Reviews with content warning for War - Song of Silver, Flame Like Night

Reviews tagging 'War'

Song of Silver, Flame Like Night by Amélie Wen Zhao

24 reviews

honuzbubbles's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.5

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bloodbrooxv's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging mysterious 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

4.0

I really liked this book, I would suggest it to anyone who doesn't feel comfortable enough to read the poppy war. Colonialism, as a theme, is very prominent, and although it's analized in a YA-ish way, it's still very impactful. The romance was very cute, and i'm interested in how it'll develop in the sequel.

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books_and_jax's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense

3.0

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intoxicatedflower's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious sad 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

5.0

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heather_harrison's review against another edition

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adventurous slow-paced

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

2.75

I was reasonably excited for this book - Chinese mythology, magic, demons, and the promise of a strong female protagonist.

The book felt like a watered down pivot from the popularity of R.F. Kuang's Poppy War. So many people have enjoyed this, but I just found it really meh.

I was not a fan of AWZ's description of a character with a cleft lip (I don't care if it may be representative of the time it's based, this is fantasy first and foremost and it was just unnecessary).

I didn't find Lan to be endearing at all. 30% of the time I found her tolerable, but the majority I found her to be rude and annoying. Zen's character largely served as an info-dump for Lan, and us the readers.

Their relationship was definitely not 'enemies to lovers' and felt super rushed. Not to mention the mirroring of both characters making deals with demons was pretty heavy handed.

All of the other characters within the story line felt paper-thin, and as a result it felt pretty hollow whenever anything 'important happened'.

We see Lan lose her 'best friend' at the tea-house, what was supposed to be her found family in the magic school, and her literal long-lost father. But because there was very little emotional build up, the outcome just kind of feels hollow and immaterial.

2.75 stars (rounded up to 3)

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fandomsandfiction's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious 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

4.75

this book is a drug and i am addicted.
(currently suffering from major withdrawal!!!)

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totsfions's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

Me reading any romance novel: that ending was too rushed.
Me reading any fantasy novel: that ending was too drawn out.
Any way, aside from the ending taking an eternity, this book was wonderful. I loved the magic systems and the deep attention to Chinese lore and myth that went in to developing this world. It also handles the complexity of power with a nuance not often seen in YA. This book reckons not only with the injustices of colonialism, but also the power structures that existed beforehand. It allows it's characters to process their grief, but also to find just retribution; to imagine not only what their lives would have been but also what they will be next.

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gwenythepooh's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Check the trigger warnings!

This is a rich, winding story that had me enthralled. I couldn’t stop reading. Can’t wait for the next book.

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dmatson21's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional inspiring fast-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? Yes

3.0

It was an interesting story with Chinese mythology and while I like the characters, I didn’t like how the main character had a major personality switch halfway through. I understand why it happened, it doesn’t mean it liked it.

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nyah_ellexa's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted reflective sad 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

4.0

I received the ARC for this book but only got around to reading it now.

I must say, I very much enjoyed the journey. The story is very compelling and the characters are complex yet lovable.

I love fantasies inspired by Asian folklore and history, so this book was right up my alley. It tells a great tale of China’s real experience dealing with the colonization and subsequent war crimes by the British. Many plotlines of this story were directly in context with real historical events, which I found extremely intriguing.

Lan, our protagonist, is someone I grew to really enjoy reading about. She’s spunky and independent yet not written as this stereotypical “not like other girls” type of female protagonist, which is very refreshing. She has some character flaws, but I believe that’s what makes me like her more. Just because she is a woman and our main character, doesn’t mean she has to be this perfect embodiment of good.

The author does a very good job at writing a compelling fantasy. My only gripe is that some of the dialogue come out very forced or too wordy. There’s a good chunk of exposition dumps within the dialogues or dialogues that seem to run for too long, almost as if the dialogues were translated. I do not fault the author too much for this though, as I’m aware that English was not her first language. The dialogue still flows pretty well in most parts and the times that is doesn’t still aren’t so bad that it hinders my reading experience.

Another small thing: I didn’t like the character of Dilaya. I found her rather unjustifiably rude to Lan and, especially since she’s the only other girl in the story of continued importance, I was a bit turned off by the fact she hated Lan so much. I found her strained relationship with Lan to be rather frustrating to read about and I wish the only two girls in the story didn’t hate each other so much. It just felt catty to me and I hope they both develop as character throughout the series and grow fond of each other.

Overall, I really enjoyed this story and I look forward to continuing the series!

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