Reviews with content warning for Torture - Daughter of the Moon Goddess

Enjoyed the writing style, but the characters weren't interesting, our main character was insanely good at everything with very little practice and the love triangle (arrow) situation was painful to read. Very disappointing.

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awkwardimagination's review

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adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

Absolutely adored this and will be starting the second book rjght away. Xingyin is on of my favourite protagonists I've ever read and I love everything about her character; I was never once annoued with her, what a breath of fresh air. The romantic plot lines were well done and I enjoyed them, cannot wait to see how that turns out. I'm vaguely familiar with the legend this story is based on, but everything is explained well enough that I was not confused.

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susanpevensie's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

4.0

this book was absolutely stunning. i don’t know how to describe the beauty of it in great justice but i can tell the amount of work put into this book and it served it well. i loved xingyin and seeing her grow into a strong woman made me feel like a proud mother.

however, the love triangle ruined it a bit for me. perhaps i’m a bit too old for trope like this—younger me might have enjoyed it. in fact, i think younger readers aka the target audiences might savour it even. i imagine the idea of two beautiful men salivating at your feet would be attractive for the youngins.

for me? it’s a source of anxiety and annoyance. i have zero patience for wishy washiness of xingyin in this regard. i also heard that this trend follows into the second book. so, i decided to not pick it up and move on. be well!

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killeenm18's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional inspiring tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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claudiamacpherson's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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shannnne_reads_words's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.25

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elaineyh1216's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Having grown up listening to and reading Chinese folk tales and watching Chinese fantasy dramas, this book was right up my alley. The original folk tale of Chang'e and Houyi was familiar to me, and I really enjoyed this reimagining and extension of the story. Xingyin, the titular Daughter of the Moon Goddess, is a relateably flawed heroine. She's impulsive, hot-headed, and passionate, a combination of characteristics which frequently gets her into trouble. But she's also able to reflect and acknowledge her mistakes and correct course as needed.

Sue Lynn Tan's writing style is lyrical with longer descriptive passages than most modern novels I've read. For readers who don't like long descriptions, this book is probably not for you. I personally really enjoyed the beautiful lyricity of the writing and the exquisite descriptions. The world building, fighting, and magic system reminded me of some of the Chinese historical/fantasy dramas I've watched recently, so they were familiar to me. Like classic Chinese novels and dramas, the plot is more episodic. While Xingyin's ultimate goal,

freeing her mother from her imprisonment by the Celestial Emperor

, is always on her (and the reader's) mind, the story follows a tight series of adventures that are linked and ultimately leads to a final climax.

There is a love triangle (rectangle?) in the story. While I'm normally not a fan of love triangles, this one was written well in my opinion. I like both romantic interests as characters, and we do get to know both guys pretty well. The romantic plot is really left a bit open-ended at the end of the book, so I'm wondering if it will be resolved in the sequel.

I do think that the plot does drag a little bit at some points of the book, but that's because there's so much happening that any lull between the adventures felt slow. There were some really extensive internal monologues that got a bit repetetive. Like many other reviewers said, I think this book could be a tad shorter. But overall, I really enjoyed Daughter of the Moon Goddess, and I look forward to continuing the adventure with Xingyin in Heart of the Sun Warrior.

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