Lyle

I stopped reading when (1) a character believed they were on an alien world because there was no moon in the sky, and other characters didn't point out the flaw in her reasoning, (2) two of the characters suddenly decided to have sex in the nearby forest in the middle of the night and it was blamed on the fact that they were suddenly the equivalent of eighteen years old and their hormones had become super active, and (3) the name of a character suddenly changed to that of another character in the middle of a scene. There were other less problematic things in the writing as well, but the three issues mentioned above were enough to make me stop reading.

The premise was intriguing, and the narrative started well, but when the protagonist began using vulgar language over a very small incident (even though I know the author was trying to show how much she was upset by the underlying situation) I was done. Too bad. There are better ways than that to show emotional distress.

While it was intriguing to start, and seemed to hold great promise, I found the deep connections (I'm guessing) to Chinese culture made me feel like I was missing too much. I found it hard to relate to the characters and did not understand their motivations. Too bad, as I really wanted to give this author a fair chance.

Edit March 2025: Giving this book another try; updated review to follow.

Edit 04/05.2025: I attempted to read this a second time, given all of the praise and positive reviews, but ultimately, I had to give up once again. Although I made it to over 250 pages, the result was the same as indicated in my previous comments: I just could not find enough of an attachment to the characters and concepts in the book to finish.

While it was intriguing to start, and seemed to hold great promise, I found the deep connections (I'm guessing) to Chinese culture made me feel like I was missing too much. I found it hard to relate to the characters and did not understand their motivations. Too bad, as I really wanted to give this author a fair chance.

Edit March 2025: Giving this book another try; updated review to follow.

While it was intriguing to start, and seemed to hold great promise, I found the deep connections (I'm guessing) to Chinese culture made me feel like I was missing too much. I found it hard to relate to the characters and did not understand their motivations. Too bad, as I really wanted to give this author a fair chance.

Edit March 2025: Giving this book another try; updated review to follow.

While it was intriguing to start, and seemed to hold great promise, I found the deep connections (I'm guessing) to Chinese culture made me feel like I was missing too much. I found it hard to relate to the characters and did not understand their motivations. Too bad, as I really wanted to give this author a fair chance.

Edit March 2025: Giving this book another try; updated review to follow.

While it was intriguing to start, and seemed to hold great promise, I found the deep connections (I'm guessing) to Chinese culture made me feel like I was missing too much. I found it hard to relate to the characters and did not understand their motivations. Too bad, as I really wanted to give this author a fair chance.

Edit March 2025: Giving this book another try; updated review to follow.