The Girl King by Mimi Yu
May. 8th, 2024 08:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
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 cousinSet 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’ll need an army to win back the throne.
Alone in a 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.
The battle for the Empire has begun.
16-year-old Princess Lu was born to rule. Ever since her great-grandfather, Kangmun, became the first Hu Emperor, her family have ruled the 16 provinces of the Empire of the First Flame. Recently though, her father’s health has been failing, and while it is not traditional for a princess to succeed her father, Lu has been training hard - learning to fight with master warrior Shin Yuri and studying the Empire. Given the close relationship she has with her father, she fully expects to be named as successor.
But on the day that Lu expects to be announced as her father’s heir, he instead names her hated cousin - the brutal, bullying Lord Set - as the next Emperor. Worse, the Emperor wants Lu to marry Set to cement his claim. Determined not to give up without a fight, Lu decides to challenge her cousin for the right to rule and in the resulting turmoil, goes on the run to try and raise an army to support her ...
Lu’s younger sister Minyi is used to people overlooking her. Lu has always been more beautiful, more talented and more determined than Min, and although their mother, the Empress, has made it clear that the docile, obedient and dutiful Min is her favourite, Min knows that other people gravitate to her sister more. But Min is not without secrets of her own and recently she has been having strange dreams - visions of things that have happened, are happening and will happen - and on the day she gets her first menstrual cycle, a great power awakens within her that threatens to reveal secrets that the imperial family would much rather keep secret.
When Lord Set arrives at court with his trusted advisor, a mysterious monk known as Brother, he seems to see something in Min and for once, she sees a chance to be someone of her own, someone who can reconcile Lu and Set and heal the Empire, even as Set and Brother see something within her that can help them to achieve their own plans ...
Nokhai is an apprentice to Omair (an apothecary) and an escapee from the labour camps set up by the Emperor within the northernmost lands of the Empire. So far as he knows, he is one of the last of his people known as the Slipskins (people who can transform into animals) although he has never been able to do it himself. When he accidentally meets the fleeing Lu (with whom he shares a past), he finds himself reluctantly involved in her quest to challenge Set, but that shared past means that he does not dare trust her with his own secrets, including the fact that he can feel a wolf awakening within him …
Mimi Yu’s debut YA fantasy (the first in a duology) draws on Asian history and mythology to create an interesting world with various factions, each with their own objectives and methods. However while I enjoyed the aesthetics, the story itself of sibling rivalry and power hungry antagonists is all a bit underbaked with Min in particular being underdeveloped despite being a viewpoint character and the inevitable YA love triangle left me bored.
I picked this up because I’m always interested in reading a non-European centric YA fantasy and this novel certainly fits that brief. Yu’s world building here draws on Asian traditions and I enjoyed the way she feeds in bits of history and mythology - especially in the city of Yunis, which exists between time and space and is where the final third of the book is set.
The Slipskin element is well portrayed and I enjoyed the way Yu ties this in with the religion she establishes within the book (twin gods of flame). In fact the way Nok’s story develops is probably the most satisfying in terms of how it mixes emotional and dramatic resonance, in part because Nok is more emotionally astute than the other characters but at the same time driven by loyalty to Omair and then later to Lu. I was actually disappointed when the inevitable romance develops between him and Lu because there’s little real basis for it and as a storyline it just didn’t interest me (especially when it becomes a triangle with the two-dimensional Prince Jin in the final quarter).
In fact I wished that Yu had focused more on Nok’s relationship with his sister Nasan because Yu avoids the trap of having him instantly trust her and instead recognise that their separation has changed each of them with the result that Nasan has an agenda of her own that may not tie in with his. If I pick up the sequel then it will be because where Yu leaves him at the end of the book has much more potential than where she leaves Yu and Min and I am genuinely interested in seeing what he does next.
This then brings me to Lu and Min and I have to say that I did not find their relationship convincing as sisters. While Lu does has agency and goals, Min is very under-developed in comparison - her character is passive but Yu doesn’t give a lot of background on the reasons for this and I wished that there had been more scenes between Min and the Empress because given what Yu says about their relationship (and in particular how the Empress favours her), I’d have liked to have seen that shown on the page.
The explanation for Min’s magical powers is a little confusing (it is not clear to what extent it results from a curse or was already dormant within her) and I’d hope that this is something that will be developed in the sequel. However Min’s reaction to her powers is unconvincing, as are her plans for them going forward. On the plus side, there is potential in her relationship with Brother who starts off seeing her as a tool, only to find that the power balance between them changes at the end of the book, which could be interesting to explore in the sequel.
Lu is cut more from the standard girl power cloth. I liked the fact that Yu shows her as being impulsive and naive and I also enjoyed the indecision, but her plan to retake the Empire is all thin gruel and relies a lot on happen chance (which does tie in with her naivety but at the same time isn’t that interesting to read). The major issue for Lu though is that she’s saddled with a love triangle and given the lack of chemistry between her and either Nok or Prince Jin, it just didn’t hold my interest.
There are some loose ends in the book that I would hope to see resolved in the sequel - notably the fact that Omair and the Empress seem to have some history while Shin Yuri and Omair also have a history together that suggests there are more revelations to come.
All in all there are some interesting ideas here but I think this is one of those books where there’s actually too much going on and some of it could have been trimmed back (notably there are too many factions/individual interests and the romance adds nothing). I’m not sure that I’d rush to read the sequel, but I would check out what else Yu produces.
The Verdict:
Mimi Yu’s debut YA fantasy (the first in a duology) draws on Asian history and mythology to create an interesting world with various factions, each with their own objectives and methods. However while I enjoyed the aesthetics, the story itself of sibling rivalry and power hungry antagonists is all a bit underbaked with Min in particular being underdeveloped despite being a viewpoint character and the inevitable YA love triangle left me bored.
Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.
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 cousinSet 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’ll need an army to win back the throne.
Alone in a 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.
16-year-old Princess Lu was born to rule. Ever since her great-grandfather, Kangmun, became the first Hu Emperor, her family have ruled the 16 provinces of the Empire of the First Flame. Recently though, her father’s health has been failing, and while it is not traditional for a princess to succeed her father, Lu has been training hard - learning to fight with master warrior Shin Yuri and studying the Empire. Given the close relationship she has with her father, she fully expects to be named as successor.
But on the day that Lu expects to be announced as her father’s heir, he instead names her hated cousin - the brutal, bullying Lord Set - as the next Emperor. Worse, the Emperor wants Lu to marry Set to cement his claim. Determined not to give up without a fight, Lu decides to challenge her cousin for the right to rule and in the resulting turmoil, goes on the run to try and raise an army to support her ...
Lu’s younger sister Minyi is used to people overlooking her. Lu has always been more beautiful, more talented and more determined than Min, and although their mother, the Empress, has made it clear that the docile, obedient and dutiful Min is her favourite, Min knows that other people gravitate to her sister more. But Min is not without secrets of her own and recently she has been having strange dreams - visions of things that have happened, are happening and will happen - and on the day she gets her first menstrual cycle, a great power awakens within her that threatens to reveal secrets that the imperial family would much rather keep secret.
When Lord Set arrives at court with his trusted advisor, a mysterious monk known as Brother, he seems to see something in Min and for once, she sees a chance to be someone of her own, someone who can reconcile Lu and Set and heal the Empire, even as Set and Brother see something within her that can help them to achieve their own plans ...
Nokhai is an apprentice to Omair (an apothecary) and an escapee from the labour camps set up by the Emperor within the northernmost lands of the Empire. So far as he knows, he is one of the last of his people known as the Slipskins (people who can transform into animals) although he has never been able to do it himself. When he accidentally meets the fleeing Lu (with whom he shares a past), he finds himself reluctantly involved in her quest to challenge Set, but that shared past means that he does not dare trust her with his own secrets, including the fact that he can feel a wolf awakening within him …
Mimi Yu’s debut YA fantasy (the first in a duology) draws on Asian history and mythology to create an interesting world with various factions, each with their own objectives and methods. However while I enjoyed the aesthetics, the story itself of sibling rivalry and power hungry antagonists is all a bit underbaked with Min in particular being underdeveloped despite being a viewpoint character and the inevitable YA love triangle left me bored.
I picked this up because I’m always interested in reading a non-European centric YA fantasy and this novel certainly fits that brief. Yu’s world building here draws on Asian traditions and I enjoyed the way she feeds in bits of history and mythology - especially in the city of Yunis, which exists between time and space and is where the final third of the book is set.
The Slipskin element is well portrayed and I enjoyed the way Yu ties this in with the religion she establishes within the book (twin gods of flame). In fact the way Nok’s story develops is probably the most satisfying in terms of how it mixes emotional and dramatic resonance, in part because Nok is more emotionally astute than the other characters but at the same time driven by loyalty to Omair and then later to Lu. I was actually disappointed when the inevitable romance develops between him and Lu because there’s little real basis for it and as a storyline it just didn’t interest me (especially when it becomes a triangle with the two-dimensional Prince Jin in the final quarter).
In fact I wished that Yu had focused more on Nok’s relationship with his sister Nasan because Yu avoids the trap of having him instantly trust her and instead recognise that their separation has changed each of them with the result that Nasan has an agenda of her own that may not tie in with his. If I pick up the sequel then it will be because where Yu leaves him at the end of the book has much more potential than where she leaves Yu and Min and I am genuinely interested in seeing what he does next.
This then brings me to Lu and Min and I have to say that I did not find their relationship convincing as sisters. While Lu does has agency and goals, Min is very under-developed in comparison - her character is passive but Yu doesn’t give a lot of background on the reasons for this and I wished that there had been more scenes between Min and the Empress because given what Yu says about their relationship (and in particular how the Empress favours her), I’d have liked to have seen that shown on the page.
The explanation for Min’s magical powers is a little confusing (it is not clear to what extent it results from a curse or was already dormant within her) and I’d hope that this is something that will be developed in the sequel. However Min’s reaction to her powers is unconvincing, as are her plans for them going forward. On the plus side, there is potential in her relationship with Brother who starts off seeing her as a tool, only to find that the power balance between them changes at the end of the book, which could be interesting to explore in the sequel.
Lu is cut more from the standard girl power cloth. I liked the fact that Yu shows her as being impulsive and naive and I also enjoyed the indecision, but her plan to retake the Empire is all thin gruel and relies a lot on happen chance (which does tie in with her naivety but at the same time isn’t that interesting to read). The major issue for Lu though is that she’s saddled with a love triangle and given the lack of chemistry between her and either Nok or Prince Jin, it just didn’t hold my interest.
There are some loose ends in the book that I would hope to see resolved in the sequel - notably the fact that Omair and the Empress seem to have some history while Shin Yuri and Omair also have a history together that suggests there are more revelations to come.
All in all there are some interesting ideas here but I think this is one of those books where there’s actually too much going on and some of it could have been trimmed back (notably there are too many factions/individual interests and the romance adds nothing). I’m not sure that I’d rush to read the sequel, but I would check out what else Yu produces.
The Verdict:
Mimi Yu’s debut YA fantasy (the first in a duology) draws on Asian history and mythology to create an interesting world with various factions, each with their own objectives and methods. However while I enjoyed the aesthetics, the story itself of sibling rivalry and power hungry antagonists is all a bit underbaked with Min in particular being underdeveloped despite being a viewpoint character and the inevitable YA love triangle left me bored.
Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.
