The Girl with Ghost Eyes in Into the Forest

Mar 20, 2017 Melanti rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: historical, fairy-tales-folklore-and-mythology, e-book, audiobook, intotheforest-2017

I really enjoyed how seemingly true-to-life all the aspects of Chinese culture seemed. Boroson isn't a Chinese name, and too often people from outside a culture tend to treat that culture as just a window dressing.

However, Boroson does a fantastic job with this aspect of the book - incorporating everything from historical anti-Chinese immigration laws, to respect for ones elders, to respect for ones ancestors, to the (historical) insular nature of Chinatown, to the mythology and religion of Daoi I really enjoyed how seemingly true-to-life all the aspects of Chinese culture seemed. Boroson isn't a Chinese name, and too often people from outside a culture tend to treat that culture as just a window dressing.

However, Boroson does a fantastic job with this aspect of the book - incorporating everything from historical anti-Chinese immigration laws, to respect for ones elders, to respect for ones ancestors, to the (historical) insular nature of Chinatown, to the mythology and religion of Daoism. And it's all relevant, and it all feels natural and integral to the world that he is building. It never feels like he is trying to shoe-horn in something that doesn't really belong.

Granted, he did simplify everything somewhat and make some changes to the mythology - but he also includes an afterward acknowledging those changes and explaining what he changed, how and why.

I also liked the climax & ending.
(view spoiler)

For criticisms - it seemed a bit to simple at times - repeating things we already knew - sometimes as if the characters weren't already aware of them, infodumps that were a tiny bit too obvious, etc. And it did switch randomly between slower bits and bits where so much happened so quickly that it seemed chaotic. A more even pace would have been nice.

There were some scenes where the main character made some dumb choices - and I was about to write her off as an idiot, until another character said "You're just doing this because XXXX, aren't you?" And that XXXX made perfect sense for the main character and the culture she grew up in and I'm glad it was pointed out to me. But I think my lack of being able to pinpoint those hidden motivations myself does indicate that there could have been some clearer character development.

I also wasn't much of a fan of the fight scenes - they're generally not my favorite part of the book anyway but this had the added awkwardness of being named Kung-Fu moves that were sometimes described and sometimes not - And descriptions made the scenes seem to stretch on forever but a lack of them made them nearly impossible to picture.

Last, I didn't like the way the audiobook narrator did certain scenes - particularly the fight scenes.

I'm hovering between 3 and 4 stars for this: The good parts (culture, fantasy elements, etc) I'd give a high 4, but I'm trying to decide if the elements I didn't care for as much drag it down enough to give it a 3 instead. ...more

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Apr 12, 2018 Margaret rated it it was ok

Shelves: fairytale-myth-inspired, historical-fiction, aoc, young-adult

Despite the two stars, this book isn’t a bad book. If you like fight scenes, then you’ll probably enjoy this. That’s just not my thing. The main character’s internal thoughts were also often redundant. But I did enjoy the Chinese mythology and folklore, the setting of historic, San Francisco’s China town, and the themes of finding agency and self esteem outside of men and their relationship to you. I would recommend this for readers who enjoy Kung fu.

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