Reviewed by nannah on
Book content warnings:
sexism
sexual harassment
It’s very hard to find an actual plot here, but let’s see. Mariko, daughter of a famous samurai, is off to the imperial palace to meet her betrothed of an arranged marriage. On the way, she’s attacked by hired outlaws called the Black Clan and ends up being the only survivor.
So … supposedly then she gets filled with some bloody revenge and plans on infiltrating the Black Clan to kill everyone there, even though she’s a royal woman with fighting training, and no idea how things outside her own sheltered bubble work except for what her twin brother, Kenshin, has told her. She counts on her amazing “wits” to get her through everything.
Unfortunately, as a reader, I saw very, Very, few evidence of such wits. Mariko kept telling me how smart she was at me without actually showing me any proof of it. The Black Clan was really just less intelligent than her (or the book simply overflowed with ridiculous coincidences).
When the Black Clan's cook gives her an egg to eat, Mariko's inner monologue goes something like this: “His kindness could be a tactic. A way to wear down her defenses. Extreme cruelty tempered by extreme consideration. Much like the egg. / It could be a trick. / But the egg--that simple egg--was so wonderful. So perfect. / How could anyone who would take such care to prepare a simple egg truly be bad?” And she’s supposed to be counting on her wits to survive here.
The book also REEKS of the “I’m not like other girls” trope which I detest and honestly thought we were done with in YA. Nope? Or I guess I WISH we were all done with. Trying to be better than other girls, fighting against other girls to be “special” (to what … to men? please.) … can this be one last blip and then we can move on to supporting other girls -- ESPECIALLY since this is YA?
Anyway, tangent.
I think you can gather I didn’t like this book. At all. I suffered through the entire thing, to be honest, and though I feel really bad writing this review, I’m going to do it. Though I love diverse books, and want more, more, MORE of them, I don’t want crappy books flooding the market because “diversity” is now the new “”trend”” in publishing (unfortunately, I'm pretty sure that’s how it’s considered by big-name publishers. I hate capitalism). Back to the book:
It basically drowned in epithets. Like (I’m SO sorry for saying this, I’m so sorry) the author learned some bad writing skills from fanfiction and didn’t unlearn them before diving into this book -- and the editor didn’t fix the writing. Just Use Character Names. “The boy”, “the man in dark clothing”, “the samurai” for like 5 pages gets old REALLY fast. It doesn’t create an effective mood, and it’s not great writing.
Speaking of characters, I think one of the worst flaws the book has is basically that all character personalities are straight-up told to me as a reader and not explored as the book goes on through the story and through character actions and dialogue.
The same goes with character motivations. We’re told what Mariko, for example, wants to do about a hundred times but never actually see her making strides to accomplish it. Simply being told over and over and over that "she needed to know why the Black Clan had taken her to their camp. Who they were exactly. But most of all, she needed to discover why they’d been sent to kill her. / And by whom.” ← Over, and over, and over, and over, I’m fed lines like this through Mariko’s inner monologue, without any actions to prove she’s actually doing anything about them. Later her goal list gets a little longer to include more things like “can’t trust [love interest] but he’s just so interesting…]” and “I need to take revenge on them all! But how??” But it’s the same thing. She--and the novel--does nothing about these goals. This basic need of a novel: what the protagonist wants/needs to accomplish. Having the plot conveniently solve things without anything done by the character isn’t good writing ...
Similarly, Renée Ahdieh forces the main characters together as a couple when there’s no evidence of chemistry or romance on-page. She simply tells us things are happening -- just as she did with character traits and wants. She also tried so hard to create some “forbidden romance”, but she has to force it, reminding me page after page that “I hate him, he’s part of the Black Clan, I hate him and everything he stands for” ALL the time. In every scene they’re in together these words are repeated in internal monologue. Again, going along with the fact that nothing is done or solved in-scene and everything is done internally. The writing is actually pretty beautiful in parts! It’s just that it’s also incredibly weak when it comes to being functional character and plot-wise.
But worst of all, and what I can’t ever forgive, is that The Flame and the Mist is a Mulan remake. I didn’t know that going in, but I probably wouldn’t have even started it had I known. A Mulan remake … set in Japan? With all the characters being Japanese people? I’m not East Asian so I can’t really say how insensitive this is, but I’ve heard from others how awful even face-claiming Japanese/other East Asian actors online to play Mulan roles, etc., so to rewrite the entire story (even in a separate universe) set in Japan instead of China seems … really wrong. But again, that’s for someone else to elaborate on.
Adding to that fact, too, is that the book seems to base all of its information on the Disney movie! Complete with taking some of the same iconic lines, switching them around with synonyms so Renée can’t be called out for plagiarizing. It’s … mind-boggling how bizarre this is:
“‘Be as swift as the wind. As silent as the forest. As fierce as the fire. As unshakable as the mountain.”’ [...]
In fact, they really do sing about women at one point as well, about what they like in women (hmm, sound familiar?), and it comes to Mariko’s turn, who doesn’t know what to say, and who thinks, “The most fascinating thing about any woman should be her mind, should it not?” And then, of course, right after this song … they come to a massacre.
All Mariko needed was a dragon companion and some (more) singing to top it off and we’d have a Disney book, right? Instead, we have some sexual harassment when she was “discovered” to be a girl. The love interest basically just put his hand on her chest and waited for her to make the next move. Soooo romantic, right?
I Know I’m being really harsh, but I did find it nearly unreadable.
There was also the case of the love interest having some kind of powers that sapped his energy--and which magic system that was never used again. At the very end there was a rather lousy explanation of his powers, but why have it in the first place? Because there needed to be that first catalyst for his introduction? Why have a magic system that’s never used and that has no rules?
So yeah, definitely the worst book I’ve read so far this year. I’m really disappointed, even though I had absolutely no expectations coming in. I had Renée Ahdieh’s other book on my to-read list, but I don’t think I’ll get to it. Not after this. It’s just a big mess of lousy writing and lousy world-building.
Reading updates
- Started reading
- 30 June, 2019: Finished reading
- 30 June, 2019: Reviewed