Book Review: Forest of a Thousand Lanterns
Forest of a Thousand Lanterns
Okay, so I went into this knowing that it seems like literally everyone who has read this book has adored it, and so I went into it thinking I'd probably adore it, too, because the last few super-super hyped books I've read (THUG, When Dimple Met Rishi, Geekerella,) I all really enjoyed.
But apparently I'm in the minority on this one, because...uh...I really didn't like it.
Here's the thing: yes, this book is beautifully written. I wouldn't be surprised if the author came from poetry origins. But, there's a point where everything gets too beautiful, and you're left just kind of blinking at the book, because what the hell does that even mean???
To put it shortly: Purple prose. Purple prose everywhere.
But I'll get to that in a bit.
Why I Did Not Like This Book:
-There is such a emphasis on beauty! Pretty much every single time Xifeng is mentioned, something is said about her lotus lips or perfect skin or glowing eyes. And yes, I get that this is a Snow White retelling with Xifeng as the Evil Queen, but really, it started to drag. A lot. I get it. This girl is beautiful, almost inhumanly so, and that she causes heads to turn everywhere she goes, ect. ect. ect.
-And that leads to the next thing: so much girl hate. The very first girl we're introduced to, the first time we meet her she's flirting with Xifeng's boyfriend/lover/courtship person, and Xifeng gets jealous at first, then thinks Wei would never fall for such a "plain, moon-faced girl" with Xifeng around. All the women Xifeng meet (with the exception of one) hate her on sight because of how beautiful she is, or are instantly jealous, again, because of how beautiful she is. And, really? That's not how most girls are.
-The romance? Yep. Let me just say one thing about Wei: NOPE. That sums up my feels for him, and his relationship with Xifeng quite nicely.
-Oh, and speaking of? YAY ANOTHER SEXIST FANTASY WORLD, WHAT WE ALL WANT. You are literally BUILDING a world. WHY does it have to be sexist? We get enough of that in the real world already.
-The worldbuilding was seriously lacking. I mean, it's Chinese-inspired, with a couple of neighboring kingdoms that I think are Japan and Indonesia inspired, and that the kingdom/world/city/whatever is run by the Emperor and Empress, but other than that? No clue. I know they have a religion, but I have no idea what the religion is. I know they have social classes, but how those social classes interact? No idea. Money? What's money? Trade routes? Yeah, but going and coming from where?
-There are weird time jumps all over the place. And I have no idea how the timeline works. At one point, it seems like Xifeng has only been somewhere for a few days, but then apparently she's been there a month? Then years have gone past suddenly? I spent the entire book super confused.
The ending felt very, very rushed. So rushed. And not in a good, exciting way, more in a "the author suddenly got really excited to finish this novel" and "Pacing? What pacing?" sort of way.
[[ so...Xifeng is apparently the daughter of the Serpent God, who is apparently evil, which means she is apparently evil, and now suddenly miss Empress Head-in-the-clouds knows she's evil, but then the Empress gives birth to a daughter (Snow White...or, excuse me, White Jade), and it seems like she's about to die, but nope, it says next paragraph she lives for another two years, and has never talked to Xifeng since giving birth to Jade, even though she somehow "knows" that Xifeng is Now Suddenly Evil?? And this all happens in probably less than three chapters. ]]
-Also, remember how I mentioned the purple prose? Sometimes I can ignore it, but this time...I would be reading, and then there would be a phrase just so odd and overly pretty that it would disrupt whatever small reading flow I had managed to get into to. I'm not talking Laini Taylor's truly beautiful walks-the-line-of-purple-prose here. I'm talking really, really odd.
"Wei buried his face in her hair, a fish ensnared in a dark net."
Okay, a little weird, but whatever.
"The woman's essence filled her like air."
Seems vaguely sexual, which gets even weirder considering it's sharing a paragraph with the phrase "her skin vomits a crimson river".
"The demon queen turned her face upward, her eyes reflecting the dreams of the stars."
I'm sorry, but what does that even mean???
-And, finally, my last, and biggest, problem. Guma. Oh, Guma. You don't need to get through one chapter to know that her relationship with Xifeng (her niece) is an abusive one; both physically and emotionally. And, at the beginning, Xifeng seems to realize this, and even shows the signs of being in an abusive relationship, and she gets out of it and starts realizing how toxic it really was, but then, much, much later in the novel, when she thinks of Guma she starts considering her the perfect, mothering caregiver who always loved Xifeng and did the best for her, always? The same woman who literally beat her with a cane? And I don't think that's something that the novel should be doing. Because that's NOT a good light to put an abusive relationship in, especially because of how hard they are to get out of. Guma should NOT be suddenly put in this glowing light because months have gone by and now, oh yeah, even though she was cruel she was actually amazing and loved me? No. NO.
I somehow managed to finish this novel, despite it grating on my every nerve, so it gets two stars, not one. Still, though, I'm not recommending it. If you want a Chinese-inspired fairy-tale retelling/fantasy novel, read Ash by Malinda Lo.
2/5 stars
