Marithé

Hands down my favourite story (in any format) of 2023.

I am grateful to everyone on this site who has discussed the translation issues. I went into it fully warned, and I also believe that this edition would have greatly benefited from more proofreading/editing from the publisher.

If I go into the story itself, it is absolutely brilliant. I experienced it first with the live-action adaptation, and I'm now finally delving into the books... let's just say that this story both broke me and healed me at the same time. I currently don't have the words to express how much I love each and everyone of these characters, their arc, their development, how they get close to one another, and eventually how they learn to trust and open up. In both the adaptation and this book, emotional, impactful and even heartwrenching scenes are brilliantly intermingled with funny, goofy and cute moments. The story does us a good one: it gets us, the readers, to open up and trust these characters (as they do themselves as the story progresses), only to have our hearts broken if anything at all happens to them.

Why I love it so much, book 1 edition:
- We start off with a punch, a little bit lost in the setting and the numerous characters, but the pacing is solid enough to get us through the initial confusion.
- The characters: As we meet them at first, they are intriguing, we do get the sense that they all have a past and a history with one another. Especially at the beginning, this feeling is strong enough that I wanted to stick around to know more about them. But hear me out: the characters in this book/story are everything. The events themselves are impactful, but it's how the characters react and adapt that sticks. Their emotional journey is both heartbreaking and heartwarming, in the best possible way. When we meet Lan Wangji, we get the feeling that something terrible happened to him, and it MUST have something to do with Wei Wuxian. He tolerates every antics that wwx throws his way without faltering, so the real mystery here is to understand why. What did he have to go through to change this much? For Wei Wuxian, it's about understanding his past, and why he was so hated by everyone when he was alive thirteen years ago. And, more importantly, how did their relationship evolve through time? We'll get there, of course...... Our main cast of Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian is wonderfully funny, awkward, cute, chaotic, but also deeply emotional and very comforting. Our secondary cast (looking at you Lan Xichen and Jiang Cheng) are slowly being introduced, and at this point I'm looking forward to getting to know their book version!
- Mandatory relationship gushing: The longing... oh the longing is intense and I'm here for every moment of it! Wangxian, simply put, warms my heart
- All the little hidden details. As a first read, but having seen the adaptation, I can already spot a few that have me in awe at the foreshadowing and the future developments I know are probably coming. At a reread it would most likely be even better.

I know I still have a lot to learn about the genre, the context and other strong works in this space, and I am very excited to continue this journey. MDZS is already very dear to me, and I can't wait to get more of it with the next books.

Great start to this series! The art style is simply stunning!

We are following Coco, who has always dreamed of being a witch. But she believed that witches are born, not made, and therefore that she will never get the opportunity to learn. Her meeting with Qifrey, mysterious master and witch passing through her village, changes her perception of the world and sets her on her magical path after all, albeit at a greater cost than she would have imagined.

I was a really nice read! It's got a wonderful whimsical feeling, and Coco is quite fun to follow around. She's a full-on magic geek, getting excited about every new discovery, which feels very relatable as readers who discover this world ourselves at the same time! The setting got the magic academy vibes, and while much of this has been done before, then environment feels coherent and well-developed. This world's magic is written-based, which adds originality to the concept, and allows Coco to bring in her own strengths as a seamstress in innovative ways. I'm most intrigued by master Qifrey, however. He's certainly mysterious, he seems to be a bit of a rebel, but he's also somewhat of an airhead when it comes to teaching.

This series seems to have the potential for more depth and development, and we got to see glimpses of that already. From what I can tell in this first volume, it reads well for its age range. All in all, I quite enjoyed this one, the visuals are fantastic, and I am looking forward to continuing with the series!

This one is interesting to review. As described by the author, it is inspired by the traditions of Chinese Wuxia/Xianxia, but it is also a YA novel. Hence, I find that this novel does a lot of things wonderfully, but that it sets barriers to itself by trying to ascribe to two genres and two very different writing styles at the same time. It's not exactly a bad thing, but the novel gets in its own way sometimes with this choice.

I will preface this review by saying, however, that I adored this book. A few thing prevent me from giving it a full five stars rating, but I had a wonderful time reading this and I highly recommend it, at the very least for the prose and the character development, plus the very dramatic end section!

Why I loved it:
As I will discuss a bit further, I see this novel as a love letter to the Xianxia genre. It pays homage to the genre without trying to abide strictly to it.

Worldbuilding: Speaking of worldbuilding, the author brings to life a truly beautiful world with luscious landscapes and striking descriptions. The environment becomes alive in front of us and speaks for the love that the characters have for their land. The prose style is definitely a plus for me, as it allowed me to spend more time in this beautiful world that the author is bringing to life. The setting also allows for the depiction of the ravages of colonialism, not just on the land and on the people, but also on culture and hope for the future. I find that the beauty of the world emphasize the pain of the loss and the cost of difficult choices, which is rather the point, and so it worked in the favour of the novel.

Characters: Another great strength of this book is the characterization, specifically of the young generation of protagonists. Lan is someone that takes some getting used to, as she starts off a little bit whiney and skimpy. But as the novel progresses, she grows in maturity and the ambiguity of her character makes her decisions more understandable. Zen, however, I want to know more about! He is definitely a dark, broody character with a troubled past (a little too reminiscent of the trendy “bad boy that is actually good” in YA fantasy romance). But as the novel progresses, he makes some questionable choices that make him more than the unidimensional love interest he set out to be. And we get to see his soft side, and a genuine vulnerable moment between him and Lan that had me invested in their relationship! I also have a soft spot for Dilaya, which I think Lan treats rather poorly for most of the novel, but finally gets better by the end. I want to see more of her and her battle skills, and I am anticipating a lot of difficult decisions for her in the next book. But the two characters that stole the show for me were Shàn'jūn and Chó Tài. Herb Eater and Ghost Boy!! I will ship them to the end of the earth, please give us more time with these two!

A few issues:
My main complaint about this novel is that it tries to do too much at once. It tries to please both fans of Wuxia/Xianxia and western YA audience, and as such, it lands somewhat in the middle.

Pacing: The rhythm of the book is rather slow, especially in the beginning as we take more time to explore the land and explain the magic system. But it picks up in the last 100 pages or so and becomes a little bit hectic. While I liked the explosive ending, the rhythm lost me a little bit and came as a whiplash from all the description and exploration we have been getting since the beginning.

The ending:Right, this book took the “everyone dies at the end” to the next level. I think we lost over half of the people who were on the protagonists' side in the last 50 pages. And while I was pretty sad to see all of them go (I grew attached to the Masters of Skies' End), it made the deaths less impactful by their sheer numbers. And I'm also tired of seeing the older generation of a book having to die in order for the protagonists to learn how to manage by themselves. It has been overused, and I wanted to see all these Masters that were at the top of their ability be of some use to the protagonists in other significant ways than by dying to protect them. While I appreciate the sacrificing gestures, I think that a few less would have had a bigger impact in this context.

Inconsistencies in translation: The use of Chinese terms appears somewhat inconsistent in the book. For instance, some tools and items of clothing remained in Pinyin (dāo and jiàn are often used), but the names of places was fully rendered in English (for example, the Chamber of Waterfall Thoughts). I think I would have liked for the book to commit fully to one or the other. Also, the use of footnotes would have been of such help! I wish for the misconception that they discourage readers to go away, and for a full return of footnotes in novels!

About the genre(s):
First of all, I read this book at the best of times for me. I discovered the Wuxia/Xianxia genres earlier this year and I have been in love with them ever since. However, I admit to purchasing this book before that time, drawn in by the absolutely stunning cover (yes, give me a beautiful cover and I will fall for it). So when I figured out exactly what that book was, I happily dived in.

And that is where the mixture of writing traditions clashes a bit. As a novel written in English in the Xianxia genre, it appeals to a western audience, mostly YA, that may not have had come into contact with the genre before. However, much of this work is also done by translators who bring Chinese Wuxia/Xianxia stories to English-speaking populations (hence my difficulty to categorise this novel). As such, I feel like the novel tries to please many people all at once by placing itself in the middle ground. The many cultural explanations and direct translations of titles and relations, as well as the use of Pinyin, would help someone not familiar with the Xianxia genre to understand more of its context, but would sound repetitive and introductory to someone familiar with it. On the other hand, I found some worldbuilding and cultural elements underexplained, and some references were pretty obscure; as such, an unfamiliar reader such as myself a year ago, might have missed some of the richness of the culture that the author visibly wished to convey through her story.

A lot of misgivings regarding this book seem to come from the way it was marketed. As a YA novel many of its tropes make sense, as well as the fact that it doesn't seem like a historical fiction, but rather a definitive imaginary world inspired by cultural elements of the Wuxia/Xianxia genres. I went in warned about where it stands, and I had a better reading experience because of this knowledge.
Therefore, I recommend looking into what this book is before diving into this one. Which I still very much recommend, since I had such a fun time getting to know the characters and exploring their world, and following their adventures as their world gets more and more threatened. An overall great reading experience!

“If I never told him, I wonder where these feelings would go. Desires without a place to reach, and words that could not be said... will they vanish someday, as if they never existed?”

This volume blends the coziness and the heartbreak so well, it hurts and heals at the same time. Kakeru and Yamato are trying to figure out how to mend things between them, when there is seemingly nothing wrong to begin with. Both of them have noticed the other one withdrawing lately, and they are both scared to lose their childhood friend. Kakeru is slowly working through his feelings and trying to understand exactly what Yamato means to him, and Yamato is trying (and failing) to keep all his feelings bottled up, so he doesn't destroy their friendship. As a result, they both hold onto the other very strongly, letting actions speak louder than words.

This volume made me so emotional with its simplicity and its coziness! The moments between Kakeru and Yamato are very touching, they speak to loneliness, friendships, and the hardships of growing up. They find themselves in a delicate situation, and they both know that if they misinterpret or make a mistake, they could lose the other forever. The manga has a way or writing out emotions that are so strong, and yet with a simplicity that resonates quite deeply. While the action may move slower in this one than in the first volume, we really get to spend time with each character and get more attached to them, as a result. All in all I highly recommend this series if you like a cozy, almost slice-of-life story and a brilliantly done slow burn.

"Please, may the little light in Yamato never go out. May it someday burn bright again"

Tell me about inner light and childhood and friendship and emotions 😭

This volume was very cute and wholesome, and surprisingly healing. Volume 6 diverges from the main story and takes us back in the past, when Kakeru and Yamato became friends. They are children, yet they both have deeply emotional issues to contend with, and this volume is about how they both stepped up to be there for the other.

Both Yamato and Kakeru are dealing with the absence of a parent, and the volume explores wonderfully the complexity of emotions in children, and how they can't always manage them or understand their depth. Seeing the two boys open up their barriers to let the other in, and accepting to show vulnerability in front of the other, was very touching. And of course, they both need all the love and care in the world, they are very precious!

Volume 6 felt a little slow, mostly because we spend a lot of time standing still while we are waiting for the present version of Kakeru and Yamato to finally communicate. But this dive into their childhood felt necessary to understand who they are becoming as older teenagers, as well as the deep connection they share. It helps to establish them as close friends, which we didn't get to see as much as the present explores more the romantic aspect of their relationship.

Another great instalment in this series that I have come to love dearly, I cannot recommend it enough!