A young royal from the far north, is sent south for a political marriage in an empire reminiscent of imperial China. Her brothers are dead, her armies and their war mammoths long defeated and caged behind their borders. Alone and sometimes reviled, she must choose her allies carefully.
Rabbit, a handmaiden, sold by her parents to the palace for the lack of five baskets of dye, befriends the emperor's lonely new wife and gets more than she bargained for.
At once feminist high fantasy and an indictment of monarchy, this evocative debut follows the rise of the empress In-yo, who has few resources and fewer friends. She's a northern daughter in a mage-made summer exile, but she will bend history to her will and bring down her enemies, piece by piece.
1. Written by a BIPOC 2. Influenced by Asian (Vietnamese?) 3. Has a wide variety of queer chara 4. I'd hazard a guess there's not one caucasion person in this story 5. Despite one of the MC being the Empress its anti-monarchy 6. Incredibly well crafted through the use of flashbacks
Negative- it's only just over 100 pages so I was left wanting so much more of their story
