A review by elaineyh1216
Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan

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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