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Those Who Break Chains #3
The Ruin of Beasts
The conclusion to the long hunt of centuries, the fulfillment of an ancient family pact: what awaits, at the end of all things.
The House of Hua made a binding promise with a demon—in exchange for strength and a lasting legacy, the family's descendants must work to seal away the eldritch being known only as Nuawa, a creature that's long chafed against its captivity and has at last broken free. It will not rest until the Huas are scorched, the family name cast into oblivion.
Viveca, Olesya, and all their retainers must marshal their every resource if they want to destroy Nuawa for good. But it has grown arrogant and potent, and at its side stands a mage far more powerful than any other the Huas have ever faced.
Now, more than ever, both sisters stand to lose everything.
The House of Hua made a binding promise with a demon—in exchange for strength and a lasting legacy, the family's descendants must work to seal away the eldritch being known only as Nuawa, a creature that's long chafed against its captivity and has at last broken free. It will not rest until the Huas are scorched, the family name cast into oblivion.
Viveca, Olesya, and all their retainers must marshal their every resource if they want to destroy Nuawa for good. But it has grown arrogant and potent, and at its side stands a mage far more powerful than any other the Huas have ever faced.
Now, more than ever, both sisters stand to lose everything.
318 pages, Paperback
Published November 8, 2023
8 people are currently reading
99 people want to read
About the author
Maria Ying
11 books65 followersMaria Ying is both a fictional character and the joint pseudonym of Devi Lacroix and Benjanun Sriduangkaew, who have challenged themselves to write fiction with no speculative elements for once.
Devi Lacroix can be found at
Website: devilacroix.com
Twitter: twitter.com/DeviLacroix
Benjanun Sriduangkaew can be found at
Website: beekian.wordpress.com
Twitter: twitter.com/benjanun_s
Devi Lacroix can be found at
Website: devilacroix.com
Twitter: twitter.com/DeviLacroix
Benjanun Sriduangkaew can be found at
Website: beekian.wordpress.com
Twitter: twitter.com/benjanun_s
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
April 3, 2024
Note: This edition includes the novella The Serpent of the House of Hua at the end. I will read that at a later date. This is a review solely for The Ruin of Beasts.
A short time after the events of The Might of Monsters, sisters Viveca and Olesya Hua, along with their wives Yves (Viveca) and Dallas and Chang'er (Olesya) are searching for the mysterious being Nuawa, which is said to have killed their mother Elizaveta ten years ago. They are aided in their search by the former policewoman turned golem Fahriye Budak and the professor Lussadh al-Kittan and--most notably--their new "sister" Xinfang and her lover Chun Hyang. "Sister" in that she is a twin of Olesya that is the embodiment of her id and repressed desires and Chun Hyang is the fusion between two former enemies the Exegesis and the Cynosure--Shit's wild, and that's a good thing.
However, just when the sisters and their wives discover a piece of Nuawa's True Name, a trap is activated and they are frozen solid. Soon, that freezing begins to take over all of Singapore. Xinfang, Chun Hyang, Fahriye, and Lussadh will have to race against the clock, and their feelings, to track Nuawa down to free Singapore from the frigid wrath of its newest ally--the Winter Queen!
The Ruin of Beasts is, by far, the best installment of the Those Who Break Chains series thus far. I felt that the story wraps up tighter than the previous books--not that the previous books had anything marginally wrong with them--and that its pacing and character development were top notch. As I stated above, this book focuses predominately on Xinfang, Chun Hyang, Fahriye, and Lussadh; the other girls are pretty much incased in ice throughout the majority of the story. That isn't a bad thing. I felt that Viveca, Oleysa, Yves, and Dallas' character arcs wrapped up fairly in The Might of Monsters and it appears that both halves of the author Maria Ying (Benjanun Sriduangkaew and Devi Lacroix) thought so as well. The focus on these other main characters was very necessary, especially Xinfang, who became my favorite, after her very interesting strange introduction to the series in the previous book. Fahriye and Lussadh got development in the previous as well, but The Ruin of Beasts puts the locus of their development on their feelings toward each other in the aftermath of the last book's final battle when they get a hint that Elizaveta Hua might still be alive. More so, this book introspectively looks at the moral codes and philosophies and Fahriye, Lussadh, Xinfang, and Chun Hyang, mostly the former two, and confronts how they feel about their places in the world, especially under mage society and as their newfound roles of "saviors of the world," a position neither of them expected to take up.
Fahriye and Lussadh are the most interesting in this introspection. Fahriye was a former policewoman who tried her best to do good in both mage and mundane society. However, she saw the writing on the wall and eventually left. I would argue that Fahriye is probably the most moral person in the entire series. Both halves of Ying have made a point that their characters are not necessarily entirely good people, but they aren't villains either. We, for once, have true morally grey characters in a fantasy series that actually remain consistent in both their own character arcs, the plot progression, and in the authors' personal outsets. "Morally grey" is often a buzzword or marketing attraction used in traditional publishing, promising its readers the same thing that Ying gives to us in Those Who Break Chains. However, in my experience at least, the "morally grey" characters we're given in traditional publishing are not necessarily actually, well, morally grey. Other authors seem to fail to deliver on this part or fall into contradictions.
But anyway...
Fahriye was in love with Elizaveta before her death/disappearance ten years ago and used her former police position to watch over the Huas and mitigate things within the corrupt mage society. She could only do so much. She joined a corrupt organization with good intentions, but she could never change anything. She was further complicate by her relationship with the Huas whom she knew weren't the most upstanding people. Fahriye is a genuinely kind and loveable character, complicated by the concerns of both the fates of those she loves and her own.
Similarly, Lussadh, a former professor, doted on her former students, especially those from lesser and lower class mage families. She disliked the politics of the mage world, especially those of her own father (note: Lussadh's father goes by she/her pronouns. I believe she was a cis woman, but just used a masculine addressment). Since childhood, Lussadh was molded by her father to be the heir of her family and engage in all the nasty machinations of the mage world. Lussadh refused much to her father's chagrin. Unlike Fahriye though, Lussadh did not love the Huas. She despised them. She saw them as perpetrators of the cruelties inflicted upon her many former students. Reluctantly, she allies with the Hua sisters and their wives to take down Nuawa, because she virtually has nothing else. A decision that Lussadh makes in the story jeopardizes her moral code, but I shan't spoil it here. Either way, her actions after this decision and the aftermath of it all make her question her place as well. She was a very complex character and I'm glad Ying did more with her in this book.
What Xinfang questions is who she is as her own person now. She definitely loves her family, even if some of them are wary and uncertain as to who and what she is. But given that she was originally Olesya's id and darker parts, what she has to go through to fight back against Nuawa and the other enemies encountered in the book seems to make her go through a subversion. Sure, Xinfang still has a darker side to herself, but she becomes separate from Olesya even more so than her initial incarnation in the previous book and she does strive to do something good and for the benefit of others. At the beginning of this quest, for lack of better words, one could argue that Xinfang is only doing all this for her family and to be with Chun Hyang. While she never gives some sort of speech or narration about have she's doing this for the good of the people, after encountering the Knight of the Round Table Gawain--who's an ace lesbian and Southeast Asian in this book, by the way--and witnessing her fight back against her captors to get another piece of Nuawa's True Name, Xinfang seems to be concerned for the fate of all Singapore.
This development from feral, vicious manifestation of Olesya's id to her own, more just yet still rambunctious person is interesting in hindsight. Remember that Olesya is a trans woman who used magic to transition herself. Xinfang can manipulate her genitalia to whatever she wants (and we can assume that she do this with any other part of her body) so the transness is still certainly there in a way. However, it also feels like it could be a metaphor for another transitioning. It's not beaten over your head, but if one thinks about it, it can definitely be seen. There's no transphobia or homophobia in these books--Ying is dedicated to keeping it that way--but if one looks at Xinfang, they could see echoes of another trans story: Her family is uncertain as to who she is, she goes through a gradual change about what she wants and needs to do, and eventually she matures into her own person. Full disclosure that I am not trans, so if I have said something here that is reading too much into it or not even there, I will admit my error. However, earlier today I read Noah Berlatsky's thoughts on Those Who Break Chains and he had this to say:
These negotiations of bodies and boundaries are all metaphors for various kinds of queer experience—of family disapproval, of dysphoria, of self-hatred, of coming to understand oneself as a new demon in a world that hasn’t set aside a body for you.
In creating these mirrors of queer identity, Ying inevitably suggests or recalls the fact of queer marginalization. But the books aren’t about that marginalization. Instead, the world of the novels is one in which queer marginalization, as queer marginalization, has largely been banished.
So to me, The Ruin of Beasts contains echoes of the queer and trans experience in our real, much bleaker world but doesn't center the trauma and pain of that real world experience. Instead, it offers a story of power and fantasy for queer and trans women without removing anything else that would make one a queer and/or trans woman. Xinfang isn't a demon like Yves, at least not in the traditional sense, but nonetheless her place in the world ever since The Might of Monsters is a lingering question for herself and others. Xinfang is a fascinating character and I loved her vivacious and often rude personality. She's less restrained than the other characters of this series, even more so than Dallas, and I absolutely enjoyed that.
Chun Hyang is the fusion of two former enemies from the previous book. With Xinfang, they travel the world looking for the remainders of Nuawau's True Name. Like the other three characters, Chun Hyang is wondering their purpose in the world. They love Xinfang and wish to be her anchor so she doesn't fade from the world, but as the Exegesis and Cynosure war within them, as the war outside and around them threatens their physical body, they realize that they are on borrowed time and wonder what would be the point of certain things (perhaps another trans/non-binary metaphor?). Chun Hyang's status and ontology as a former enemy of the Huas also adds more confusion to their personal journey. Both they and we the readers can feel the uncertainty from the Huas and their wives towards Chun Hyang. Will they be accepted after all of this? And if so, how much? Chun Hyang's story and feelings on who and what they are got more interesting as the story went on, especially when they had to reconcile the relationships of their former selves. Let's just say that the Cynosure was one of the world's shittiest mothers. Chun Hyang was interesting as well and I loved their interactions with Xinfang.
it is mostly these character arcs that form both the apparatus and my affection for the The Ruin of Beasts. The prose here is very good, and it also feels much more tighter than the previous books. Again, there was nothing "wrong" with the prose in the previous books, but given the situations, atmosphere, and emotions of The Ruin of Beasts, it feels like Ying was a bit more serious with the syntax and direction of the prose here. And that's a good thing. I cannot speak for Lacroix, as these books are the only things I've read of her writing, but Sriduangkaew is know for her florid, luscious prose. The prose here isn't what I call luscious, but we do see the return of a prettier side of Ying's prose. And the pacing doesn't lose anything for this more prettier prose, gluing everything together nicely.
This book is a five star read, but if I do have any criticisms, it's that I felt that the final battles were over a tad too quick for me. But that's just my personal opinion.
Ying has stated that this isn't the end of the Those Who Break Chains universe and that they will return, focusing of Gawain and the Knights of the Round Table when they get back to it. I am curious about that future installment as it will follow an ace lesbian lead and one character (Guinevere) will be bisexual (but no focus on a lover who is a man, as that's not Ying's style) and it will be interesting to see Ying tackle these identities. As a bisexual guy, I am curious. For now though, Ying is anticipating the release of their cyberpunk book The Hades Calculus and I game to read that.
Till next time.
A short time after the events of The Might of Monsters, sisters Viveca and Olesya Hua, along with their wives Yves (Viveca) and Dallas and Chang'er (Olesya) are searching for the mysterious being Nuawa, which is said to have killed their mother Elizaveta ten years ago. They are aided in their search by the former policewoman turned golem Fahriye Budak and the professor Lussadh al-Kittan and--most notably--their new "sister" Xinfang and her lover Chun Hyang. "Sister" in that she is a twin of Olesya that is the embodiment of her id and repressed desires and Chun Hyang is the fusion between two former enemies the Exegesis and the Cynosure--Shit's wild, and that's a good thing.
However, just when the sisters and their wives discover a piece of Nuawa's True Name, a trap is activated and they are frozen solid. Soon, that freezing begins to take over all of Singapore. Xinfang, Chun Hyang, Fahriye, and Lussadh will have to race against the clock, and their feelings, to track Nuawa down to free Singapore from the frigid wrath of its newest ally--the Winter Queen!
The Ruin of Beasts is, by far, the best installment of the Those Who Break Chains series thus far. I felt that the story wraps up tighter than the previous books--not that the previous books had anything marginally wrong with them--and that its pacing and character development were top notch. As I stated above, this book focuses predominately on Xinfang, Chun Hyang, Fahriye, and Lussadh; the other girls are pretty much incased in ice throughout the majority of the story. That isn't a bad thing. I felt that Viveca, Oleysa, Yves, and Dallas' character arcs wrapped up fairly in The Might of Monsters and it appears that both halves of the author Maria Ying (Benjanun Sriduangkaew and Devi Lacroix) thought so as well. The focus on these other main characters was very necessary, especially Xinfang, who became my favorite, after her very interesting strange introduction to the series in the previous book. Fahriye and Lussadh got development in the previous as well, but The Ruin of Beasts puts the locus of their development on their feelings toward each other in the aftermath of the last book's final battle when they get a hint that Elizaveta Hua might still be alive. More so, this book introspectively looks at the moral codes and philosophies and Fahriye, Lussadh, Xinfang, and Chun Hyang, mostly the former two, and confronts how they feel about their places in the world, especially under mage society and as their newfound roles of "saviors of the world," a position neither of them expected to take up.
Fahriye and Lussadh are the most interesting in this introspection. Fahriye was a former policewoman who tried her best to do good in both mage and mundane society. However, she saw the writing on the wall and eventually left. I would argue that Fahriye is probably the most moral person in the entire series. Both halves of Ying have made a point that their characters are not necessarily entirely good people, but they aren't villains either. We, for once, have true morally grey characters in a fantasy series that actually remain consistent in both their own character arcs, the plot progression, and in the authors' personal outsets. "Morally grey" is often a buzzword or marketing attraction used in traditional publishing, promising its readers the same thing that Ying gives to us in Those Who Break Chains. However, in my experience at least, the "morally grey" characters we're given in traditional publishing are not necessarily actually, well, morally grey. Other authors seem to fail to deliver on this part or fall into contradictions.
But anyway...
Fahriye was in love with Elizaveta before her death/disappearance ten years ago and used her former police position to watch over the Huas and mitigate things within the corrupt mage society. She could only do so much. She joined a corrupt organization with good intentions, but she could never change anything. She was further complicate by her relationship with the Huas whom she knew weren't the most upstanding people. Fahriye is a genuinely kind and loveable character, complicated by the concerns of both the fates of those she loves and her own.
Similarly, Lussadh, a former professor, doted on her former students, especially those from lesser and lower class mage families. She disliked the politics of the mage world, especially those of her own father (note: Lussadh's father goes by she/her pronouns. I believe she was a cis woman, but just used a masculine addressment). Since childhood, Lussadh was molded by her father to be the heir of her family and engage in all the nasty machinations of the mage world. Lussadh refused much to her father's chagrin. Unlike Fahriye though, Lussadh did not love the Huas. She despised them. She saw them as perpetrators of the cruelties inflicted upon her many former students. Reluctantly, she allies with the Hua sisters and their wives to take down Nuawa, because she virtually has nothing else. A decision that Lussadh makes in the story jeopardizes her moral code, but I shan't spoil it here. Either way, her actions after this decision and the aftermath of it all make her question her place as well. She was a very complex character and I'm glad Ying did more with her in this book.
What Xinfang questions is who she is as her own person now. She definitely loves her family, even if some of them are wary and uncertain as to who and what she is. But given that she was originally Olesya's id and darker parts, what she has to go through to fight back against Nuawa and the other enemies encountered in the book seems to make her go through a subversion. Sure, Xinfang still has a darker side to herself, but she becomes separate from Olesya even more so than her initial incarnation in the previous book and she does strive to do something good and for the benefit of others. At the beginning of this quest, for lack of better words, one could argue that Xinfang is only doing all this for her family and to be with Chun Hyang. While she never gives some sort of speech or narration about have she's doing this for the good of the people, after encountering the Knight of the Round Table Gawain--who's an ace lesbian and Southeast Asian in this book, by the way--and witnessing her fight back against her captors to get another piece of Nuawa's True Name, Xinfang seems to be concerned for the fate of all Singapore.
This development from feral, vicious manifestation of Olesya's id to her own, more just yet still rambunctious person is interesting in hindsight. Remember that Olesya is a trans woman who used magic to transition herself. Xinfang can manipulate her genitalia to whatever she wants (and we can assume that she do this with any other part of her body) so the transness is still certainly there in a way. However, it also feels like it could be a metaphor for another transitioning. It's not beaten over your head, but if one thinks about it, it can definitely be seen. There's no transphobia or homophobia in these books--Ying is dedicated to keeping it that way--but if one looks at Xinfang, they could see echoes of another trans story: Her family is uncertain as to who she is, she goes through a gradual change about what she wants and needs to do, and eventually she matures into her own person. Full disclosure that I am not trans, so if I have said something here that is reading too much into it or not even there, I will admit my error. However, earlier today I read Noah Berlatsky's thoughts on Those Who Break Chains and he had this to say:
These negotiations of bodies and boundaries are all metaphors for various kinds of queer experience—of family disapproval, of dysphoria, of self-hatred, of coming to understand oneself as a new demon in a world that hasn’t set aside a body for you.
In creating these mirrors of queer identity, Ying inevitably suggests or recalls the fact of queer marginalization. But the books aren’t about that marginalization. Instead, the world of the novels is one in which queer marginalization, as queer marginalization, has largely been banished.
So to me, The Ruin of Beasts contains echoes of the queer and trans experience in our real, much bleaker world but doesn't center the trauma and pain of that real world experience. Instead, it offers a story of power and fantasy for queer and trans women without removing anything else that would make one a queer and/or trans woman. Xinfang isn't a demon like Yves, at least not in the traditional sense, but nonetheless her place in the world ever since The Might of Monsters is a lingering question for herself and others. Xinfang is a fascinating character and I loved her vivacious and often rude personality. She's less restrained than the other characters of this series, even more so than Dallas, and I absolutely enjoyed that.
Chun Hyang is the fusion of two former enemies from the previous book. With Xinfang, they travel the world looking for the remainders of Nuawau's True Name. Like the other three characters, Chun Hyang is wondering their purpose in the world. They love Xinfang and wish to be her anchor so she doesn't fade from the world, but as the Exegesis and Cynosure war within them, as the war outside and around them threatens their physical body, they realize that they are on borrowed time and wonder what would be the point of certain things (perhaps another trans/non-binary metaphor?). Chun Hyang's status and ontology as a former enemy of the Huas also adds more confusion to their personal journey. Both they and we the readers can feel the uncertainty from the Huas and their wives towards Chun Hyang. Will they be accepted after all of this? And if so, how much? Chun Hyang's story and feelings on who and what they are got more interesting as the story went on, especially when they had to reconcile the relationships of their former selves. Let's just say that the Cynosure was one of the world's shittiest mothers. Chun Hyang was interesting as well and I loved their interactions with Xinfang.
it is mostly these character arcs that form both the apparatus and my affection for the The Ruin of Beasts. The prose here is very good, and it also feels much more tighter than the previous books. Again, there was nothing "wrong" with the prose in the previous books, but given the situations, atmosphere, and emotions of The Ruin of Beasts, it feels like Ying was a bit more serious with the syntax and direction of the prose here. And that's a good thing. I cannot speak for Lacroix, as these books are the only things I've read of her writing, but Sriduangkaew is know for her florid, luscious prose. The prose here isn't what I call luscious, but we do see the return of a prettier side of Ying's prose. And the pacing doesn't lose anything for this more prettier prose, gluing everything together nicely.
This book is a five star read, but if I do have any criticisms, it's that I felt that the final battles were over a tad too quick for me. But that's just my personal opinion.
Ying has stated that this isn't the end of the Those Who Break Chains universe and that they will return, focusing of Gawain and the Knights of the Round Table when they get back to it. I am curious about that future installment as it will follow an ace lesbian lead and one character (Guinevere) will be bisexual (but no focus on a lover who is a man, as that's not Ying's style) and it will be interesting to see Ying tackle these identities. As a bisexual guy, I am curious. For now though, Ying is anticipating the release of their cyberpunk book The Hades Calculus and I game to read that.
Till next time.
February 27, 2024
Epic in scale and romantic, this final book in the series is a satisfying conclusion that nicely wraps up the characters and events of the previous books. It did feel a little more disjointed though, maybe just from having so many perspectives and characters, but the flip side of that is the way everything and everybody fit together in the end, nearly fairy tale style.
November 22, 2023
This was such a romantic journey! The final book in the "Those Who Break Chains" series, and it was the most action packed and romantic book yet. I adore the main Hua sisters, and I also adored reading about the other characters, who took a more central role in this book. 5/5 stars.
November 24, 2023
While there were a few things I didn’t love about the series finale—the fading into the background of the “main” series characters due to plot shenanigans and one of the villains I wasn’t wild about—I adored this book, the cast of characters, and especially the romance. Which, tbh, is why I loved this series so much. It features lesbians of all stripes and ages—mostly older! many of them trans or nonbinary!—fighting, warlocking, fucking, having dinner, talking in bed, with such heartfelt humanity. There’s a lot to keep track of, as the plot zigzags between characters and locations etc, so you need to be on your A game as a reader, but the payoff is so worth it. The big magical blowout finale was less of a draw for me personally, but there were so many amazing intimate moments between so many couples—and yes, a notable throuple—that this series has vaulted to the very top of my all-time romantic fantasy reads.
Fahriye, Elizaveta, and Lussadh will forever have a jungle mansion in my heart.
Fahriye, Elizaveta, and Lussadh will forever have a jungle mansion in my heart.
June 30, 2024
I have finally finished my favorite book series!!!
Those who break chains is really a masterpiece to me, it is so well written I have a so many extracts i want tattooed on my body.
For me, it’s a story about love before anything. Whether it’s romantic, platonic or family love, even hate feels like love in this book.
And it’s also a story about gender but also not at all? It’s the first time I read a book with neopronouns and the way it was incorporated was really so organic!
For me THIS is really a queer/lesbian book. Not any fucking cis man or straight character in this book and it feels SO GOOD!! It makes me really really proud to be a lesbian.
And ofc it’s also a series about magic, about worlds and people colliding to create things you would have never thought about. I think what I love the most is that I never knew quite how to imagine every scene, they way transformations and magic etc are described is so unique, a tv series or a movie could never transcribe a tenth of what is really described.
Those who break chains is really a masterpiece to me, it is so well written I have a so many extracts i want tattooed on my body.
For me, it’s a story about love before anything. Whether it’s romantic, platonic or family love, even hate feels like love in this book.
And it’s also a story about gender but also not at all? It’s the first time I read a book with neopronouns and the way it was incorporated was really so organic!
For me THIS is really a queer/lesbian book. Not any fucking cis man or straight character in this book and it feels SO GOOD!! It makes me really really proud to be a lesbian.
And ofc it’s also a series about magic, about worlds and people colliding to create things you would have never thought about. I think what I love the most is that I never knew quite how to imagine every scene, they way transformations and magic etc are described is so unique, a tv series or a movie could never transcribe a tenth of what is really described.
March 30, 2025
Ugh, incredible. These ladies have been writing their asses off for years and I'm so excited to see everything they drop for the rest of their careers, and may those be long and prosperous.
This book wrapped things up so nicely, perfect evolution of the vibes and character arcs from the first book on. I love them all so much you don't even know.
But for real, these authors are doing more for trans rights than I knew artists even could. Obviously with the contents of their books but also with the vibrant fanfic community they have encouraged and facilitated monetization for. They and their work have my whole heart.
This book wrapped things up so nicely, perfect evolution of the vibes and character arcs from the first book on. I love them all so much you don't even know.
But for real, these authors are doing more for trans rights than I knew artists even could. Obviously with the contents of their books but also with the vibrant fanfic community they have encouraged and facilitated monetization for. They and their work have my whole heart.
January 28, 2025
this book incapacitates the main characters from books 1 and 2 for the entire duration of it, which. is certainly not what I was expecting, and maybe not what I wanted. it's still good, but the resolution didn't land very well, I thought
July 22, 2024
5/5
I was not expecting the Gawain reference, but it was badass as hell.
I was not expecting the Gawain reference, but it was badass as hell.
October 11, 2025
Light 5
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