Reviews with content warning for Animal death - Tokio

I enjoyed this book, more than I even expected to. It was horrific — which is to be expected, considering it’s a historical fiction about the Rape of Nanking — but it was incredibly well written, haunting, and mysterious. It’s going to sit with me for a while, I think, especially this: is ignorance forgivable?

Incredibly poignant. Highly recommend.

Content Warnings

maiagaia's review against another edition

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fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

I'm not even sure where to begin with this one other than to say I finished it on March 3rd and have only been able to summon the energy to review it today on April 24th. I never thought this could happen, but this book was so bad that I went into a full reading slump.
The plot is so incredibly contrived. Everything has to happen just so for the plot to work, and the author put no creativity into making the WAY it happens make sense. Coincidence after coincidence falls together to create a paper thin plot that had me alternating between rolling my eyes and laughing out loud.
This is especially unfortunate because the characters are (mostly) interesting and some of the scenes have some incredibly well-written tension.
This book also holds the honor of most transphobic book I've ever read. There is a character who is trans, and that fact is used 100% in an attempt to scare the reader. It is obvious that the author was writing this character and thought "wouldn't it be SO scary if this character was a MAN in a DRESS." It is used as a short hand to make the reader fear and distrust the character.

This is compounded by the fact that the character later rapes a man

Because why not? It's all especially unfortunate because the character is intimidating and creepy without these two facets because it is nailed home that she has very particular almost supernatural skills. Too bad we never see how she does it! We just know she can!
Another thing I didn't realize until after I had bought the book is that it is dedicated to Iris Chang, the woman who brought the Nanking Massacre out of obscurity with a book in the late 1990s. The protagonist is very clearly inspired by Chang, and something just sits wrong about a white woman writing a white character doing the work that a Chinese American journalist did in real life.
At the end of the day, this book is not worth the paper it was printed on because it is badly written. The cherries on top are the unnecessary transphobia and whatever you would call the protagonist/Chang influence.

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