep with him to help treat the symptoms. There were plenty of indications prior that both Yan Xiaohan and Fu Shen were only interested in consensual sex (!!! actual mentions of consent as a concept even!!!) and were willing to have sex with each other and Fu Shen doesn't feel pressured. Yan Xiaohan's main reservation about the whole matter was that he couldn't remember what had happened and thought he had slept with someone other than Fu Shen. Once it's clear the act was done with his husband, he's fine with it. Overall, I felt the whole situation was handled about as well as could be handled with drug induced sex

 
 The extras were also good, especially the one about Fu Tingxin and the Prince of Su. 

 t was an interesting idea and I liked a lot of elements of it but when I think of it altogether, I feel kind of meh about it. I think it probably had one of the few "explanations" for the system that I've actually found interesting but the ghost barrage elements got kind of annoying and while I understand they couldn't be entirely dropped, they did still seem to be repetitious. Also the whole "can't kill other actors" element was... oddly enforced. On the one hand, the loopholes Xie Chi found to using the movies for doing the killing did make sense but when it came to

Shen Yi's death, Si Nian's death, and Jiang Zhuo's attempt to kill Xie Chi, they all pretty much seemed to not care at all about that element. They just killed them and there didn't seem to be any repercussions for this.

 My other biggest gripe about the storytelling is one that has conflicted reasoning. On one hand, because Xie Xinglan is a subpersonality of Xie Chi, it does make sense that his character would fade in and out of scenes. At the same time though, like many other MLs in these stories, he seems to just disappear off the page if he isn't doing one of two things: flirting with the MC or protecting the MC. It means that aside from "strong" "protective" and "obsessed with Xie Chi," he doesn't really have anything else to define him. The side characters are better developed and that isn't honestly saying much. Maybe part of this could've been resolved if Xie Xinglan had been able to obtain his body before Xie Chi turned his focus to the other big mission, but I suspect not since there was a whole arc where Xie Xinglan existed outside of Xie Chi and... he still managed to get little to no development.
The extras were fine. They brought some closure to some matters but the last one just felt kind of pointless.
Overall, it was an enjoyable read and did some things I hadn't seen before (the tarot arc was actually pretty cool and I really liked the various twists and turns of the plots) and Xie Chi as a character was a fun element, though I didn't quite get some of the vibes the story was trying to lay down about him but it didn't blow me away. 

 I, for the most part, enjoyed what I read up to this point but I honestly have no desire to continue this story. Maybe that will change in the future but probably not.
This is a pretty typical example of the cute pet boyfriend trope and nothing about it particularly stood out except that he was a fish and I had a great many questions about the realism of literally anything that happened in this story in relation to that. The other thing that I really enjoyed is that the ML really was mute and up to where I read, there was no magical fix that suddenly made him capable of talking, and seeing them navigate that part of their relationship was interesting, and I think in some ways, it spotlights just how easy it is to take advantage of someone who can't speak. There were times when they were arguing that I just wanted to scream at the MC because he could say whatever he wanted and he could just walk away and the ML wouldn't have any chance to really defend himself because he wasn't able to express himself vocally and the MC could just refuse to read the notes he tried to pass him.
Once all of the relationship stuff was straightened up though and the babies came into the picture, the story lost a lot of it's steam. I don't particularly care about the face-slapping and the MC is clearly going to find a way to become human for as long as he wants. The only thing I could see this story doing that isn't already incredibly apparent is

revealing that the ML's muteness is deliberate sabotage and doing something to rectify it. There's been hints already and one of the few things I've actually enjoyed about this story is that the ML's disability wasn't negated--I'm looking at you Insider--and I'm not interested in seeing the story go that route.

 Anyway, if you want a cute pet boyfriend story I don't think this one is all that bad but I really need to stop trying to read these. I've DNFed every single one I've tried out of boredom and this one isn't any different. 

 A little heart wrenching at the start but has a very good message about communicating your wants and needs being vital to a relationship. I love me a good story about communication. The face-slapping bit wasn't entirely necessary but did give the ML a chance to really show how much he doted on the MC. 

 This is not a book that requires a lot of mental engagement. It's mostly tooth-rotting fluff. There's a couple issues with the initial establishment of the main CPs relationship, mainly because He Cheng Ming comes on REALLY strong and is not interested in no, but he is, for the most part, respectful of Ji Liao's boundaries. Their relationship very quickly comes together and most of the rest of the story is He Cheng Ming being a doting, loyal boyfriend. All of the conflicts in the story are resolved incredibly easily, although YMMV on whether or not you're satisfied with that conflict's resolution.
The second CP is trash though. I didn't even bother to read the extras because what little you saw of it in the main text told me I was NOT going to be happy with it.
Another plus is that, for the most part, this story is really good to its female characters, which shouldn't be something I have to say but there you have it. YMMV as well on whether or not you find fujoshi characters overtly shipping people who they actually know discomfiting (I really do) but Xu Xiao Ming is a steadfast ally to Ji Liao and even Meng Yao Yao, who had a crush on He Cheng Meng, takes being shot down with grace and does what she can to support their relationship. I have mixed feelings on Jiang Qi because I really, really wanted to like her and if you can ignore her blatant willingness to try and obtain someone who already has a significant other, she is an awesome big sister-type character. But also. She was absolutely willing to wreck her brother-in-law's relationship just because she thought his boyfriend was cute.
Overall, the story is a simple read and a nice way to pass the time but it doesn't particularly stand out in any way. 

 Well. That was a story. And I read it. I wrote in my notes that a month from reading it I wasn't going to remember anything about it and that was 100% accurate. It had some promise at first. I actually was amused by Finch's obvious behavior. The issue is that 90% of this couple's problems could've been solved if they actually bothered to talk to each other. They really, really don't do that. Pretty much at all. The plot also felt extremely rushed. It felt like it was trying to build itself up into a longer novel, didn't get the reception it was hoping for, and wrapped itself up. There were a lot of loose threads left dangling. Very meh. 

 Well, that was a miserable read. I feel like I vastly underprepared myself for this novel before I started it so I was not ready for a lot of the things that happened. Everyone I really liked die or rightfully stopped wanting anything to do with the MC. Rin wavered between frustrating and horrifying as a character. It felt like a villain origin story. Her decisions do make sense but they're still awful and her obsession with power is just... hm. Not sure if I'll continue this series.