Reviews with content warning for Animal cruelty - Phoenix Extravagant

I was surprised to learn Phoenix Extravagant wasn’t Yoon Ha Lee’s debut novel – many of its shortcomings are typical of new writers, such as repetitive phrasing and telling rather than showing. It’s a shame, really, because it had potential. A book about a nonbinary artist in a dystopian world of sigil-powered automata is a fantastic pitch, but the execution is so-so.

An issue throughout is the emotionality lacking depth or simply not landing. I partially blame the protagonist, Jebi, who is pretty apathetic for the most part. If they don’t care about anything, why should I? But I think the problem runs deeper than that, because even moments which elated or terrified or shocked Jebi fell flat for me. Take

their relationship with Vei

for example. There is no chemistry between them and the whole affair comes out of nowhere. I am told that they are in love but I’m not made to feel it.

In many ways, Jebi simply isn’t protagonist material. They’re an asshole and they don’t have the charisma to make up for it. Characters as unpleasant as they are are best confined to short stories and novellas, I feel – that way you don’t have to endure them for too long. Jebi is also frustratingly passive. On the rare occasions that they do take action, it always backfires thanks to their glaring incompetence. I know their lack of agency is a reflection of the oppressive system they find themself trapped within, but the way they kept blurting out secrets or wandering off and immediately getting captured was even more annoying and less compelling than their head-down resignation to the status quo.

The story ends with a message that not everyone is a fighter and the world needs artists just as much as it needs revolutionaries. It’s a nice idea, but Jebi still could have become a better person or helped out in a more substantial way than fucking off to the moon. It feels like whatever character arc they might have had got snapped back to where they were at the start, caring only about themself and their art and distancing themself from political issues as much as possible. Vei is also there, I guess.

There are more plot holes and inconsistencies than I can count. For example, the financial struggles of Jebi and their sister Bongsunga are sometimes front-and-centre and sometimes completely forgotten about in scenarios where it really should have affected the outcome. I was often left feeling like I was going crazy. To say nothing of the scenes that happen out of nowhere as though the author suddenly remembered they’re important to the plot. I already mentioned the awkward romance, but I also want to talk about

the torture scene, which seems to exist purely to justify the later killing of Hafanden. It doesn’t really serve any purpose besides presenting Hafanden as an irredeemable villain. Were it not for that one scene, would he have deserved execution?

It’s an interesting question which the story doesn’t seem to want to grapple with.

Which brings me to Arazi...

Arazi is a magical mechanical dragon designed to be used as a weapon, but subtle sabotage in its creation caused it to be a staunch pacifist. That is, until the final act. During an ambush, Arazi kills Hafanden in order to save Jebi’s life. An act of justified violence, maybe, but violence nonetheless, and lethal violence at that. Arazi was a bit bummed out but it didn’t have time to sit with the implications of what it had done. Its defining trait – its pacifism and its refusal to kill – had just been tested and ultimately contradicted, and with nowhere near the gravity a moment like that deserves.

Throughout the book, Arazi puts forward intriguing philosophical questions that get pushed aside to be dealt with later. And, of course, they’re never followed up on. I'm not expecting the author to construct an exhaustive thesis on the nature of the soul and the self, but some exploration of these concepts in the story would be nice. Arazi and the other automata are constantly sidelined despite the book being about them.

There are so many issues I could pick apart but I think I’ll stop here. Between the flat characters, the lack of follow-through on interesting concepts, and the inconsistencies throughout, Phoenix Extravagant is hard to recommend. That said, it’s largely inoffensive. I appreciate what the author was going for, at least, even if it feels half-baked. I don’t think it’s bad but I’m glad I’m done with it.

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