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A review by ergative
A Song to Drown Rivers by Ann Liang
2.0
This book could have been so much better than it was. The broad strokes of the plot are as follows: Xishi is a simple peasant girl who is the most beautifullest of beautifuls who ever beautifulled. Her land, the kingdom of Yue, has just emerged from a devastating war with the neighbouring kingdom, the Wu. Brought by stories of her beauteous beautiness, the Yue king’s advisor finds her and recruits her to go on a special mission: As a diplomatic gesture, she will be sent to the king of Wu as a gift concubine, where she will act as a spy to destabilize his court and lay the groundwork for a retaliatory strike from Yue.
Now, I am as pro-spy as the next reader, but this book is attempting to do a moral complexity at the end that comes too late, and too unsupported by the previous events, to properly land. I think the best demonstration of this failure hinges on a moment when Xishi manages to get herself invited to the Wu king’s council of war. The Wu king’s advisor is urging a pre-emptive strike against the Yue, who have been making some unsettling military troop movements, but Xishi manages to get the Wu king not to launch any kind of strike. This moment comes after months at the court, during which Xishi has been learning that the Wu Are People Actually, not the enemy monsters she had learned to see during the war. They have family and desires and hopes for the future, just like the Yue.
So this moment at the council, when she realizes she has the power to preserve peace, despite her mission, could be incredibly meaningful. It could be the moment when she begins to doubt her task, must wonder whether loyalty to her country is worth the slaughter that she knows will ensue if she proceeds with her orders. But we don’t get any of that kind of insight here. In fact, her discovery that the Wu Are People Actually is really weirdly centered around the Wu king, who does things like behead servants when he gets bored (while somehow respecting her desire—as an explicitly gifted concubine—not to have any sex with him for TWO YEARS. Those two are regularly sleeping in the same bed, but this king, who has never been denied anything in his life, and has a whole stable of concubines who fight for his favour, somehow respects bodily autonomy of thee first woman to tell him no? While inviting him to literally sleep with her, in her bed? I simply don’t believe it. I can imagine there are ways for her to preserve her virginity for her true love back home even in this position, because clearly the author wants it that way, but not if she’s inviting the king to her bedroom to sleep next to her in bed all night. That’s too much of a porcupine for me to swallow.) Actually, even this growing intimacy with the Wu king might work if it were presented as something weird and unhealthy, but instead I felt that I was being encouraged to see a man who regularly beheads servants for fun as someone with layers and complexity, and, I’m sorry, no.
By the end Xishi does come to the realization that War Is Bad Actually—and, in fact, there’s a lot of narrative courage about the ending of this book that I respect—but by then it’s too late. The moment to make this realization anything other than a trite little platitude disappeared when Xishi had the opportunity to think about how her spy power could preserve peace as well as make war, and didn’t even hesitate.
Other narrative sloppinesses are evident. Xishi’s love interest is only 22, but also somehow old enough to have a loyal servant, who is a full adult, who was adopted by Love Interest from the streets when he was fifteen and trained into a fighting man. Xishi makes a deal with another concubine to redirect the king’s attention back to the other concubine in return for one favour to be called in as needed—but then waits a year to actually redirect the king’s attention. If I were the other concubine, I would have considered that deal null and void after a month or two of nonaction. Xishi’s spy-mate, who is sent with her as a palace lady, does absolutely nothing to affect the plot, except to get killed in a scene that had exactly 0 emotional resonance because her role was so pointless; and Xishi’s love interest is very, very boring.
So: I can see some good things about this book. The ending was good. The ending was maybe the only well-executed thing about it. And the spycraft conceit was excellent. Really, the bones of a banging kick-ass excellent book were present here--and even better, they're based on an actual historical legend. But somewhere between the historical inspiration and this book, the story became trite and boring; the characters became limp; and I really wish I'd spent my day reading something better.
Now, I am as pro-spy as the next reader, but this book is attempting to do a moral complexity at the end that comes too late, and too unsupported by the previous events, to properly land. I think the best demonstration of this failure hinges on a moment when Xishi manages to get herself invited to the Wu king’s council of war. The Wu king’s advisor is urging a pre-emptive strike against the Yue, who have been making some unsettling military troop movements, but Xishi manages to get the Wu king not to launch any kind of strike. This moment comes after months at the court, during which Xishi has been learning that the Wu Are People Actually, not the enemy monsters she had learned to see during the war. They have family and desires and hopes for the future, just like the Yue.
So this moment at the council, when she realizes she has the power to preserve peace, despite her mission, could be incredibly meaningful. It could be the moment when she begins to doubt her task, must wonder whether loyalty to her country is worth the slaughter that she knows will ensue if she proceeds with her orders. But we don’t get any of that kind of insight here. In fact, her discovery that the Wu Are People Actually is really weirdly centered around the Wu king, who does things like behead servants when he gets bored (while somehow respecting her desire—as an explicitly gifted concubine—not to have any sex with him for TWO YEARS. Those two are regularly sleeping in the same bed, but this king, who has never been denied anything in his life, and has a whole stable of concubines who fight for his favour, somehow respects bodily autonomy of thee first woman to tell him no? While inviting him to literally sleep with her, in her bed? I simply don’t believe it. I can imagine there are ways for her to preserve her virginity for her true love back home even in this position, because clearly the author wants it that way, but not if she’s inviting the king to her bedroom to sleep next to her in bed all night. That’s too much of a porcupine for me to swallow.) Actually, even this growing intimacy with the Wu king might work if it were presented as something weird and unhealthy, but instead I felt that I was being encouraged to see a man who regularly beheads servants for fun as someone with layers and complexity, and, I’m sorry, no.
By the end Xishi does come to the realization that War Is Bad Actually—and, in fact, there’s a lot of narrative courage about the ending of this book that I respect—but by then it’s too late. The moment to make this realization anything other than a trite little platitude disappeared when Xishi had the opportunity to think about how her spy power could preserve peace as well as make war, and didn’t even hesitate.
Other narrative sloppinesses are evident. Xishi’s love interest is only 22, but also somehow old enough to have a loyal servant, who is a full adult, who was adopted by Love Interest from the streets when he was fifteen and trained into a fighting man. Xishi makes a deal with another concubine to redirect the king’s attention back to the other concubine in return for one favour to be called in as needed—but then waits a year to actually redirect the king’s attention. If I were the other concubine, I would have considered that deal null and void after a month or two of nonaction. Xishi’s spy-mate, who is sent with her as a palace lady, does absolutely nothing to affect the plot, except to get killed in a scene that had exactly 0 emotional resonance because her role was so pointless; and Xishi’s love interest is very, very boring.
So: I can see some good things about this book. The ending was good. The ending was maybe the only well-executed thing about it. And the spycraft conceit was excellent. Really, the bones of a banging kick-ass excellent book were present here--and even better, they're based on an actual historical legend. But somewhere between the historical inspiration and this book, the story became trite and boring; the characters became limp; and I really wish I'd spent my day reading something better.