Reviews with content warning for Gore - Forest of a Thousand Lanterns

This story is for readers who want to see a MC slowly succumbing to the dark side. Xifeng is a poor, beautiful girl who has a terribly toxic relationship with her aunt, Guma. It’s tough to see how manipulative her aunt is, but it’s the push she needs to start her journey. I won’t lie, it’s entertaining to see how Xifeng begins to pull the puppet strings of those around her. She starts playing chess with anyone who gets in her way.

I’m on the fence on whether I want to read the next book. Keep in mind, the beginning of this story is rather slow, and we get introduced to some characters who barely have any presence yet we’re supposed to feel for them. But I enjoyed my reading experience so far.

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adventurous challenging dark sad fast-paced

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

4.0

Perfection is a disease of a nation. It's the soul that needs the surgery. ~ Beyonce

My god. To start off I didn't even want to read this book. Never in my life have I liked Snow White. Ever. Nothing about her even slightly peaks my interest. So when I heard this was a retelling, my expectations for this book couldn't be lower. I was going through a dry spell where I couldn't find anything to read so I went ahead and picked it up. The setting really being the only reason I was willing to give it a chance.

The tricky thing about this book is it starts off really modest. We have Xifeng and she's with her aunt and they're watching the world go by. And you're like "ok this seems pretty decent". And then, BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! Everything kicks in. And you're off. You're breathing hard as you race through this fantastic world that Dao has fabricated. At the same time, there's a great mental journey at hand. As you journey through the hellfire with Xifeng and watch her growth.

Heart-wrenching action aside, this book delves surprisingly deep into the culture of women. Women are taught to hate each other's every success. And given all that we have to go through for the simplest of victories, it's so easy to stoop to envy and jealousy. Eventually we forget sight of what really important. Every woman in this book, whether she realized it or not, wanted nothing more than to be loved.

Song's (or was it Sung ? I can't remember her name😬) need for love was the hand of the emperor. Which explains her hate for the Empress. No matter how hard she fought she would always be second.

The Empress need for love came in the need to love a daughter.

Xifeng's sought to make her aunt proud, in hopes that she would finally receive the mother that was lost to her. Which is why she fought so hard to fulfill the destiny.

Even Guma, in the sick scheme of it all, wanted to give her niece the love she never received: a successful future.

Once I realized this, my perception changed. I couldn't go to the characters and direct caterogize bad/good. Every character, no matter how despicable, was simply a product of the world they lived in. A world deprived of love. So they spend their lives fighting for it, at any means.
And it's sad. And then you realize it's no different from the world you live in.

Another thing this book handle well is the disease of beauty. Beauty is everything in this world. To be ugly is thought worse than being dumb. Whenever Xifeng went into a frenzy over her face it really touched me. Somehow I genuinely understood what she was going through. As much as I'll like to think Xifeng's methods extreme, I honestly I don't think it's too far-fetched. If a study came tomorrow claiming that animal hearts made all beautiful, half of the animal kingdom would be extinct.

This book is true masterpiece. It truly shows how much time and heart Dao put into this. And her writing is absolutely gorgeous. I simply cannot wait for the next book.

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