A review by vivianne
Forest of a Thousand Lanterns by Julie C. Dao

3.0

“She was a monster, a bride of the darkness, and she rose to face her destiny as though it were the blood-red sunrise of a new day.”

I got this book in a Fairyloot and though the concept of an Azian inspired retelling of the Evil Queen sounded good, however I’ve just never been very interesting in picking this book up. I also don’t think I would have bought this book myself.

But nevertheless after 2 years I finally picked it up and I have to say I’m very underwhelmed. I was just plainly bored throughout this book. And though this book is beautifully written and it had interesting elements like the retelling element and the magic, I did think this book missed so many other things to take it to the next level. Some more details can be found below.

Contains spoilers!

The good
- First of all I want to say that this book is absolutely beautifully written. So lyrical, so detailed but still it had the right balances that I like in someone’s writing. It felt like this book was filled with wisdom and beautiful quotes. The writing was really what made this book a three stars because the story just couldn’t carry this book.

- Next I want to say that Xifeng was a very interesting and original character. I do have my issues with her that I will explain further down, and I’m not sure if I like Xifeng or find her compelling. But she is nothing like the boring plain Jane characters we usually get in YA and that was very refreshing. She is determined, selfish, cunning, strong and stands up for herself. And even though she isn’t a fighter she has qualities that keep her alive and make her rise in this society (because I didn’t think her beauty it the only thing that won her the throne).

- I’m compelled to read the next book in this series just to see where this story would take since after I finish this I kind of feel like this story (the prequel) is over and snow white’s story would start.

- I think the book got better at about 50% since there was a lot of tension between Xifeng and Lady Sun. I really enjoyed reading how all that unfolded and a scene that really drew me into this book was the whipping and the scarring of Xifengs face. I felt that this scene was really the opening scene of this book. Finally we got to see the real Xifeng and her struggle to remain good.

- I really enjoyed the inner struggle of Xifengs character with the evil. I liked seeing how the evil slowly rises in her and how in the end she just completely gave in.

- I thought the element of the hearts was super well woven into this story. How lifeblood of animals can heal Xifeng, but she gives up her morality by killing them. And then what happens with the lifeblood of the humans. It totally makes sense with why the Evil Queen was obsessed with hearts.

“If my beauty is my greatest weapon, vanity is the shield that protects me.”

The bad>
- The first 180 pages of this book was just boring. I didn’t care much for the journey to the palace and the plot was just very slow and not gripping. There wasn’t any action, magic or creatures; which are all the things I like in my fantasy. It was just a bit dull… And I have debated on putting this book down every single page.

- I also didn’t care for the romance between Wei and Xifeng and found it quite undeveloped and no chemistry even though they knew each other since they were children.

- All the side characters were quite underwhelming and underdeveloped. This book is quite short and even though the amount of characters was good, I felt like they were all super flat.

- Because this is a retelling/prequel of the Evil Queen this story is incredibly predictable. We already knew from the beginning of this book she would get to court, leave Wei, rise in court and become Empress. And that was about the whole plot of this book. A try was made with the twists like that Kang was also evil and became the huntsman or that her aunt was really her mother, but even those I saw coming from a mile away. I think that I missed some twists, some unexpected turns. Something to surprise me, since after I finish this book I’m really wondering why I bothered to finish this since it ended how I expected.

- I have had such a struggle to determine whether I enjoyed the plot of this story. On one hand I really respect Xifeng taking charge of her destiny and thus being bold and standing up for herself. Furthermore I found this story very renewing, usually girls try to get away from situations like the palace so it was refreshing to read something else. However, on the other hand, I just can’t wrap my mind around the plot in that someone would choose this life. And that’s where my problem began, we follow Xifeng on her journey to become Empress and I didn’t understand why someone would choose this when she had the chance to be happy with a man that loved her unconditionally. This made it hard for me to care and cheer for Xifeng to become Empress.

- The next problem was that I couldn’t identify myself with Xifeng. She made every single decision that I would have never made. She was also blatantly rude to people that couldn’t bring her higher up and looked down on everyone lower than her. I didn’t care for her thoughts like: “No one, least of all an ugly maidservant, needed to know she was here on a mission.”. Throughout the book she offends almost everyone and is obsessed with her looks. I understand that beauty is important to her but a scar in the face is not worth it to kill an animal and sacrifice a piece of your soul..

- I also felt that the world building lacked sufficiently. I didn’t find enough Asian inspired culture back in the world and would have liked some more. I have no idea how this world looks, how the people are, what they eat, what their customs are. And since this book is rather short I think some more could have been added.

I’m not 100% sure if I will read the next book although I’m very intrigued and interested to see what else there is to tell. However I’m not capable of sitting through such a slow book again.

“Isn’t it better to wake up each day, living for the present rather than waiting for the future?”