Lena

(4.5)

3.5

(3.5)

(3.5)

(3.5 - book. 4.5 as audiobook)

(3.5)

3.5

Most things in this book lack depth & heart (characters, world building, school setting); and when describing (based on real life) war atrocities, a lack of depth and a point to make about them becomes highly problematic.

3.5

4.5

3.5. Sweet, but a little heavy-handed

(3.5 stars)

(3.5)

3.5

(real rating 3.5)

A little slice of humanity

(Really 3.5 stars) It ended up being what I expect from a VE Schwab book: incredibly faced paced and fun to read, with some morally questionable characters that you root for anyway. Once I starded reading I often lost track of time. However, beyond that excitement it fell a little flat at times. A lot of the time jumps felt unnecessary, just there to make the plot seem more complex/exciting than it really was. The buildup to the climax was great, but it ended up not completely delivering & some of the plot resolutions at the end felt a bit forced. Equally there was a lot of potential for powerful character arcs, but they weren't really delivered on.
Still, definitely worth picking up if you're looking for a fast-paced, exciting read!

(real rating 3.5)

What I liked
- it was a fast paced, straight forward adventure story which I was looking for
- i appreciated the lgbtq+ explorations, even if they probably don't represent how everyone (or even most) feel
- I like how some plot points happened in a pretty lowkey way, unlike what you'd expect from a Mulan-inspired story. Like the two moments of “born as a girl” realization

What I didn't
- it started out feeling a bit childish, even though that went away the more I read (although all things considered, it might be fit for a younger audience as well. To be clear: this isn't an issue, but wasn't really what I was expecting)
- the plot felt VERY forced (and this is one of my biggest dislikes in books). It kept feeling just so very convenient. The plottwist were a bit over the top, although they were weaved into the story from the beginning nicely
- the happy happy ending that took away all the struggles the book covered. Wu Jiang could have been the perfect morally grey villain - I was questioning in the final scene whether it could be right to kill the empress. The ending would have been much more powerful had hua zhi been conflicted for the rest of the time as she realized the empress she had helped survive wasn't able to keep peace as well as she should have. If the rest of her life hadn't been such a fairytale fake. But noo, she is very happy and has many kids who are also very happy. Good for them I guess

Very nice story with more dept to it than I imagined, contrasted by the very fairy-tale like style of telling the story/writing

Love the writing style and found myself chuckling out loud often, but there is very little point to the plot (which I know, ís the point of the plot, but which still made it hard to care sometimes)

I didn't think I would give it 5 stars. Then the last 100 pages happened. Man it's been a long time since I picked up something that drew me in this much.

I just have to mention how significant the name Deja is. If you've read it you'll understand

Beautiful writing style but I had no clue where any of the stories were trying to go at all

(3.5 stars)