A review by iread2dream
Jade City by Fonda Lee
4.0
I just finished this book. I've found in the past that it takes me a while to digest what I've read and I'lI feel like the book deserves a certain rating as soon as I finish it but then that feeling will change given a few days. I don't know which rating is more fair: the one I give while I'm still 'high' off the book or the one I give once I've come down from the high. In any case, here we go.
I picked this book up and immediately enjoyed it. I've heard great things about the whole trilogy so I was eager to read this. Plus, it's written by an AAPI author and I have a weakness for seeing people that aren't of European descent in the books I read. (I won't lie, I'd prefer my brown people as main characters but at this point beggars can't be choosers so I'll take what I can get. ¡Vamos!) Somewhere in the middle of reading the book, I joined a buddy read with a lovely group of bibliophiles who read like 10 books a week. Having the FOMO, I had to read and finish the buddy read alongside my book club friends. We'll that other book total screwed up my Jade City read because it was too violent and I couldn't stomach going back to Jade City. I felt like I needed a soul cleanse or a freaking exorcism. After reading two dozen "warm and fuzzy" books, I still had a hard time getting back into reading Jade City. It felt a little like it was dragging on. I can't say whether the dragging was due to taking a break from the book or because the book was actually dragging, but there was definitely some stagnation. At some point I even got annoyed with all the characters. Thankfully the Third Interlude picked up in action significantly. It finally felt like things were moving along instead of the stagnant feel from before.
I thought the characters were well-written and we got enough of their background to understand some of their actions. I'm definitely hoping for more background as the trilogy goes on. I did feel the characters were missing some depth, as though we were getting partially robotic characters. I would've liked to see more of how the actions affected them and those around them aside from "he/she pissed me off" or "I hated her/him." Give me some substance! Tell me why you don't trust X character, or tell me why you really, truly felt slighted by them when they did something. None of that "you bring shame to the family name." Is that what you really feel, or is that what you thunk you're supposed to feel?! A specific character at the end does this - well and truly speaks their mind and voices their concerns. And, of course, everyone is like "how could you?" 🙄 Anywho...
The ending definitely left me curious about how the characters are going to move forward based on all that has happened, so I will definitely be reading the next book.
Hasta la próxima.
I picked this book up and immediately enjoyed it. I've heard great things about the whole trilogy so I was eager to read this. Plus, it's written by an AAPI author and I have a weakness for seeing people that aren't of European descent in the books I read. (I won't lie, I'd prefer my brown people as main characters but at this point beggars can't be choosers so I'll take what I can get. ¡Vamos!) Somewhere in the middle of reading the book, I joined a buddy read with a lovely group of bibliophiles who read like 10 books a week. Having the FOMO, I had to read and finish the buddy read alongside my book club friends. We'll that other book total screwed up my Jade City read because it was too violent and I couldn't stomach going back to Jade City. I felt like I needed a soul cleanse or a freaking exorcism. After reading two dozen "warm and fuzzy" books, I still had a hard time getting back into reading Jade City. It felt a little like it was dragging on. I can't say whether the dragging was due to taking a break from the book or because the book was actually dragging, but there was definitely some stagnation. At some point I even got annoyed with all the characters. Thankfully the Third Interlude picked up in action significantly. It finally felt like things were moving along instead of the stagnant feel from before.
I thought the characters were well-written and we got enough of their background to understand some of their actions. I'm definitely hoping for more background as the trilogy goes on. I did feel the characters were missing some depth, as though we were getting partially robotic characters. I would've liked to see more of how the actions affected them and those around them aside from "he/she pissed me off" or "I hated her/him." Give me some substance! Tell me why you don't trust X character, or tell me why you really, truly felt slighted by them when they did something. None of that "you bring shame to the family name." Is that what you really feel, or is that what you thunk you're supposed to feel?! A specific character at the end does this - well and truly speaks their mind and voices their concerns. And, of course, everyone is like "how could you?" 🙄 Anywho...
The ending definitely left me curious about how the characters are going to move forward based on all that has happened, so I will definitely be reading the next book.
Hasta la próxima.