The Hand, The Eye and The Heart - Review
The world itself is exactly what we can expect from a story like this one. It is a powerful empire set in the past with misogynist rules and a lack of fresh ideas and thoughts. It is without a doubt full of adventure and danger. Its atmosphere is perfect for the story and I quite liked the elements of it that helped put together the story. The plot! It was amazing and I was not expecting to like it so much! It was good, not phenomenal or something I'll be raving about for days but it was interesting. A plot I already knew from Mulan but with a twist of its own. It is the Mulan story the LGBT+ community has been waiting for. The story I've needed and didn't even know. I feel seen and represented within this Universe that is fantasy. Our main character is a non-binary bisexual. Her love interest is pansexual. Zhi is non-binary. He\She is not female or male. He\She is something else. Before this book, I had never understood what that meant exactly and how someone could simply not be male or female. This book definitely opened my eyes. Seeing Zhi's struggle to understand who he\she is and where he\she fits made me realize what that was like. I had never read a book with a non-binary character before and I'm glad I read this one. Wu Jiang almost forgot about him. At first, I was expecting and liking his attentions towards Zhi (kind of reminds me of Tamlin from ACOTAR now that I think of it) and I wanted nothing but to see her fall for him. But as I read on I started to feel a little irritated with it and I couldn't quite put my finger on it. And then I knew. He was courting her without trying to get to know her. They didn't share a single conversation or intimate moment. I try to dismiss it because it was a book and maybe they would share something later on or he would show knowledge of her possessed only by observing. But then Zhi realized that he saw 'her' as nothing more than a fantasy, an object so precious and rare he had to have it. And I knew. I liked how the characters connected with each other and how each one was very much its own self and how they were not similar between them... sometimes an author will be so used to a certain type of characters or more focused on their role in the story that character's personality will lack. But not in this book! I loved the characters! Normally when I read a book, the most important aspect for me are the characters and this book definitely made me happy on that front! There aren't a lot of ships in this book, I'm used to being tons of ships in fantasy books! Romance doesn't take a very central role in the story and that was refreshing to read (although I do love me some romance). I think that the ships we got are well constructed and believable. First we get Zhi and Wu Jiang (after he finds out Zhi's not a boy) which at first seems cute but in reality, he sees Zhi as no more than a trophy, a wife and a mythical being he needs to have. And then we have Yang Jie and Zhi... which is a whole other story! I mean... wow, I was NOT expecting that! Amazing! And throughout the whole book not once do they make a big deal of people liking same-sex people. Like no one bothered if a boy liked a boy or a girl liked a girl. Fantastic! This is the type of society I want to live in... this is what I hope for the future. I want to give it 5 stars but it wasn't a 5 stars read. I want to give it 5 stars for the characters and the relationships, not the plot itself. It was good I loved it, but the 'human' aspect of the story is what drew me. So I ended up giving it like 4.5\4.75 stars out of 5. Pretty good I would say! For me, the strongest point was without a doubt the characters and all the LGBT+ representation. I like the way this story gives power to women. The world itself is against it and puts women in a position of subordinates but the story defies that role. We have a woman emperor. A woman legend. A woman warrior. Woman power. The weakest point for me was the end... I feel that it was a little rushed and that we could've had a few more chapters to see it end properly and in its own time. It was good nonetheless but a little too fast! I totally recommend this book! I was not expecting to like it so much but more than that what really hooked me was how Zhi's non-binary gender was explained and how it opened my eyes and made me realize what it really was.
