I wrote a whole page and a half of review for how much I didnt like this book. But my two biggest issues? The fantasy china doesnt have gunpowder. Theyre potrayed as helpless. They dont even have medicine?? The fantasy country inspired by CHINA? One of the pioneers of herbal medicine?? And then theres the 6 month time skip. Any and all interesting character change with Ruying and her fall for Antony we dont get to see! We just time skip SIX MONTHS. I was so, so baffled.
@@MsMvsc I'm pretty sure it's supposed to be both. In particular the creators have come out and said the Dai Li are supposed to be based on Chinese eunuchs.
I could be wrong, but wasn’t the Fire Nation an inspiration of both China and Japan? Such as the uniforms and architecture. I could be wrong it’s been a while since I watched ATLAB? And some places in the Earth Kingdom while predominantly Chinese inspired had Japanese and Korean influences.
9:35 This is less about Zutara specifically but BRO YES Why can't characters just be friends, especially when they've had little to no romantic implications at all? There's a similar ships I have gripes with for that reason, like just let them be friends, not everyone needs to make out P L E A S E 😭💀
I agree with you. If this had been a sister watches her twin succumb to brain washing and tries to save her or something similiar. It would've been a much better book and it wouldn't have glorified the dynamic between Ruyin and the Prince. *Speaking as someone who hasn't read the book.
I appreciate the review being posted. I got an early review copy of the book but when I got around to reading it I noticed people mentioning it was a coloniser romance, and when I read the opening authors note about it being influenced by Unit 731 specifically.. I pushed it to the "will not review" pile and took the points hit on my netgalley account cause coloniser romances are one thing... a coloniser romance about Unit 731 is a whole different thing! It's interesting to hear that at the end it's spun into a negative, but considering it's a series I unfortunately wonder if that's just gonna be turned around back into "aw but they're just meant to be together" or something like that.
As for the Zutara ship, I appear to be one of the few people who agree that it's a bad ship mostly because I don't think Avatar needed any shipping period. Even the romance between Aang and Katara that the series was gunning for felt weird.
Never liked it. Partially bc it's super shallow (good girl/bad boy), people write them extremely out of character, and yeah... the implication of someone loving a person that directly/indirectly victimized them is wild.
@@Sandreline same here. I know technically it's only a couple years but where Katara was forced to take on a motherly role as a child, she's way more mature than Aang is and it feels gross as hell. Aang reads as twelve and Katara reads as sixteen imo
New to the channel, this might be dumb, but if you haven't read LITTLE THIEVES, you should. You mentioned you want more YA that can stand alone and that definitely can, but there is a book two and an upcoming book three.
15:36 THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! You're the FIRST! reviewer I've seen mention the frankly appalling way addiction is handled, depicted, and conceptualized in this book! I understand Ruying is supposed to be "morally-gray", but the way she keeps harping on how she sees opian addicts...and THEN, her worldview is repeated confirmed by other characters, which makes it feel less like this is a specific-to-Ruying character flaw she needs to grow from, and more like this is the author's view of addicts and she REALLY wants us to know. Of course, that'd be a bad faith reading and unfair to the author, but it started to really grate on me the more I read this book (I'm about 30% of the way through). It even does a disservice to Ruying's character because for every time she goes on an internalized/spoken spiel about Xianlings addicted to opian, I'd always have the thought, "...So this is ACTUALLY how you see your sister?" Because (much like with what happens to Ru's Xianling friend) it seems Ruying's level of compassion only extends even a little bit to Meiya by virtue of her being her sister, first and foremost. Great insights and a great review, dude!
As soon as I heared it was semi inspired(?) by unit 737 I was just like oh, oh no. ( for those who aren’t aware they’re on par with Nazi experimentations, or even worse)
I do wish there was more world building around the qi-cells, tbh. I automatically thought that Rome could just setup a blood drive and call it a day. Why do you need to do all of that to get blood, especially for a scientifically advanced society?
Great chill review!! It’s nice to see someone approach this critically without hating on it imo… Some new books I’d love to see u review are Spin of Fate by A Vora also a 2024 release that is similarish to Avatar but the author says they’re inspired by Naruto. Daniel Greene had pretty positive things to say about it, compared it to Sanderson for hard magic system!! and Dragonfruit by Makia Lucier which is not a debut but one of my favorite YA fantasy this year with great worldbuilding and less focus on romance. Both solid reads that aren’t getting much hype negative or positive but they’re really unique.
Thank you for making this review. Something about it put a couple of things in perspective for me. After Cait Corrin's racist attempt to review bomb 2024 debuted on books- this book was on my list, but after hearing many reviews on the colonization ramble aspect (gross), I never bought it. I feel like authors are allowed to write and use non fiction and historical events as a baseline for their stories. But why are the others Romans? If this is inspires by to Unit 731. I feel like if there was some “deeper meaning” in this book (1) the author did a poor job portraying it or (2) I should turn off my empathy cap. Hearing how the book didn’t portray the opioid issue/addiction is a huge yikes to me knowing the profound effect opioid had on Hong Kong. It was these tiny movements that made me think “was this book an attempt to show generational trauma and being in an abusive relationship changes one’s outlook and now the MC will everything in her power to make things right- even the cost of her life” Or were these plot points thrown in for some shock/“dark romance” to “spice” up the book. I think I might just have to buy this book so I can do a deep dive of the good the bad and the ugly.
The part with the Romans bothers me too. I have a few guesses about this, but don't quote me on it. First: the author wanted to contrast the sexy white villain with the hot Asian best friend. Second: for some reason, she didn't want to make people of color the villains. Third: the author initially wanted to write a romance based on the story of Cleopatra and Anthony, but in the end, she decided to combine it with Unit 731. I just noticed that fantasy based on ancient Rome has become popular recently. Perhaps the author wanted to use this in her book.
@@MrGreyseptember Scout's honor, I promise not to quote you. And thank you for being the brave one to say it. The author didn't want POC more specially Japanese to be seen as the villains or agressors. Japan invasion of China was the ignite for WW2. And it isn't widely talked about and that hurts because that is my history is being erased. I know people are not their past or their government. I am not asinine to believe current day Japan is accountable for WW2 actions. But ignoring this piece of history is ignoring the past and ignoring the victims.
Thanks for reviewing this book - i was curious about it because the author was review bombed but i really dislike colonizer romance so im glas i got some perspective before reading it
When you said you don't like katara, i was like same. Also agreed zutara and this similar howst? Zutara is just no. But also, yes respect for katara but her character was just not for me. Uncle Iroh and Zuko however are 🤌🏽 Currently reading this book and i think it's just weird.
I have this checked out from the library and I think I'm just gonna return it. I've been seeing too many reviews that, even outside the colonizer romance stuff, it's just not great. I have too many other books to read, so maybe I'll come back to this one if I hear that the rest of the series makes it worth it.
YA me doesn't want to know the military/rebellion secrets. Those secrets would be common knowledge by the next chapter. I want to support the authors wronged by Cait Curran but none of the books interest me. It's annoying.
Someone please explain how cars and guns are inherantly superior to magic in general, and death magic specifically? Like make it make sense (I understand this is a big ask when the source material is a colonizer romance, like girl why)
@@varying-quality-creations i think its just the good ol "this guy cant have basic weaponry to make their job easier because they want them weak" type of thing. Even if she had crazy super powers, if someone can quickdraw on your ass then might as well not use it
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I wrote a whole page and a half of review for how much I didnt like this book. But my two biggest issues? The fantasy china doesnt have gunpowder. Theyre potrayed as helpless. They dont even have medicine?? The fantasy country inspired by CHINA? One of the pioneers of herbal medicine??
And then theres the 6 month time skip. Any and all interesting character change with Ruying and her fall for Antony we dont get to see! We just time skip SIX MONTHS. I was so, so baffled.
Pioneers of herbal medicine and inventors of gun powder making the fact that fantasy China doesn’t have it make even less sense
I'd always figured the Fire Nation was supposed to be based on Imperial Japan with the Earth Kingdom being the stand-in for China.
You’re right and I got it mixed up.
Korea for Earth Kingdom
@@MsMvsc I'm pretty sure it's supposed to be both. In particular the creators have come out and said the Dai Li are supposed to be based on Chinese eunuchs.
I could be wrong, but wasn’t the Fire Nation an inspiration of both China and Japan? Such as the uniforms and architecture. I could be wrong it’s been a while since I watched ATLAB?
And some places in the Earth Kingdom while predominantly Chinese inspired had Japanese and Korean influences.
@@m.a.w. I think I remember some Chinese influences in the Fire Nation, but I can't remember any Japanese influences in the Earth Kingdom.
9:35 This is less about Zutara specifically but BRO YES
Why can't characters just be friends, especially when they've had little to no romantic implications at all? There's a similar ships I have gripes with for that reason, like just let them be friends, not everyone needs to make out P L E A S E 😭💀
Yeah platonic friendship doesn’t get enough love in literature.
I was inclined to be a zutara shipper just cause I never thought she made sense with Aang, but D has converted me. Sokka all the way now.
Thank you, Anthony is NOTHING like Zuko! He reminds me more of Coriolanus Snow from A Ballad of Songs and Snakes!!!
I agree with you. If this had been a sister watches her twin succumb to brain washing and tries to save her or something similiar. It would've been a much better book and it wouldn't have glorified the dynamic between Ruyin and the Prince.
*Speaking as someone who hasn't read the book.
I appreciate the review being posted. I got an early review copy of the book but when I got around to reading it I noticed people mentioning it was a coloniser romance, and when I read the opening authors note about it being influenced by Unit 731 specifically.. I pushed it to the "will not review" pile and took the points hit on my netgalley account cause coloniser romances are one thing... a coloniser romance about Unit 731 is a whole different thing! It's interesting to hear that at the end it's spun into a negative, but considering it's a series I unfortunately wonder if that's just gonna be turned around back into "aw but they're just meant to be together" or something like that.
Yeah that’s my fear as well. I dunno I’m curious to see where the author takes it cause this was a wild idea (and not in a good way).
As for the Zutara ship, I appear to be one of the few people who agree that it's a bad ship mostly because I don't think Avatar needed any shipping period. Even the romance between Aang and Katara that the series was gunning for felt weird.
Never liked it. Partially bc it's super shallow (good girl/bad boy), people write them extremely out of character, and yeah... the implication of someone loving a person that directly/indirectly victimized them is wild.
Agreed. And even as a kid I was never super comfortable with the obvious developmental (age) difference between Aang and Katara.
@@Sandreline
They're like 1.5-2 years apart, cmon. It would be the same age difference for Zutara.
@@Sandreline same here. I know technically it's only a couple years but where Katara was forced to take on a motherly role as a child, she's way more mature than Aang is and it feels gross as hell. Aang reads as twelve and Katara reads as sixteen imo
@@MsMvsc, I'm not into Zutara either. 🤷
Thank you for acknowledging Mai as someone who was good for Zuko.
Just speaking from the heart y’know?
New to the channel, this might be dumb, but if you haven't read LITTLE THIEVES, you should. You mentioned you want more YA that can stand alone and that definitely can, but there is a book two and an upcoming book three.
It’s on my TBR 👍🏽
15:36 THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! You're the FIRST! reviewer I've seen mention the frankly appalling way addiction is handled, depicted, and conceptualized in this book! I understand Ruying is supposed to be "morally-gray", but the way she keeps harping on how she sees opian addicts...and THEN, her worldview is repeated confirmed by other characters, which makes it feel less like this is a specific-to-Ruying character flaw she needs to grow from, and more like this is the author's view of addicts and she REALLY wants us to know. Of course, that'd be a bad faith reading and unfair to the author, but it started to really grate on me the more I read this book (I'm about 30% of the way through). It even does a disservice to Ruying's character because for every time she goes on an internalized/spoken spiel about Xianlings addicted to opian, I'd always have the thought, "...So this is ACTUALLY how you see your sister?" Because (much like with what happens to Ru's Xianling friend) it seems Ruying's level of compassion only extends even a little bit to Meiya by virtue of her being her sister, first and foremost.
Great insights and a great review, dude!
As soon as I heared it was semi inspired(?) by unit 737 I was just like oh, oh no. ( for those who aren’t aware they’re on par with Nazi experimentations, or even worse)
ngl you ALMSOT had me until you came out for ZukaSokka. I respect it. Carry on.
I do wish there was more world building around the qi-cells, tbh. I automatically thought that Rome could just setup a blood drive and call it a day. Why do you need to do all of that to get blood, especially for a scientifically advanced society?
I feel like she read R F Kuang and said "oh I could do that"
Great chill review!! It’s nice to see someone approach this critically without hating on it imo… Some new books I’d love to see u review are Spin of Fate by A Vora also a 2024 release that is similarish to Avatar but the author says they’re inspired by Naruto. Daniel Greene had pretty positive things to say about it, compared it to Sanderson for hard magic system!! and Dragonfruit by Makia Lucier which is not a debut but one of my favorite YA fantasy this year with great worldbuilding and less focus on romance. Both solid reads that aren’t getting much hype negative or positive but they’re really unique.
Both are on my TBR!! Thanks for watching :)
Thank you for making this review. Something about it put a couple of things in perspective for me. After Cait Corrin's racist attempt to review bomb 2024 debuted on books- this book was on my list, but after hearing many reviews on the colonization ramble aspect (gross), I never bought it.
I feel like authors are allowed to write and use non fiction and historical events as a baseline for their stories. But why are the others Romans? If this is
inspires by to Unit 731.
I feel like if there was some “deeper meaning” in this book (1) the author did a poor job portraying it or (2) I should turn off my empathy cap.
Hearing how the book didn’t portray the opioid issue/addiction is a huge yikes to me knowing the profound effect opioid had on Hong Kong. It was these tiny movements that made me think “was this book an attempt to show generational trauma and being in an abusive relationship changes one’s outlook and now the MC will everything in her power to make things right- even the cost of her life”
Or were these plot points thrown in for some shock/“dark romance” to “spice” up the book. I think I might just have to buy this book so I can do a deep dive of the good the bad and the ugly.
The part with the Romans bothers me too. I have a few guesses about this, but don't quote me on it. First: the author wanted to contrast the sexy white villain with the hot Asian best friend. Second: for some reason, she didn't want to make people of color the villains. Third: the author initially wanted to write a romance based on the story of Cleopatra and Anthony, but in the end, she decided to combine it with Unit 731. I just noticed that fantasy based on ancient Rome has become popular recently. Perhaps the author wanted to use this in her book.
@@MrGreyseptember Scout's honor, I promise not to quote you. And thank you for being the brave one to say it. The author didn't want POC more specially Japanese to be seen as the villains or agressors. Japan invasion of China was the ignite for WW2. And it isn't widely talked about and that hurts because that is my history is being erased. I know people are not their past or their government. I am not asinine to believe current day Japan is accountable for WW2 actions. But ignoring this piece of history is ignoring the past and ignoring the victims.
Thanks for reviewing this book - i was curious about it because the author was review bombed but i really dislike colonizer romance so im glas i got some perspective before reading it
You’re welcome, I’d never encountered colonizer romance before. And yeah I agree with really disliking it.
The untitled third book for this series already has 37/38 5* ratings so I will never trust GR ever.
I don’t even use it
@@dontfretreadbooks Totally fair, I don't use it either (not a reviewer). But I do like reading the 1* reviews sometimes. 🤣
When you said you don't like katara, i was like same. Also agreed zutara and this similar howst? Zutara is just no. But also, yes respect for katara but her character was just not for me. Uncle Iroh and Zuko however are 🤌🏽
Currently reading this book and i think it's just weird.
21:13 good luck 👍🏻
I gasped when you said you don't like Katara lmao. Zutara shippers can't be trusted.
I respect her tho.
Wait cause ur right, Zuko and Sokka should've at least kissed
Some people aren’t brave enough to face the truth✨
your explanation of the experiment reveal kinda reminds me of like - it's like promare. but.....not good lmao.
Don't like Katara? Immediate unsub. /j
It’s been real 🫡
@@dontfretreadbooks I need an immediate in-depth analysis of why, super curious ahah
@surrealfantasy1554 if I do that it wouldn’t be until next week. But no promises.
I have this checked out from the library and I think I'm just gonna return it. I've been seeing too many reviews that, even outside the colonizer romance stuff, it's just not great. I have too many other books to read, so maybe I'll come back to this one if I hear that the rest of the series makes it worth it.
Life’s too short for to read books you don’t have high hopes for.
YA me doesn't want to know the military/rebellion secrets. Those secrets would be common knowledge by the next chapter.
I want to support the authors wronged by Cait Curran but none of the books interest me. It's annoying.
Tbh I never shipped Zutara romantically and I didn't like Katara and Aang either personally.
I think I like them all as friends except the canon couples are fine.
16:56 lmao
Someone please explain how cars and guns are inherantly superior to magic in general, and death magic specifically? Like make it make sense (I understand this is a big ask when the source material is a colonizer romance, like girl why)
The book explains it but the magic is slower than a bullet
@@dontfretreadbooks Then why bother have the MC be an assassin? If her death magic is slower than a bullet then why not just use a bullet?
@@varying-quality-creations i think its just the good ol "this guy cant have basic weaponry to make their job easier because they want them weak" type of thing. Even if she had crazy super powers, if someone can quickdraw on your ass then might as well not use it
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