Forest of a Thousand Lanterns (Rise of the Empress)

Xifeng lives the life of a peasant with her seamstress aunt, practicing the family trade. Though poor, she has her natural beauty, a place in her world, and the love of Wei, one of the local craftsmen. But the marks on her back betray the cruel beatings Xifeng receives at the hands of her aunt. And yet both she and her overbearing guardian sense Xifeng is destined for greater things. Indeed, her destiny, if she chooses to pursue it, will take her to the royal court, and even a position of power in the continent of Feng Lu. So says the darkness that writhes within her. A darkness born of magic. But to gain the world, Xifeng will have to give her soul to that darkness. She must choose between poverty and power, love and selfish ambition. A home with Wei, or a throne beside the Emperor. And the darkness within will not make the choice easy. Julie has created a rich fantasy, almost fairy-tale, world based in East Asian culture, with characters that pop out of the pages. Xifeng is an interesting protagonist, because, without giving too much away, she’s not your average heroine. Indeed, throughout the whole book, her motives are torn between self-interest and doing what’s right. As the story goes on, one side gradually dominates the other. But needless to say, she’s not always very likable, and it’s to Julie’s credit that you feel any sympathy for her, or root for her in any way. There are twists to the story, and characters you need to keep an eye on. Things are not always as they seem. This is the first of a multi-novel series, so the book ends on a cliff-hanger, with loose ends that need to be resolved. And that’s probably as much as I can say without spoiling it for you! I don’t usually read YA Fantasy [Side bar: Xifeng is 18 at the start of the novel, which is a little old for a YA protagonist. Yet the voice and style of the novel is definitely YA, which goes to show, age isn’t everything for YA.], but I looked forward to this book and thoroughly enjoyed it. There are a couple of s-words, and some gruesome images, so on the whole, I’d rate it a PG-15. But it’s elegantly written, and well deserving of your attention. I could see this being picked up by Studio Ghibli, so if you like their movies (think “Spirited Away” and “Howl’s Moving Castle”), you’ll particularly enjoy this book. An easy 5 stars.

I received this ARC from a fellow blogger in a fair trade. My review is honest and I was not compensated for my opinions. Forest of a Thousand Lanterns is Julie C. Dao’s YA debut! It’s an incredible origin story regarding the Evil Queen from Snow White, but in this one we get a whole new setting that’s far from the European tales we’re used to. This one takes place in Eastern Asia which really seems to fit with the story in some ways. Like all villain origin stories this one will make you see the Evil Queen in a new way, but maybe not quite in the way you’re expecting. Xifeng has been raised by her aunt to be beautiful and seen. She’s basically been trained her whole life to one day be Empress, her aunt has foretold this with the cards, yet Xifeng wants nothing more than to get out from under her aunt’s thumb. The abuse she’s suffered over the years hasn’t been easy, though in a way, it has made Xifeng the strong, capable young woman that she’s become. Xifeng already has some rebel tendencies, for she has a secret lover, Wei, who asks her to run away with him. And finally she does. Though she soon finds herself on the very path her aunt wanted her on to begin with. I quite enjoyed Julie’s take on the Evil Queen. Xifeng isn’t quite a Cath from Marissa Meyer’s Heartless, where you see goodness turned mad. Xifeng already has some selfish qualities to her, but nothing that you can truly notice right away. It’s more the progression of it all. True, at times I was sympathizing for her, especially during the cruel times with her aunt. But as the story goes on, you see her Evil Queen-ness coming to the fore. And yet, I still kinda rooted for her. Sure she’s evil, but alas, I kind of wanted to see how far she could get! There’s definitely more to this story though. There’s this kind of darkness that lives inside Xifeng. She acknowledges it more than once, so it’s significant. You think this could just be her Evil Queen-ness coming about, but it’s so much more than that! And we do get to learn more about Xifeng’s past that is the precursor for her journey. I’ll admit, I struggled with this one for a little bit in the beginning but once I overcame those first few chapters, things really got interesting. There were also these little “Easter Eggs” of the Snow White fairy tale that occasionally popped up. Things like apples and mirrors and other entities. It can be hard not to think of the Disney version of Snow White when reading and wondering what some of these little appearances might be, but just remember that there was a definite dark side to the original Snow White fairy tale and you will see in this one a dark side as well. It’s hard to really say if there was romance in this one. In a way, I say not. Xifeng’s character didn’t seem to fit the role for one looking for romance. But there are romantic interludes, so there’s that. What’s hard to remember at times that Xifeng is the Evil Queen (to be). She’s a villain, so her finding love as a teenager seems unlikely anyway, at least that’s how I saw things. The ending was decidedly good too. You pretty much know where things are going, but the execution was still done exceedingly well! I always love a fresh take on fairy tales or origin stories of certain characters. And that’s what we get with this one! Though when I checked Goodreads, it looks like there’s a sequel. Whether that one will be a direct sequel or a spinoff or maybe a different villain’s origin stories set within the same world has yet to be revealed! It’s hard sometimes to realize that information about the sequel won’t necessarily be ready with the first one! Forest of a Thousand Lanterns is a remarkable story of the girl who will soon grow to be the Evil Queen. Whether you find her to be good or evil at the start is for you to decide. Xifeng is an ambitious young woman, but ambitions can be deadly when you’re the Evil Queen! A must read for all fairy tale fans and fans of character origin stories! Overall Rating 4.75/5 stars—yes that little hiccup of a start has me once again giving an awkward rating. While it was a bit of rough start, I truly ended up loving this one by the end and dying for more from Julie!!

With its richly imagined world and wonderfully diabolic antihero, FOREST OF A THOUSAND LANTERNS is a haunting debut that readers won't soon forget. This novel is unlike anything I've ever read before and is certainly one of my favorite books I've read this year. I adore a complex and unreliable main character, and Xifeng beautifully embodies those characteristics. Dao did such a wonderful job of showing Xifeng's backstory, motivations, and human characteristics as well as the darkness lurking inside her. Xifeng might not always be a likable character, but she is an unfailingly fascinating one. Being inside her mind was such a darkly captivating experience, and I am just itching to find out what happens next in her story. The world-building in this novel is quite frankly stunning. From the richly imagined legends and mythology to the lush setting, the world of a FOREST OF A THOUSAND LANTERNS is entirely immersive and an absolute joy to read about. The plot of the story itself is very character-driven. This is truly a story of Xifeng's transformation from a naive and driven girl to a darkly powerful young woman. While there are several jaw-dropping and intense moments in the story, it isn't as action-packed as many YA fantasy novels. Instead we get focus more on the political maneuverings and character/world development. While that does mean the plot moves more slowly, Dao's writing is so decadent and provocative, I was absolutely addicted to it. There are some beautiful and heart-pounding romance scenes in this novel. These make for some lovely scenes in the story, without overpowering the overall plot. They are a part of Xifeng's character arc, but they are not the main motivation behind it, and I really appreciated that. Though Xifeng's motivations were far from pure, it was wonderful to see a female protagonist pursuing her dreams and ambitions and prioritizing those above romance. I was truly blown away by this story and by Xifeng herself. I would highly recommend this to any reader. This is such a unique story, and it truly stands out amongst the many YA fantasy novels I've read this year. I will most eagerly be anticipating the next book in the series.

Notes on Diversity/Inclusion This is a book by an East Asian author (Dao is Vietnamese-American) about an all-Asian cast. All characters in the book are people of color, and the worldbuilding in the book, I believe draws specifically from China.* This is also a book that focuses in on gender, but specifically on cis women. It’s a woman-driven story. Gender and sexuality are complicated throughout–since roughly half of the book takes place in the imperial City of Women, cis men are present, but largely sidelined unless they are eunuchs.** There is a narrative thread that comes and goes through the book around disability. Shiro is a character with dwarfism, and he is portrayed as being oppressed because he is a dwarf, but not self-loathing. He also has a romance arc. There is also a consort of the Emperor, Lady Meng, who struggles with depression and alcoholism. TL;DR: there’s a lot of rep along a lot of axes here, so it’s definitely worth picking up! Content Warnings for Book - Physical abuse (Guma beats Xifeng) - Gaslighting (arguably Xifeng does this to Wei throughout; this also happens to Empress Lihua) - Gore (there is some supernatural and pretty explicit gore that happens throughout the book) - Ableism (leveled at Shiro in some places) Review The Forest of a Thousand Lanterns by Julie C. Dao is an origin story for the evil queen in Snow White, if that familiar fairy tale was set in a reimagined East Asia full of magic. Xifeng is uncannily beautiful, but poor. Her aunt, Guma, sees in her fortune a path to power predicated on her beauty, and in their small shack, she trains Xifeng in poetry, music, and comportment as if she was highborn. One day, Xifeng will be empress. It’s just a matter of getting there. There is much to like in The Forest of a Thousand Lanterns. Dao is excellent at creating tension and unease in her writing. In Xifeng, she gives us a female protagonist who is unflinchingly and unsparingly ambitious. Too often when female protagonists are ambitious, they must also be soft, be likable, be yielding. But Xifeng is none of those things. Xifeng plays for keeps, for herself, and never once does she hesitate. There are scenes in the book which are heart-wrecking. There is one scene in particular that happens in Chapter 31 that has stuck with me since I read the book. It’s a reveal scene that flips on its head things that Xifeng thought she knew about her own past and herself. It recasts a character I thought I knew as a reader into something entirely new. It is marvelous. But, it also completely calls into question Xifeng’s agency for the last third of the book. For the first two thirds of the book I did not question that the choices she’s made are her own. After this lovely and exquisitely written scene, I did. Were the hard, violent choices she made truly her own? Or was she a weapon–a willing weapon, maybe, but a weapon wielded buy someone else? And this is a massive weakness of the book. The other issues I had with The Forest of a Thousand Lanterns were structural. I found the pacing uneven. Some sections, like the scenes mentioned above, were a delight to read. Some sections dragged. Dao’s prose is sometimes precise and cutting, and sometimes it’s overwrought. As much as she understands Xifeng, many of the other characters are two dimensional, archetypal. Lady Sun is a character we’ve seen before: an aging concubine using her sexuality and fecundity as a cudgel to preserve her position in a cutthroat, catty women’s world. Empress Lihao is an impossibly demure and forgiving woman, willing to take abuse in order to show that kindness is more powerful in the long run. As interesting and novel as Xifeng is, the rest of the characters are flat. Because of these issues, Forest of a Thousand Lanterns was a frustrating read for me. It is a book of such potential, and it did not gel for me. It explores issues of movement within patriarchal prisons, the idea of beauty as a weapon, the nature of uncompromising women, but the seams show in the writing. It was by turns sublime and mundane. But, this is the kind of book, truly, where your mileage may vary, so I encourage others to pick it up and form their own opinions on it. Takeaway and Rating Many, many people loved this book, so I encourage you to check it out! I found it unevenly paced but interesting. If you like diverse fairy tale retellings and sympathetic villains, you might like The Forest of a Thousand Lanterns. 3/5 stars *Many of the names read as influenced by Japanese language to me, though, so there seemed to be a generally “East-Asian” flavor with more of a Chinese cultural focus. But the appearance of the random very Japanese names (like Akira and Hideki) struck me as odd since the cultures are not identical by any stretch. **The eunuchs make up a large contingent of the secondary characters, and I am listing them here as cis men, since they uniformly identified as men. There are interesting, if unexplored, questions about their presence and relationship to the women about femininity, masculinity, and gender.

Xifeng is the most complex, interesting MC I’ve read in a long time. She’s no hero, she’s not here to save the day. But, she’s not evil or soulless. She struggles with her own humanity and whether her fate is worth the price she will have to pay. I loved seeing the constant inner turmoil throughout the story. The side characters didn’t shine quite like Xifeng. Though they were interesting, they almost seemed flat next to her complexity. The author made sure that this story belonged to Xifeng and everyone else was just a part of it. Set in an East Asian inspired world, the kingdom of Feng Lu is beautiful, but not without fault. Dao created an interesting and realistic world that I pictured so vividly in my mind. The world was one of my favorite aspects of this story, unlike anything I’ve read. I don’t have many critiques for this fantastic debut, and the ones I do have are nothing major. There were several info-dumps throughout the story meant to give the reader more context of the world. I feel Dao could have broken up the info-dumps to make the prose a little more seamless. But, if I’m being honest, info-dumps don’t bother me as much as they do other readers—the nerd in me loves discovering more about a world, especially this one because it is unlike any other world I’ve encountered in YA fantasy. Another thing I noticed was that at times the dialogue could be a little stiff. Again, this wasn’t overly noticeable, but sometimes it would take me out of the story. Lastly, it was predictable. Now, it is an Evil Queen retelling so that might explain some of the predictability, but not all. Overall, I loved this story and I cannot WAIT for the sequel to release this October. If you haven’t picked up Forest of a Thousand Lanterns, I definitely recommend you do!

What the hell. This book was brutal and terrifying in how easily it is for someone to slip so completely into evil deeds and yet, because of how well it was done, I'm cool with whatever the MC does. Also I love retellings so much, and this one was especially good at it. Xifeng is beautiful, and destined for greatness, at least that is what her abusive aunt tells her. She is to be the Empress of their kingdom, and the most beautiful of them all. To get her destiny, she has to throw away true love and embrace the dark magic inside her that is fueled by consuming hearts. The price of greatness is high and can Xifeng afford to pay it? This book was insane. At times I had hoped that it could turn around and Xifeng could redeem herself (wishful thinking okay, I knew that she wasn't the heroine of this story) but nah. Her rise to power is absolute and the journey to it was nice to follow. Obviously Xifeng is an awful character- and that's okay. She's vain, entitled, and she comes from nothing and yet expects everyone to give her everything without working for it. It's hard to sympathize with her but I still rooted for her because I love villains, and I love seeing them become slowly more corrupted than they began. To read through her POV was kind of fascinating because I don't know if I would have hated certain characters if not for Xifeng expressing how bad they were, just because they were in her way. What did some characters do because fight to keep their place of power? There was a lot of girl hate in this book too. While that is normally not something I will stand anymore in YA, I understood it 100% in Xifeng and it furthered showing her, frankly, mean ass nature. Still cheered for her taking what she wanted though. Ahh the romance. Some things are honestly just too pure for certain books and Wei is one of them. He is kind and cares about Xifeng and wants her to be free from her abusive aunt. He has put up with her (mostly) lack of love for him for years but it would take almost anything for him to walk away. He wants a future and if only Xifeng could just accept his love, her future wouldn't be as great but at least she would be happy with him. One thing I'm still unsure of is how much Xifeng was begging Wei to stay anytime he tried to leave- it did not seem like she liked him at ALL so I just don't understand. The world and a certain God were really interesting. The fact that this was East Asian-inspired was even better. I haven't read many books with that setting but it was really rich and a good change from the fantasy worlds I keep seeing that are all the same. This book should really have had a map though. Different kingdoms and locations were mentioned so often, where was my map? Then there is the fact that this is a retelling! It's such a good one actually. Most of the book, you forget how it's a Snow White evil queen retelling until it starts slowly mentioning and adding elements from the original story. As Xifeng spirals more into becoming the evil queen, so does the story seem more and more familiar. Also lots of surprising twists and turns. Really enjoyed it and can't wait for the sequel!

There is an undeniable fluidity in the style of writing, this book was so hard to put down! Through the descriptive details, I felt like I could see, smell and feel everything the characters were! Some of the feedback I read stated it was a slow start...I feel quite the opposite! I literally flew through the first five chapters in record time! The story line was full of magic, adventure, deep emotion and Asian folklore. It was the perfect setting and combination to what would make an excellent movie! I loved that Julie Dao included the pronunciation of names, as I would have totally pronounced them wrong had I not known! There are similarities to Snow White, however this is NO Snow White you have ever known. We all have been exposed to the good versus evil story, and it is almost natural for us to root for the "good guy". Well let me tell you, the tables have turned! I kept chanting in my head "do it, do it!" It was poetic, magical and kept me on my toes. The book was simply beautifully written. I highly recommend this book as it not only is it a great story, but the elements of Asian folklore was truly enchanting and beautiful! I can't wait for the next book!

TW: Family abuse and mild gore Forest of a Thousand Lanterns was a book I was pretty excited for and I’m happy to say that it mostly did not disappoint. From the beginning it was captivating, making me want to turn the pages faster than I could read them because I had to know how it ended. Like some fantasy books, Forest of a Thousand Lanterns has a pronunciation guide which I found very helpful and nice. There were times when I’d forget who a character was (which happens to me often) and I could flip back and see who they were related too and how to pronounce their name. By the time I got the book I forgot what it was about, just that it was a retelling of Snow White. I thought the main character was Snow White up against the Evil Queen, like the Disney movie. But Forest of a Thousand Lanterns is different, it tells the story through a new perspective and kind of in reverse (it’s hard to explain without too many spoilers). The main character Xifeng is a girl on a mission, she doesn’t let ANYTHING stop her, she’s not afraid to give into darkness and to get dirty for her wishes. I almost feel as if Forest of a Thousand Lanterns is more in the NA category because of it and that Xifeng’s desires (you’d get it if you read the book xD) but it can still be read as a YA book (this is just more of MY OPINION). And the darkness, my friends, is what I did not expect. I say I like dark fantasy books, I do because they’re different, but sometimes I have moods where I just really dislike darkness. And that’s why I personally give it a 3 but gave it a 4 because I realize the story is good and the world amazing. But this book is brutal, there’s guts and gore and blood and lots of death. It’s not something that I expected from Forest of a Thousand Lanterns at all, even if it is a Snow White retelling (and lets be honest, a lot of the original fantasy stories were incredible dark and most likely bloody). However, this is a personal opinion, I realize that. Other than my general dislike for the darker plots behind Forest of a Thousand Lanterns, I did enjoy the book. The world felt real, the details were like a movie in my mind. Although it’s a retelling it’s original because it’s an East Asian inspired fantasy book (as my book summary says) that’s not something a lot of retellings have (that I have read). And that is what sets Forest of a Thousand Lanterns apart from other books in its genre. The world, the stories behind everything like the Dragon Lord and the Serpent god, the magic of the story, everything is unique. However, about halfway through I began to lose interest, mostly because I have a lot of homework this year. I almost didn’t want to finish it because I kept putting it aside. But I’m glad I did, I can’t wait for the next book. Overall I did enjoy Forest of a Thousand Lanterns, I liked the world and story but I didn’t expect it to be so dark and bloody. But it was good.

The book arrived without any damages and came earlier than expected! The weird thing is I got a signed copy!?!?!!!! I‘m really happy about that :) Also can’t wait to read it

I'm no critic, so I won't be able to dig into the book like some wish. However, I absolutely loved it. People were talking about it on tumblr, and just from one post alone I decided to purchase the ebook and give it a read. I wasn't let down. It's beautifully written! And the characters are wonderful. It is definitely a novel I'll recommend to others for years.

Good read

Forest of a Thousand Lanterns is a truly captivating read.Filled with engrossing twists and turns and climax, it's hard to put down. A must read.

great book