"The Girl King" by Mimi Yu is an epic and thrilling tale of power, love, and identity that takes readers on a journey through a richly imagined world inspired by ancient China. Mimi Yu's writing is vivid and immersive, with detailed descriptions of the world and the characters that bring them to life. The themes of identity, family, and duty are explored in a nuanced way, as the sisters must confront their own expectations and the expectations of others to find their true selves and their place in the world. While it's not my favorite Asian fantasy that I've read recently, it definitely was still an enjoyable read.

The best thing about this book was the obvious attention, detail, and care that was put into weaving Asian details into the plot, characters, and setting. Unfortunately, a lot of other things felt formulaic and it made for a predictable read. I definitely recommend this book to libraries with underdeveloped Asian fantasy collections, but feel that there are other examples out there.

A strong fantasy debut with imaginative mythology and worldbuilding. Long, intricate story, and decent ending with room left for the sequel. Loved the inherent detail and diversity -- and that the main character wasn't afraid to be militant and martial, More girls like this, please.

A great YA fantasy that pits two sisters against each other in their fight to secure the crown. An enjoyable read with great worldbuilding.

Points for diversity, but the characters felt very flat and boring and whiny. I usually expect a more from Asian fantasy, as there is so much for the author to work with. Loved the setting, but that was about it.

It felt very...meh to me. I wanted to like it, but I ended up skimming it in the end. Also, I didn't relate to the characters as much as I wanted to, especially as an OwnVoices reader. It pains me to say this, but it was just...boring.

DNF

I'm sad to say it, but I had a hard time getting into this book, so I will not be reviewing this title at the moment. Thank you for the opportunity to read the title early.

I wanted to love this book. I was intrigued by the synopsis but when I started reading, I felt disconnected from the plot and characters. I kept reading hoping that those feelings would happen eventually. At one point there was an entire chapter that talked about one characters "first blood," which was then continually referenced. This put me off a lot. Sadly, by the end of the book I still felt the same. I can't even put my finger on WHY it didn't work for me. The writing was detailed and the premise was unique. I don't think I will be reading the next book.

I wasn't sure what to expect, but I enjoyed reading this. An interesting story with fun characters. Well written.

From the first pages, I wasn't able to connect with the characters, their world, or the narrative. Not enough is built to establish believable character relationships and, with some POVs, mystery is built without setting up the context for its significance.

Within the first 20% of the novel, four different POVs were shown. While I believe these storylines will intersect at some point, bringing this world building into fruition, the frequent POV shifts only made it harder to connect with the characters and their stories. It would have been helpful to establish one POV as the main one while giving more insight into the plot through the other POVs. (Note: I don't know if this is done later; as I DNFed this read, my review is based on the first 21% of the novel.)

All that said, I've seen reviews that have more positive comments on this novel, so there is an audience for it. It just wasn't for me.

DNFed 21% into the novel.

I will be honest it took me a while to get into this story. It had a slow start but after I was able to get into the story it was very interesting to see the plot and how it was developed through the story. The development of the characters was really something as well. I will say I am very excited for the next book in all consideration of the ending.

I wanted to like this book so much, but it was a huge disappointment. It was really slow, so much so that nothing much happened, and I ended up skimming the ending. I also didn’t like the main characters. The girls seemed so spoiled. Maybe the next one will be better.

The Girl King is a standard YA story, but told in refreshing voices we need more of. Mimi Yu is an author to watch.

DNF @40%
The story dragged for the first third of the book, and by the time the plot actually started I was already bored. The fact that the first character coded as gay is a soldier who attempts to rape one of the main characters was a huge turn-off for me. It's unfortunate because I really love the world-building and the writing. If the final product of the book was edited from the version we saw in the ARC, I would be interested in reading the final product. I won't be reviewing elsewhere, since I didn't finish the book.

DNF @ 45%. This was just too generic and predictable to hold my attention. The tag line and synopsis made The Girl King sound absolutely amazing, and the fantasy genre can always benefit from additional diversity in its authors and heroines/heroes. It's more difficult to appreciate that diversity as a reader, however, when the plot that unfolds is nearly indistinguishable from the countless novels that have come before.

The Girl King
3.75/5 stars

Immediate thoughts:

The start of this book is sloooow. The past unwinds with the present in a way that is beautifully done, but sort of took me out of the story. It’s a lot of questions and character building to set up the series.

It’s described as the story of two sisters, Lu and Min, but I honestly didn’t care about one of them at all until the very end. Min was boring and childish, despite being the one with powers. Her storyline just fell sort of flat for me.

I’m going to bottom-line this review: 3/4 of the book held my interest but didn’t wow me. The last 1/4 was awesome and I will definitely read the next one, but I sort of wish this was more of the story than the two sisters. So that said, it was mediocre as a whole. I’m a reader who enjoys the tedious task of world and character building, but it left me a little wanting here.

Two sisters are princesses of the kingdom. Their parents have a marriage of alliance, not of love and each daughter has a parent who favors them. Lu, the oldest daughter, who has been training to lead for years, is not named the heir of the emperor. Her cousin Set, whom she despises, is betrothed to Lu and named the heir instead. Lu does not accept this decision and challenges Set for the throne. Set will do anything to remove Lu from the competition. Lu must flee for her life and find help and build her own army far from the capital. With Lu gone, Set marries the younger princess, Min, and they discover that she has a power inside her that might just help tip things in their favor. Min wants to please everyone and has always been quiet and reserved. With her new found power, she starts to realize that maybe people should begin to please her. This book ends after a climactic battle where no one wins.

I'm so sad that I have to wait for the next book to come out. I want to read it now!

Thank you to Netgalley, Bloomsbury publishing (I had the US edition) and Mimi Yu for my arc of The Girl King.

This has been one of my most highly anticipated books of 2019 and it did not disappoint! Admittedly it took me a few chapters to fully grasp what was going on, the story is told from three different perspectives: Lu is the princess set to inherit the empire from her father and become the first 'Girl King', Nok is an apprentice apothecary and essentially a peasant, driven from his lands and his people, Min is Ali's younger and mostly ignored sister. I found learning about all three characters plus the world building a little overwhelming in the beginning but once I'd got a handle on everything it got really really good.
Lu is astounded when her father goes back on his word and declares that her cousin Set will become emperor and instead of ruling herself, she will simply be his wife. Determined to reclaim her birthright she goes on the run finding an ally in Nok, albeit a slightly unwilling one. Meanwhile Min who has previously been mostly ignored and disliked, finds an unknown and dark power inside her, now she might have a claim to the throne herself.
This is a classic tale of two sisters turned against one another with a new and unique twist. It's very difficult to side with either sister who have both been brought up in a sheltered lifestyle with a condescending and often cruel mother, a distant father and a court full of spies, gossip and back stabbing. Nok brings a refreshing contrast in his ability to see how people have had to live under the girl's father's rule. I liked that Lu was not cast as a 'saviour' character, her reasoning was often off, she uses people to get what she wants and is prepared to strike whatever bargains she needs to, not for the sake of the people but for the sake of reclaiming her throne.
Despite feeling a deep annoyance bordering on hatred for Min, I liked the way her character was developed, I went from feeling disdain towards her in her initial chapters, to a grudging admiration for her character development and intrigue as to what she would do next. I still found that her character was very weak and to be honest she is a bit stupid but I think sometimes it is stupid people with power who become far more dangerous that those who are clever...
I'm really interested to see where Mimi Yu goes next with this series! A great read!

This book reminded me of a lot of other stories, and it feels like potential, in the way that debuts sometimes do. There's a feeling of almost-there-ness that makes reading a bit frustrating.

In terms of plot, this book feels like a return to a classic formula- or, at least, a return for me. I'm not sure if there was a departure, or if I've just been reading other things. The scaffold it's built on is familiar- heir to a kingdom denied what they've always assumed was theirs by right, now in exile, magic which has been all but eliminated by an empire that hunts those gifted with it, the overshadowed younger sibling of the heir with darkness growing in their heart, pretender to the throne with a shadow adviser... And while The Girl King doesn't totally subvert or breathe completely new life into the old story, it at least does a good enough job of treading that path.

The main deviation from the traditional recipe I've listed is Lu's gender. In a lot of the stories of this kind that I'm accustomed to (although not all of them) feature a male hero attempting to reclaim his throne. In The Girl King, as the name suggests, Lu is faced with her gender as- if not a barrier, then at least a significant hurdle. While she fully expected to be the heir to her father, the idea of a woman emperor (i.e. a woman playing a role typically only inhabited by men in this world) was not an entirely popular one. "Better him than the Girl King" was a not uncommon reprise throughout the novel. For me this was one of the most interesting parts of the story- the way Lu's cousin, who has taken the throne, feels that, not only is he entitled to it, but that she is not- because of childhood enmity, and because he feels her an unnatural thing, that such ambitions are unnatural in a woman. He at times, seems more obsessed with her lack of right to the throne; than his own right to have it. This insecurity means that even when he could consider himself cemented as emperor; he does not, fixated instead the specter of The Girl King, somehow simultaneously believing her a significant threat to him, and underestimating her in a lot of ways.

While the novel ostensibly has both Lu and Min set up as main characters, according to the synopsis, Lu gets more screen-time, as it were, more focus, and more development. Nokhai's story and Lu's intertwine pretty early on, shortly after Lu and Min's stories diverge from each other, the result being that the reader winds up spending a lot more time with Lu and Nokhai than with Min, getting to know them both through their own eyes, and through each other's, as the narration switches between Lu, Nokhai, and Min.

This might have contributed to my lack of equal investment in the sisters' stories, although it's also possible that I just don't find Min terribly compelling. I'm still trying to decide if the fact that it felt like she was supposed seem like she was gaining agency and coming into herself, without giving me the feeling that any of that had actually happened was on purpose or not. So it is entirely possible I'll appreciate her story line more as the story continues.

The romance between Lu and Nok honestly felt rushed and a bit out of place within the story. I know I'm not very romantic and so possibly a bad judge but just. With so much else going on and also the baggage between them, it just seemed improbable that it would move forward with so little communication having happened?

The other deviation from the traditional formula is the world. There was an opportunity to create a world drawing on other influences. I found that on the world-building front, the structure of the world was vague, I had some sense what it looked like, a sense of a few significant events in it's history, and even some of the traditions of the various peoples. Somehow, though, not really a sense of what the world felt like to be in.There was a little more telling than showing, which took me out of the story a bit.

So much of this story felt like a sketch of a story. Partly because it does tread the lines of familiar archetypes closely, but also because the characters didn't really resonate with me, and the novel didn't really create a strong sense of place. I enjoyed the action scenes, and I really do think that there's a lot of potential as the story finds its feet. Despite the falterings, I still enjoyed reading it, and plan on picking up the sequel, especially with how it ended. The last 10% or so of the story was by far the strongest for me, and I'm looking forward to finding out what happens next!

4.5 stars

I have almost no words that can coherently describe how desperately I have longed for this kind of sweeping epic East Asian fantasy that is reminiscent of those 50+ episode historical dramas that had backstabbing family politics, bloodlust, ambition, betrayal, dangerous emotions!, and everything else. Needless to say, this book completely took me by surprise by how far it leaned into the bitterness and complicated feelings with siblings, especially royal ones. This book hit all the right notes and while it definitely took some time to build up, once you dug into the politics and all the messy messy emotions and ambitions and cruelty, we had a winner.