laurelthebooks's Reviews (662)

This book is little bits of sad, little bits of angry, and so very good. It breaks off pieces of your soul and then molds them back together.

It takes grief, anger, fear, and applies a healthy dollop of trust and imagination. I can't say I would call this a happy book, but it is a great book.

I love it.

*re-posting what I can remember of my review as it seems to have disappeared :-(

The romance aspect mentioned of Hansu is lost on me - but this book was bursting with characters. The sad, the angry, the lonely, the lost, the rich, and the poor all present themselves here, and all of them are folded into this Korean family that the reader follows.

This read was sad and enlightening - an education of the past which often is brutally sad. The characters bring the book to life though, and I would recommend this book for anyone who adores solid, fleshed out characterization.

The characters and setting here have promise. Who doesn't love magic mixed with feudal Japan and a splash of drama?

However, even for a novella the plot and happenings felt abrupt and shallow. I wanted to like the characters, but the entire read left me feeling like I had just read the text of a comic without any of the images. It did read much like a graphic novel or comic, but without the visuals to back it up, it did not work for me.

I'd be willing to read future ones, again because this has plenty of promise (and the opening lines were kickass), but overall I couldn't get into the stories or characters.

I received this copy for free from Book Sirens, and I am leaving this review voluntary.

The concept behind this collection intrigues me, and I loved reading the connected stories and poems by different writers.

I love the premise behind Michelle Halket creating this collection as well and her passion for it shines through.

I enjoyed reading it, and I recommend to poetry and short story lovers!

I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley.