A review by elliot_nicholson
The Sword of Kaigen by M.L. Wang

emotional slow-paced

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

2.5

For a character driven plot this book is populated by remarkably uninteresting people. As opposed to watching them act and respond to the world around them, this book constantly and plainly explains their inner feelings. They could at least think about something interesting along with their boring lives but we are deprived of this also. Is the point that we are to feel as depressed and exhausted as the main character herself? I understand that we are viewing a conservative patriarchal society from a female perspective, but must we trudge through so much mundane dialogue with toddlers? The book has “sword” in the title with a cool warrior person looking at a mountain on the cover. Warning: this is false advertising. Inexplicably everyone talks like an American teenager and the majority of the dialogue feels like page filler. Which is bizarre because the book is already padded by a spectacular amount of exposition undeserved for a stand alone novel. I started this book because I wanted to read about a high fantasy Asian inspired world and I got a bloated patchwork of disparate and confusing ideas about female agency in a conservative society, the impact of trauma on untreated mental health, domestic abuse and apparently… teenage superheroes. There is an interesting plot hidden in here but it isn’t my job to decipher it. I don’t know what this book is about despite holding out to the end in the vain hope that something would “click”. It didn’t.