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A review by little_sparrow3
Empress of All Seasons by Emiko Jean
2.0
I had a similar problem with this one as I did with Crown of Feathers: cool concept, terrible execution.
Ultimately, I think this book suffers the most from pacing issues. There just wasn't enough space here to cover the story Jean wanted to tell and so the development of the plot and characters suffers so that as much ground as possible could be covered in a scanty 360 pages. Imagine taking the entire Hunger Games trilogy and squishing it down into one book, which completely skips Catching Fire and condenses Mockingjay into about 80 pages. That's what reading this book felt like. Jean's publishing team did her a huge disservice by not convincing her to make this into a duology or a trilogy.
And the sad part is that the bones of this story are incredibly interesting. I LOVED the concept of the Seasons Rooms and having warriors fight their way through the challenges each of these rooms presented. Its unique and I had so much fun trying to guess what Mari would have to fight in each of the rooms. Unfortunately, we only get to spend a chapter or two in each of the rooms and the little time we got to spend there was so disappointing. I also like the mythology of the world and how rich it is in real-world Japanese folklore. The early chapters where we got to hang with Mari in the Animal Wife village and learn about the different yokai that inhabit the world was fun. But, like everything else in this book, there wasn't enough time for Jean to convincingly build the world and the creatures in it.
Honestly, there were a lot of things I disliked about this book, but it would be really nitpicky of me to sit here and name them all because I genuinely feel that they could've been fixed with more time and book space. The romance, the Rebellion storyline, and Akira as a character may have sat better with me with more development. Same with the ending. I don't think I would ever have loved it but I might have accepted it better with more character development and a stronger romance.
Its extremely frustrating seeing what this book could've been and what it ultimately ended up being.
Ultimately, I think this book suffers the most from pacing issues. There just wasn't enough space here to cover the story Jean wanted to tell and so the development of the plot and characters suffers so that as much ground as possible could be covered in a scanty 360 pages. Imagine taking the entire Hunger Games trilogy and squishing it down into one book, which completely skips Catching Fire and condenses Mockingjay into about 80 pages. That's what reading this book felt like. Jean's publishing team did her a huge disservice by not convincing her to make this into a duology or a trilogy.
And the sad part is that the bones of this story are incredibly interesting. I LOVED the concept of the Seasons Rooms and having warriors fight their way through the challenges each of these rooms presented. Its unique and I had so much fun trying to guess what Mari would have to fight in each of the rooms. Unfortunately, we only get to spend a chapter or two in each of the rooms and the little time we got to spend there was so disappointing. I also like the mythology of the world and how rich it is in real-world Japanese folklore. The early chapters where we got to hang with Mari in the Animal Wife village and learn about the different yokai that inhabit the world was fun. But, like everything else in this book, there wasn't enough time for Jean to convincingly build the world and the creatures in it.
Honestly, there were a lot of things I disliked about this book, but it would be really nitpicky of me to sit here and name them all because I genuinely feel that they could've been fixed with more time and book space. The romance, the Rebellion storyline, and Akira as a character may have sat better with me with more development. Same with the ending. I don't think I would ever have loved it but I might have accepted it better with more character development and a stronger romance.
Its extremely frustrating seeing what this book could've been and what it ultimately ended up being.