Hello Bookish Beings…
Today I am going to be reviewing Phoenix Extravagant. I would like to thank the publisher and NetGalley for approving my request of this book in exchange for an honest review.
A few facts about this book:
- Title: Phoenix Extravagant
- Author: Yoon Ha Lee
- Series: Standalone
- Published by Solaris
- Pages: 346
Synopsis:
Gyen Jebi isn’t a fighter or a subversive. They just want to paint.
One day they’re jobless and desperate; the next, Jebi finds themself recruited by the Ministry of Armor to paint the mystical sigils that animate the occupying government’s automaton soldiers.
But when Jebi discovers the depths of the Razanei government’s horrifying crimes—and the awful source of the magical pigments they use—they find they can no longer stay out of politics.
What they can do is steal Arazi, the ministry’s mighty dragon automaton, and find a way to fight…
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Review:
Here are a few things you can expect from this book:
- A dragon automaton;
- An exciting setting with colonisation and a beautiful culture at risk of being wiped out;
- Serious artsy vibes; and
- Politics, rebellion and war.
On to the full review…
I really love the cover of this book, it is so appropriate for this book and sets the tone brilliantly.
Phoenix Extravagant is quite a wholesome book, with strong themes of family and friendship. It tackles the trials of dealing with grief and the relationship between two sisters with different motivations. In respect of the sisters relationship I would have loved to see more scenes between them to really show their relationship just to give more depth to them, while I understood their motivations and reasons I didn’t feel them of really care for them.
The world and setting is lovely and quite atmospheric, Yoon Ha Lee has imbued this tale with historical influences and has skilfully woven art and culture into it while not neglecting the resistance present to the conquering forces present and the response to the and their actions.
I do feel like my main issue with this book, is that most of the characters and elements I found the most interesting seemed to only be surface deep. There is a massacre that the characters need to unravel and it just had no punch and it falls into the background with little emphasis. It is a massacre for goodness sake that is a horrifying act and I felt nothing for it. It was also the event that set things in motion for the most part and it went nowhere, which also meant that I was constantly wondering where this book was going. What I thought would be the driving plot in this book wasn’t, and I was left wondering how it would end. While I did like the ending because it gave me Mulan vibes it didn’t feel built up.
There are obviously some great points to this book and I did enjoy it, I just wanted more. It is a book that touches on so many issues and historically inspired events that have so much emotion attached to them and I just didn’t get that in this book.
Our main character is a well written character, I quite liked that despite all the external influences they remained themself. There was some growth and the inevitable changes to a person when you come to meet others with different ideals than you but I really liked that our main character didn’t deviate from what we knew to be their character, they remained consistent. They stood strong in the face of so much and that was great to see and experience.
On the fact of characters though, Arzi stole the show! It was such fun reading the scenes in which the automaton was involved. Arzi had a great personality, it had an inner strength and understanding of a world it had not yet truly experienced and seeing Arzi asking Jebi to try this and explain that was such a wholesome experience. Their growing friendship was this books biggest strength.
Even though, I clearly had a few issues with this book I did enjoy it. It has a beautiful setting and is written beautifully, I genuinely cared for the art in this book and it’s destruction. It just a shame that’s all I really cared for. It has its stumbles but with Arzi and Jebi relationship, the art and historically influenced setting it has pulled together three Goodreads stars but it doesn’t have all I personally want from a book.
THE RANKS:
BUY THE HARDBACK | BUY THE PAPERBACK | BUY THE EBOOK | LIBRARY RENTAL OR SALE PURCHASE
This is my first library rental or sale ranking, which isn’t necessarily bad because this rank covers books i liked but would want to pay the price for or ones that are well written but are not suited to my tastes.
In this are it is a bit f both of the above comments, it isn’t the cheapest eBook, whileI enjoyed certain elements I wouldn’t pay the £6’ish it costs. If it was £2.99 then it would be an eBook rating but it isn’t so this would be a wait for sale for me.
_ The Book in Hand _ 
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