The Girl King by Mimi Yu

Synopsis:

 

All hail the Girl King.

Sisters Lu and Min have always understood their places as princesses of the Empire. Lu knows she is destined to become the dynasty's first female ruler, while Min is resigned to a life in her shadow. Then their father declares their male cousin Set the heir instead—a betrayal that sends the sisters down two very different paths.

Determined to reclaim her birthright, Lu goes on the run. She needs an ally—and an army—if she is to succeed. Her quest leads her to Nokhai, the last surviving wolf shapeshifter. Nok wants to keep his identity secret, but finds himself forced into an uneasy alliance with the girl whose family killed everyone he ever loved…

Alone in the volatile court, Min's hidden power awakens—a forbidden, deadly magic that could secure Set's reign…or allow Min to claim the throne herself. But there can only be one Emperor, and the sisters' greatest enemy could turn out to be each other.

Rating: 🌟🌟🌟

 

ARC provided by Bloomsbury via Netgalley in exchange for my honest thoughts and review.

It was okay. The Girl King doesn't have any glaringly bad issues, but neither does it do anything particularly remarkable. I know this story. I've read it a hundred times before. This is a book about a princess trying to reclaim her kingdom, and the only difference is that it's not in a European-inspired setting.

The highlight of this book for me was Min. Min isn't a character I see often in YA, and so I was especially drawn to her. She's frustrating. She allows herself to constantly be pushed around and used by others, and never stands up for herself. But because of her inaction and lack of will, it built my sense of suspense for when she would finally push back. And when she did, oh, it was satisfying as hell.

Lu was super disappointing for me. Lu is the same character we've been seeing since Divergent or Throne of Glass: the badass female character who is so impulsive and full of pride that her personality always puts her in danger. She lacked nuance to set her apart from the heaping pile of #strong female characters in YA, making her instantly forgettable and generic.

Nok was...fine? He wasn't the hyper-masculine YA love interest, which was refreshing, but overall I just found his character bland. His chapters bored me. His chapters bored me worse once the insta-love kicked in. Yup, that's right folks, this book features the same insta-love you find in every other "princess must reclaim her throne" YA fantasy novel.

What really carried this novel, besides Min, was the writing. I find a lot of YA authors have writing that's too simple or disjointed for my tastes, but Mimi Yu's prose flowed well and the descriptions were nicely executed. While I think this book was a little too light on the world-building, enough effort was put into the writing to make its Asian-inspired world feel tangible. This isn't the paper-thin world-building you'll find in other YA fantasies. I'm still confused on the magic system, however.

My overall thoughts come down to this: if you want to read another "princes must reclaim her throne" YA fantasy novel, read this one. Don't read Throne of Glass, or To Kill a Kingdom, or another mediocre YA fantasy telling the same bland story in the same bland European setting. The Girl King is good, not great, but its Asian-inspired setting is refreshing and worth supporting its #ownvoices author for.

The Gilded Wolves (The Gilded Wolves, #1) by Roshani Chokshi

Synopsis:

 

Paris, 1889: The world is on the cusp of industry and power, and the Exposition Universelle has breathed new life into the streets and dredged up ancient secrets. In this city, no one keeps tabs on secrets better than treasure-hunter and wealthy hotelier, Séverin Montagnet-Alarie. But when the all-powerful society, the Order of Babel, seeks him out for help, Séverin is offered a treasure that he never imagined: his true inheritance.

To find the ancient artifact the Order seeks, Séverin will need help from a band of experts: An engineer with a debt to pay. A historian who can't yet go home. A dancer with a sinister past. And a brother in all but blood, who might care too much.

Together, they'll have to use their wits and knowledge to hunt the artifact through the dark and glittering heart of Paris. What they find might change the world, but only if they can stay alive.

Rating: 🌟🌟

 

ARC provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for my honest thoughts and review.

I really wanted to love this one. The premise and tone were right up my alley, and I just about combusted with excitement when I found out I was approved for an ARC.

The only thing I really liked was how diverse the main cast was. Half of the characters are PoC, and at least two are LGBT+. I've heard that one of the characters is on the autism spectrum, but I'm not familiar enough with autism to feel comfortable making a claim that one of the characters is autistic. So while this novel wins major diversity points, that's about where my enjoyment ended.

Conceptually, The Gilded Wolves is pretty unique. But the execution is just messy. This reads so much like a second book. There were too many prior events and too many previously-established relationships that I felt like I was missing key elements needed to read this book.

We're all thinking it, so let's just say it: the characters are the thrift store version of the Six of Crows characters. If you're writing a YA fantasy heist book, you can't avoid being in conversation with the SoC duology, no matter how we all want to separate new heist books from it. But the similarities between The Gilded Wolves characters and the SoC characters are just too uncanny to dismiss.

Séverin and Laila are so similar to Kaz and Inej that I can't help but think it must be intentional. While the rest of the main cast felt more original, still they share too many similarities with the SoC characters. I understand some character tropes can't be avoided when writing heist story, but then I look at the Ocean's # movies and wonder why those characters don't feel similar to the SoC characters, despite being involved in a heist. Clearly, Chokshi is borrowing, whether intentionally or not, from the SoC duology.

But regardless of the similarities, ultimately Chokshi's characters are flat. Their motivations are confusing (again, this feels like a second book) and their backstories don't feel tangible enough to warrant their actions. Despite the mature tone and themes the novel tried to capture, the characters and their relationships felt juvenile. Their banter especially reflected this. It came off as childish and try-hard, without any of the natural ease I've seen other authors accomplish.

The info-dumping in the beginning was insane. Every time any vaguely new idea would come up, the entire scene would screech to a halt for at least a paragraph of exposition. It absolutely killed the pacing in the beginning. Yet despite all the info-dumping, I'm still confused on how the magic system works and how the Order of Babel is arranged.

I love it when a book feels especially ~aesthetic~, because it usually contributes to the novel's tone or world-building. The Gilded Wolves focuses heavily on aesthetics, but without actually contributing anything of substance. While of course there are outliers, most of the time the descriptions were aesthetics for the sake of aesthetics, without establishing any meaningful world-building and setting a certain tone. It made the novel feel bloated with description.

This novel reads to me like Chokshi was trying so hard to be different from SoC that she just took on way too much. None of the elements shine - not the characters, not the plot, not the writing, NOTHING except the diversity. I think publishing books with diverse characters by authors of color is extremely important, and so for that reason alone I am supremely glad this book exists and will be read by people that finally get to see themselves reflected by the page. But besides that, The Gilded Wolves isn't a compelling novel.

And that ending? Oh boy. It was drama for the sake of a second book, and didn't feel warranted at all.