F. C. Yee

Awesome -- I love the originality of this idea -- I mean, finding out that you are a reincarnated weapon as a 16 year old girl is hilarious and inventive. Pulling off a story that makes sense around that idea? Great work. I also just loved that Genie is always quick to fight and encouraged to do so by Sun WuKong -- how many books will tell you to go with your strengths, when your strength is to have a quick temper and a quicker fist? Hardly any, I can tell you! Satisfying, and a great foil show more against the unremitting drudgery that is striving to win the admissions lotto. show less

Whoa. And I mean, WHOA! This is the best book I have read in a very long time. Add it to your TBR and bump it to the top!

I received an ARC of this book at ALA while attending a session on #OwnVoices in literature. Without attending that session, I might not have picked it up. I don't typically read YA fantasy, and I didn't have much knowledge of Chinese mythology, but the author's description of the plot made it sound super accessible, so I started reading. And reading. And reading! I show more couldn't put it down!

So, let's talk plot. Genie is your average Chinese-American sophomore, living in the heart of Silicon Valley. Like many of her peers at her prestigious prep school, she is preoccupied with college applications, studying, and not much else. Until a new boy arrives with an intense connection to her. Turns out this boy is the manifestation of the Monkey King, returned to Earth to battle demons! One problem: Genie has never heard the story of the Monkey King, and would rather put her faith in physics than folk tales. To avoid any spoilers, I'll leave it at that.

Genie is a reluctant hero, not unlike some of those from recent dystopian novels. The difference here is personality. Genie talks and acts like a real teenage girl, with real sass and real life problems. She doesn't have time to fight demons, she needs to work on her college application essays! If you've ever thought Katniss was annoyingly distant or Tris was too wishy-washy, Genie is the hero you need! Not only is she realistic, she balks at traditional misogynist tropes, refusing to be a pawn of someone else's will.

This book is full of action, with plenty of humor mixed in, and even has a touch of emotional connection, without being sappy. Yes has definitely hit the mark with this one, and I look forward to sequels in the future. If I could have it my way, I would also lobby for a movie deal (I'm talking Joss Whedon, good!)

tl;dr: every human (or demon, or demi-god) needs to read this book! show less

I never expected I'd ever be able to read this book. These books are insanely hard to find in my country, but I should feel glad I located a fancy smancy bookstore that caters to the English speaking expat community and nabbed the last copy.

And, well the verdict?

Even for people that aren't particularly well versed in the Avatar cartoon, this book is a delightful Coming of Age story starring a social outcast girl who barely survived starvation thanks to the kindness of a banished Air Nomad show more master named Kelsang alongside his old friend, an Earth bending master named Jianzhu.

Torn between Kelsang's duties with the Air Nomads and his promise to locate the Earth Avatar, this book offers us a glimpse to the Earth Kingdom method of locating the Earth Avatar. Much to everyone's chagrin, the classic method of performing obscure rituals excluding entire chunks of the world's most populous country until only a small village is left hasn't worked for the first time in living history.

Whether it is because Kyoshi has failed to awaken her earthbending or her unusual ethnic status as a mixed race earth/air citizen, the book focuses more on Kelsang's unorthodox attempt to use the Air Nomad method of letting children select 5 toys among thousands that belonged to previous avatars. Kyoshi surprises us all when she snatches one of the correct toys and runs off, too jaded by the endless abuse she has endured to welcome the kindness of two strangers.

Fast foward and a teenage Kyoshi is still mocked by other villagers as a mediocre bender, abandoned by her parents and undeserving of a prized life as a servant in Jianzhu's palace. Her job? Cleaning up the room after the recently discovered Avatar Yun (he is touted to be quite a slob). We get a few nice scenes decipting her friendship with the insanely charismatic young man, alongside the friendly banter she shares with Fire Nation army extraordinaire Rangi. I would have liked to see more depth to the friendship Kyoshi shared with Rangi and Yun, but it doesn't detract from the otherwise brilliance of the story.

Long story short, Kyoshi gets invited to an important diplomatic mission with a brigand army of Water Tribe pirates and when things turn south... Kyoshi does impossibly difficult earth bending out of nowhere.

Huh?

With the human world in disarray after Avatar Kuruk's failures, Kyoshi experiences the worst aspects of the Earth Kingdom's corruption, indifference, and plenty of brownnosing Avatar Yun in the hopes of garnering their favor.

With clever writing, the author gives us a fresh way to see how the feared and revered Earth Avatar was not always a terrifying woman donning makeup and slicing entire islands out of nowhere. Kyoshi starts out as the biggest (pun intended) weakling ever. An unwanted person everyone stomps on and ignores until she is completely unable to believe in herself. Untethered by her unique position of never having formal bending training, Kyoshi disregards social convention and starts to make her own path as the most unusual Avatar the world has ever heard of. Whether it is by agreeing to join a gang of common criminals to become her bending teachers... and her love for her female bodyguard.

Yes! Sapphic fiction! While haters always berate Avatar Korra for choosing Asami as some kind of gimmick, the truth of the matter is there has been plenty of queer avatars over the ages. And it feels quite natural for someone as rough on the edges like Kyoshi. While the sapphic scenes are brief, they are nicely spread out during the book and oh so much fun to read. That alone is reason enough to give this book a shot.

Action? Treachery? Cool new ways of bending? This book has it all! People that love political aspects in their stories with corrupt officials trying to leverage control over the Avatar for personal benefit are going to love this book.

If there was only one thing stopping me from the full 5 stars, it is that some sentences are a bit confusing. There are homophome word typos spreaded all over the book and I noticed some commas were missing. I would have also loved a map of the Earth Kingdom to give the reader a better idea where the major events of the city take place.

But this is well compensated by the great writing and how Kyoshi forms a unique friendship with a brigand of criminals who might not be law abidding people, but they are not (mostly) blood thirsty murderers either. If anyone can make them become better people and rethink their lives, I think Kyoshi ended up with them for an ulterior reason. It is like the Avatar is always reincarnated in the place where they are needed the most.

This is the first half of a duology, and now I have to find the way to nab a copy of the sequel to finish reading it. Great read, loved every minute of it.

4.5 stars! show less

Don’t be fooled by the title; it’s no teen love drama or cringingly awkward coming of age type thing. It’s fun. Sixteen year old Genie Lo is an ordinary overachieving college-prep obsessed San Francisco Bay Area teenager when all of a sudden she’s dealing with demons, gods, and Sun Wukong, the Monkey King trickster anti-hero straight out of Chinese folklore.

Basically, imagine if Buffy the Vampire Slayer was Chinese-American instead of a blonde of generic, non-specific white origins. show more

There are a few instances where the characters pepper their speech with a bit of Mandarin (kinda like Firefly) but like that show, it isn’t so much that you’d miss major plot points if you don’t know the language. It’s written first-person narrative style, and Genie has a very funny snarky sense of humor.

In short, it was fun and I enjoyed it. If you are a fan of the “teenage girl destroys primeval monsters with hitherto untapped mystic powers” genre, I recommend it. show less