I wanted to like this book. When I saw the plot, I thought of Tamora Pierce and her magical, powerful girl characers. The Girl King could be a classic but with Asian identity and modern themes, something both nostalgic and fresh.

What it is instead is a diversion. It's a fun Mission: Impossible or James Bond read, with lots of fights and high world-ending drama, and because it's SFF, there's also lots of magic and shapeshifting and prophecy. Little of this goes below the surface, however. The plot rushes by too quickly for us to get much depth, since every other chapter has throats being slit and crossbow bolts whizzing by.

I love some good action, and the plot is a reasonable one. The emperor has only two daughters, and the eldest, Lu, means to rule as if she were a son. But through politics and treachery, her (male) cousin Set takes the throne instead. Lu is forced to go on the run, leaving behind everything--including her young, innocent sister Minyi. Lu knows the arts of war and swordfighting; Min may have the gifts of magic. And far to the north, orphan Nokhai may have the key to the shapeshifting gifts of his people.

Danger and romance! Politics and magic! Yu has the bones of a good idea, but she stumbles on the execution. There is a point at which a powerful sorcerer--previously able to hold off dozens of men by himself--is brought before the wicked usurper Set. But instead of killing him, the sorcerer just allows himself to be imprisoned. This is the flimsiest of plot armor, and for the villain no less. Sure, maybe characters are playing deep games of politics and magic, but I have little confidence that there is a plan grand enough to defy basic logic. After all, the book is littered with these instances of plot-induced bad decisions. Lu Confronted with the indisputable reality of magic, Minyi nonetheless wastes her time--and all of ours--pretending that certain events were "just dreams." Entering into negotiations with a potential ally, Lu seems unable to make basic inferences so that there can be exposition. It's a game of catch with the _idiot ball_ and it defanged most of the tension.

The romance is simultaneously predictable and uncomfortable. While it's no surprise that two characters thrown together and forced to endure a high-stakes quest will fall for each other, these two are on opposite sides not just of a war, but of a genocide. I would have liked to at least see a more thoughtful examination of this attraction. I also would have appreciated a more deliberate approach to the villain's romance subplot. The character who falls for him may be sheltered and browbeaten, but her infatuation is so naive that she seemed stupid rather than sympathetic. It is also clearly an abusive relationship, and I would have like a more nuanced, deliberate exploration of the topic.

Ultimately these objections to the romance come from a deeper objection to the characters. While they are reasonable as archetypes--the bold princess, the magical neophyte, the boy with a Dark Past--they never quite live and breathe as individuals. It's hard to connect to them because the emotional core of the story is so muddled. Unexpected reunions and sudden goodbyes are given no space to breathe with the relentless forward motion of the plot. There could be plenty of grit and power in those moments, too, which is all the more disappointing.

The writing is adequate to the story, but nothing to revel in, which is a large part of why the book (especially the first half) should have been far more concise. It's a hundred pages before we get to the crux of the matter promised by the cover blurb: Lu has to run away before she can take her crown. It's not that these hundred-plus pages are wasted, just that they end up feeling like a long preamble. But I'm sure the series will be long enough to make it proportional. This tendency toward increasingly lengthy books and series--thanks, G. R. R. Martin and J. K. Rowling--is popular nowadays, but it isn't always warranted. Yu needed a harsher editor to tighten up the story and the prose both, but the trend has instead given her a license to sprawl.

That being said, it's a fast read. It's pulp, and once I accepted that, it was a decent romp through some big battles. While regular literature has always had its beach reads, SFF has usually had what I think of as fireside reads, heftier, more plot-heavy books you curl up with once school or work is done and you can enjoy without bending your brain too much. The Girl King will never be a classic, but it's a cozy evening or two.

If you prefer some brain-bending, better options for YA would be Girls of Paper and Fire and Forest of a Thousand Lanterns. Branching into adult SFF will get you Under Heaven, The Poppy War, and The Tiger's Daughter.

Review will be posted at https://geeklyinc.com/the-girl-king-review-action-action/ Dec 19th.

The Girl King was a highly anticipated 2019 book for me and it didn't disappoint.  Warnings for violence, death, addiction, and animal injuries/death.



Lu is Min's older sister and the future empress.  She's smart and tough, and often called The Girl King.  Their father favors Lu, but their mother can't really stand to be around her.  She favors Min and babies her.  Lu has been preparing to lead her people once her father no longer could.



Lu is surprised when her father announces Set, her cousin on her mother's side, to marry Lu.  Lu hates Set.  She has since they were young.  So she decides to challenge him instead.   While this is happening, Min starts hearing things inside her head.  Things that are negative and she has no idea what is going on.



Set gets soldiers to turn on Lu and they try to kill her.  She must run and meets up with a boy from her past.  Nok is a shapeshifter.  They were all thought to be dead or in prisons, but he's been living with a man since the Emperor's men killed almost everyone in his family.  Nok somehow turned into a wolf, but he has no idea how or why.  He can't control it.  He ends up on the run with Lu.  They remember each other from when they were young.  Lu has fond memories, but Nok has a hard time trusting her after what her father and his people did.



Min is left behind to marry Set.  Set has a man with him, Brother, that is sure that Min is the key to them getting all the power and control they want.  Min starts to see things, leaving her body and floating around unseen.  She doesn't trust the visions, but the darker person inside her is taking control more.  She's changing Min.



There is a lot of action and betrayal.  I don't want to get into much more without giving things away.  But there were a lot of times things shocked me.  It's hard to know who or what to trust at times.  There are the obvious bad people, but some of the things they did were still surprising.



I gave this one 5 stars.  Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for providing me with a copy for review.

What I Liked
This is a gorgeous fantasy with three very relatable POV characters: Princesses Lu and Min, and apothecary apprentice Nokhai. From the start, they're all very relatable and very different. Each has flaws but you love them anyway. From the cutthroat imperial court to the simple tree-house of the village apothecarist to the sweeping northern steppes, this book kept dishing out the scenery and refused to stop.

What I Would Have Liked to See
Sometimes there would be so much going on, I'd get lost a little bit in the action.

My Favorite!
The culture and mythology of the Gifted. Be still my heart! I'm not sure about all of them, but I know for certain the Ashina were a Turkic tribe on the eastern Asian steppes, and in ancient texts are often referred to as "wolves." That the author incorporated real history into a fantasy novel is right up my alley, and I was surprised and pleased to see the Ashina brought into this story.

TL;DR
Suspenseful, political East Asian-inspired fantasy that will leave you ANGRY at the end that it's OVER and you have to wait for the second book to find out how things end!

I'm not sure what to write for a review for this book. It took me about a month to read, which is unusual for me, but I didn't abandon it, so that's something. But my interested wasn't fully captured until the final 20% of the book. There was nothing wrong with the characters, or the plot necessarily, it just seemed to move very slowly until suddenly there was action everywhere. Much like the characters and their relationships - we don't know much, and suddenly we know a lot!

But in the end, I enjoyed this book. I love power-hungry women, I love Asian-inspired fantasy, and I love main characters that kind of suck. A category which a couple characters in this book fit into, most notably, Min.

I'm going to chalk up my confusion to too much happening with too many characters. Each story was interesting in its own right, and maybe splitting them into separate books or having some novellas would have fixed this problem. I'm interested to see where this series goes because of course, that ending has me intrigued. I really enjoyed Nok, Lu, Nassan, and Min as characters and it seems like they have quite an adventure ahead of them. Who will actually become The Girl King?

4.5 STARS

TW: child abuse, family death, PTSD, animal death, gore, attempted sexual assault, addiction, violence

Listen. If you're going to pit characters in competition for a throne, I am HERE FOR IT. Which of course meant that I had to request The Girl King from NetGalley, and man, imagine my surprise when they actually granted the request! (I never expect to get the ARCs I request, which makes getting them so much better.)

And imagine my surprise when it was even better than I was expecting, when I already had pretty high expectations.

Seriously, this book was a delight. For starters, I loved the setting and the history that propped it up. It gave the world a lived in feel and a sense of long-standing conflict, and it also meant that the descriptions were lush and lively. I loved the comfy but confined air of the palace, the sheer opulence of it. I loved how the city felt expansive and crowded and admittedly a little like Ba Sing Se with its divisions. I loved how the wilderness felt dangerous and overgrown and untamed. I loved how the mountains felt towering and majestic and downright enchanting. 

The Girl King does not mess around with setting. Not one bit.

But as always, my greatest love is the characters. I'm predictable like that, and I'm especially predictable in deciding Lu is my favorite. She's ambitious and fierce and uncompromising. Sometimes, it works. Sometimes, it lands her in trouble. Either way, she holds to her ideals, and for all her abrasive edges, she aims to do the right thing. She's forced to confront her privilege as a princess, to confront her family's history in the land's bloody past. And she wants to make a change going forward, a change for the better. Lu is exactly the sharp, furious sort of female character I can't help adoring.

And Nokhai, Nok for short, is her polar opposite. Wounded but wonderful, he's had his life ripped out from under him by the actions of Lu's family, and trauma has shaped so much of his life since. He's also one of the Gifted, from a clan of people who can turn into wolves so long as they have the Gift. He is the last, though, and with no connection to the knowledge that should have led him to his Gift long ago. He's defensive and cautious, and his loyalty is unquestionable once earned. I enjoyed his chapters in part because he fits the trope of reluctant hero so well; there's something so compelling about a character who can make a great change, but fears what it will take to do so. It's a human conflict, that's for sure.

And I liked Min to start, Lu's little sister. She's young and shelter, never expected to be out of Lu's shadow, and then she ends up in over her head. She was the one frustrating part of the book for me because I wanted to like her, and I certainly pitied her. She'd never been prepared for any degree of power, not in the way Lu was, and when things change so suddenly, placing her at the forefront of efforts to take control, she's drowning in so much she doesn't understand. It made her easy to manipulate, shaped her into something darker than a girl like Min ever should have been. 

And at the same time, I'm a tiny bit irritated by how flat she felt. Everything else about the novel was wonderfully done, but Min sticks in mind as that half star taken away. She was reactive, not proactive, and when you set her up against Lu, it gets harder and harder to enjoy her POV, especially with Lu doing her utmost to do the right thing, even if she's not exactly tactful about it or fully understanding all the time. I want to hope she'll be more interesting, that she'll have more agency in the next book, but I'm not sure if she will. It's too early to say, but I want her to change, because in contrast with literally EVERYTHING ELSE, I just couldn't bring myself to maintain any interest in Min as the story went on.

Min aside, The Girl King was riveting, with fascinating magic, immersive settings, and POVs that absolutely delighted me, along with a few twists that had me on the edge of my seat, waiting for the consequences. And that epilogue? 

Oh boy. Now that was a phenomenal epilogue. Make sure you preorder The Girl King, because it comes out on January 9th, and you're going to want to get your hands on this one!

(This review will go live on The Words Gremlin at 10 am EST, December 11th.)

I am so sorry. I got a quarter of the way through this book and found that I could not continue. I will not be leaving any sort of negative reviews as it was not a bad book. It just was not the right one for me. Thank you for allowing me the chance to review this title.

When I saw that I was approved for this arc, it made my eyes sparkle. At least, that's how it felt like to me.

This book is literally too high quality for this world. I want to assimilate it into my being and find a way to apply all of Lu and Min's qualities and knowledge into my life. Who is Lu and Min, you ask? Oh, just the main characters of this story WHO ARE A CONSTANT REMINDER THAT GIRLS ARE BEAUTIFUL AND ETHEREAL AND I AM A PILE OF INCOHERENT SEAWEED WHEN IT COMES TO THAT. This story is heartstopping and unique. The plot centers around gorgeous and complex cultures and addresses important discussions in today's world.

All in all, this is a sweeping epic tale that has complex and detailed world-building that is seamlessly integrated into the story which I loved!! Sooo when can I get Mimi's next book?

This book is an immersive, complex tale with many twists and turns and well developed characters. The magic was breathtaking and terrifying. The book also addresses colonialism with nuance. I can't wait for the next book.

This is one of those books on the better side of “okay” that it’s hard to say anything about. Was it bad? Nope. Did I love it? Nah. But I guess we have to come up with more substantial comments for this review.

The book follows three viewpoints: Lu, Min, and Nokhai. Of the three of them, I thought Min’s viewpoint chapters had the most interesting plot. Lu and Nok’s journey was rather predictable and didn’t grab me, but I wasn’t sure where Min was going to go, which was cool.

There was definitely some interesting stuff with Lu having to confront the oppression and genocide her family’s power was built on, and the background of the royal family hinted at some political intrigue possibilities. But I feel like Lu’s character growth was mostly in having the same conversation many different times, and not as much in emotionally confronting the truth about her family. I could have used more slam-you-in-the-face emotion, as well as more rounded development. Lu is a very physically strong, fight you with a sword, refuses to cry because that’s weak kind of person. I thought the book would challenge more of her assumptions about what being a good leader is and present different options, but we didn’t get as much as I expected.

I didn’t like the brief scene when soldier tries to rape Nok. It’s true that rape between men happens, and can be written about with the care that any serious subject deserves. But I feel that if you have space to write in a gay rapist, then especially considering that gay men get framed as disgusting rapists by bigots irl you should make space to elsewhere write in at least one good gay character so we know you don’t think that’s what gay men are like, which there isn’t. Like, in that case, just get rid of the attempted-rape scene — it’s not like it was a plot point or was ever addressed literally at all.

I got more invested in the story as the book went on. Though I’m frustrated that it wasn’t better, I’m somewhat interested in how things will develop in the sequel.

Sisters, magic, emperors, betrayal, gods, wolves and more. Fast paced from page one, Girl King is a good read.

This book falls in the category of  well-written with a decent plot, but not as good as I wanted it to be. I should have loved this book.  It is a tale of two sisters battling it out for a throne, which in this case means a lot of political intrigue and ancient magic.  However, I just could not make myself feel invested in the story or the characters.  Though I liked it for the most part, there are a couple things that I found to be problematic.

First, the characters and setting were not nearly as developed as the plot.  Although we get some glimpses of the motivation that drives the two sisters, I did not feel like I really got to know either of them beyond a superficial level.  This is especially true with the character of Minyi.  Although she seemed to have had the greatest character arc, it all still felt very shallow to me and her naivety was annoying rather than endearing.

Second, Lu's romance was poorly constructed.  It did not feel authentic and I personally prefer a slow build over instant love.  I think the author attempted to do this by making the characters initially at odds (for a very short period of time), but it just fell flat.

It is unlikely that I will continue reading if this book turns into a series (it most likely will), but there are some positive attributes that made this an enjoyable read.  Although I would have like more from this story, it nevertheless featured strong female leads and closed with some pretty awesome magic.

A more accurate star rating would be 3.5.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Beginning it, I wasn't sure what to expect: the writing was dense, I didn't seem to click with any of the narrators -- Lu, Min, or Nok -- and I didn't quite understand how the magic system worked. Now that I've finished it, I feel as though the magic system could've been explained more succinctly, and the writing at times did drag, but all in all, Mimi Yu has wrought a wildly unique, complex novel full of morally gray characters, Asian-inspired world-building, and a plot with an ending that will leave you breathless. I devoured this book in a day, and in only a couple of sittings. Min and Nok were both characters that grew on me as the novel progressed, but I still felt distanced by Lu (and most of the book is written in her POV; despite this book being billed as a story about both of them, I truly feel like this is Lu's story.) I couldn't quite place my finger on why, but she came across as cold and somewhat unlikable in the way she treated those around her, compared to a character such a Nok, who was warm and kind. This is an Asian-inspired political high fantasy edged with a dash of magic -- and I am looking forward to seeing where Yu will take the story in the sequel.

OVERALL VERDICT: don't sleep on this one, buy!

(Thank you Bloomsbury for this eArc!)

I'm sad to say this book fizzled for me. I was quite interested at first, but then my interest just dwindled the more I read.

- I didn't like Min's character/chapters at all. I think she was just too young for my taste.
- I didn't like Set's character. Maybe because he felt too childish that I almost didn't take him seriously? It's like I couldn't even really hate him because he just seemed like a silly, cranky, spoiled boy.
- I didn't really get invested and lost interest in the plot as it went on.
- I'm not sure I ever fully understood or clicked with the magic system. I kind of got it, but I feel like it was only vaguely explained so it was hard to really get immersed.

It sucks because as I read the first couple chapters I was quite interested and thought I'd really like the book. But then it went downhill and by the last 15% I was skimming and just trying to get it over with. It wasn't a terrible book, it just wasn't really for me.