Forest of a Thousand Lanterns

Forest of a Thousand Lanterns by Julie Dao is an East Asian fantasy that is loosely based on the fairy tale of Snow White. In this version we meet the young girl who is going to become the evil queen. Xifeng has been raised by her aunt with one destiny in mind, to go to the capital and enchant the Emperor and become his Empress. She feels that she is destined for greatness but first she must embrace the darkness inside of her.

She becomes a waiting lady to the current Empress who looks upon her as a daughter. Through magic and trickery she manages to kill the current two favorite concubines of the emperor, she eats their hearts and the magic this generates enhances her beauty and she develops a craving for blood. Although she doesn’t show more kill the current Empress, she stands aside while her friend and assistant slowly poisons her.

This is the first book of two and ends with her marriage to the Emperor and her crowning as Empress. She feels that she has reached her destiny and her future is secure. She doesn’t spare a thought for the young daughter, White Jade, that the first Empress has left behind.

Combining this fairy tale with the mythology of the East has generated a twisted, exciting tale. Xifeng is full of dark jealousy and a craving for power. She is obsessed by her beauty yet at times I found her quite sympathetic. She is under the control of a very dark god who requires nothing less than absolute power and control. I am looking forward to the second book as I am sure it’s going to get darker and nastier. show less

TW: physical abuse

In short, Forest of a Thousand Lanterns is the origin story of the evil Queen from “Snow White,” set in an East Asian inspired fantasy world. So if a YA fantasy with a complex anti-heroine at it’s center sounds like you’re sort of thing, then you should really read Forest of a Thousand Lanterns.

Xifeng is beautiful, and she knows her appearance is her most important attribute. For her aunt tells her that she has a destiny: Xifeng is to become Empress, and her beauty must be her way to the top. But her path to the top will require more than just a pretty face. Xifeng must draw upon her determination, wits, and a dark magic taught to her by her aunt that requires her to eat the hearts of creatures she kills. Will show more Xifeng succumb to the darkness within her?

While I ask that as a question, the answer is fairly obvious once you realize the fairy tale origin of the book. There’s an inevitability to Xifeng’s moral fall that doesn’t make her story any less compelling. I love a good antiheroine, and unfortunately they’re all too thin on the ground. Xifeng is a wonderful addition, and if I was rewriting my list of best SFF antiheroines, she’d make it on there. She’s sort of like Diora from Michelle West’s Sun Sword books but gone to the dark side. The way she’s weaponized hyper-femininity is really interesting.

I did wish the book had more positive relationships between women, but I also understand why it didn’t. This is a villain’s origin story about the evil queen of Snow White. Of course she doesn’t get along with other women. They’re all in competition for “fairest of them all,” at least in Xifeng’s mind. Given that this is a first in a series, I’m hoping that we’ll see more friendships between female characters in other books. I have no illusions; I’m sure Xifeng will be the villain of the sequels, and it will probably be painful to watch.

Forest of a Thousand Lanterns isn’t super fast paced, and there’s not a whole lot of action. The events of the story are more subtle, barring some heart eating that is. For all that, I still had a hard time putting it down. There’s something captivating about this book. It’s obvious that Xifeng will fall to her darkest impulses, but the entire time I was rooting for her to fight it and become the person I thought she was capable of. It’s really impressive that Dao’s achieved this level of characterization and got me to invest so strongly in Xifeng.

Least you think Xifeng and her character arc are the only draw to Forest of a Thousand Lanterns, the world building was splendid as well. Dao creates a world that draws upon East Asian cultures, and she brings it vividly to life. After the opening chapters, the story eventually finds its home in the women’s quarters of the imperial palace, a luxurious setting that I actually haven’t seen much of in fantasy fiction (perhaps surprising, perhaps not). Anyway, I can tell Dao put a lot of work into the creation of the world, and I can’t wait to see how she expands it in the sequels.

Because I’m certainly going to be reading the sequels. How could I not? Forest of a Thousand Lanterns was such a strong start, and I’d love to see where Dao takes the rest of the series.

Originally posted on The Illustrated Page. show less

This story is for readers who want to see a MC slowly succumbing to the dark side. Xifeng is a poor, beautiful girl who has a terribly toxic relationship with her aunt, Guma. It’s tough to see how manipulative her aunt is, but it’s the push she needs to start her journey. I won’t lie, it’s somewhat entertaining to see how Xifeng begins to pull the puppet strings of those around her. She starts playing chess with anyone who gets in her way.

I’m on the fence on whether I want to read the next book. Keep in mind, the beginning of this story is rather slow, and we get introduced to some characters who barely have any presence yet we’re supposed to feel for them. But I enjoyed my reading experience so far.

I read the book when it first came out and was blown away. I had so many feelings that I refrained from writing a review. Two years later, I checked it out on a whim, and laid it specially aside as I whipped through my usual library book pile. I was eager to experience the imagery all over again and vicariously descend into a different emotional state. I am irritated to inform that such was decidedly not my experience this time. The cover is still wonderful. The imagery is still beautiful, and the retelling even clearer now, and the author can write. This book is like a rushing river that winds up in a pond before anyone notices it was even slowing down in the first place. It's a character study in which the protagonist doesn't even show more turn slightly evil until the last hundred pages, and the story -drags- until the end.

The protagonist has a bunch of cliche hardships but everything always happens the best way for her. The obstacles seemed really brief when they weren't dramatic suffering. I feel bad for admitting that. Over and over again, Xifeng got everything she wanted and never seemed to learn anything. She changed and thought a ton as her obstacles showed themselves to be a game of whack a mole, but I don't feel like she learned anything. This was probably an excellent setup for the second book, which I didn't read and don't plan to. I'm interested in learning about other works of Dao's, though. show less

ORIGINALLY POSTED: https://bibliomantics.com/2017/11/06/my-year-in-reading-cassie-las-september-201...

An Asian re-imagining of the evil stepmother’s tale from Snow White, Forest of a Thousand Lanterns is the dark fantasy prequel you didn’t know you wanted. Cheer along as the main character makes one terrible decision after another in the name of destiny, and puts a delicious new spin on the term “evil.” Bet you didn’t know the dark side could be so fun?

This book was so good. I can't emphasize that enough. THIS BOOK WAS SO GOOD.

It is, above all, a character study and it is incredibly well-done. The MC, Xifeng, is incredibly, wonderfully, painfully complex. She is both defined by those around her and by her own desires; she is confused and confident in turn, regretful, ashamed, proud, and defiant. Dao gives Xifeng the space to be messy and complicated and she never pulls back from Xifeng's development. Xifeng questions herself, her place in the world, and the world itself always and her answers are not always the same. This sort of detailed character work is rare in YA SF/F and this book is so good because of it.

It's also good because this story is driven by women. Women who are allowed show more to be messy and complex, to have complicated relationships with one another, to have goals and dreams and desires apart from men, to exist beyond the idea of romance. Women are leaders and witches and healers and cruel villains but never does it fall into the "mean girl" stereotype present in so many other YA books, where the only "good" girl is the MC and everyone else hates her for no reason at all except to drive conflict. In this book, Xifeng's relationships with the women around her are fraught and tense and adversarial but it makes sense within the context of the story and even when they are at odds, Xifeng still has a grudging respect for the women she encounters.

I also enjoyed how romance was not the main point of this book. There is romance, but the romance does not dictate the character's actions and that is so important.

The world this story is set in is very interesting if a bit vague. I enjoyed how stories and folklore and history are discussed by characters and how these things are relevant to how the characters understand themselves and their places in the world. It all feels very natural and not at all info dump-y.

There are some trigger warnings I will include under a spoiler tag: this books features very graphic abuse of the MC by her aunt. Violence against women is perpetrated but not by men--the violence is mostly done by other women. There are discussions of pregnancy loss and miscarriage. but none of these things were gratuitous which I appreciated immensely.

I highly recommend this book show less

4.5/5 stars (rounded down)

“She knew her own worth. She would seize her destiny with all the strength and spirit within her, and bend them all to her will: every man kneeling and every woman overshadowed.”

I've read the advanced reader copy of this book, and since the book was published a while ago (better late than never, right?) I don't know if anything was changed in the final copy, although from where I'm standing not much would have needed to be changed at all.

This is probably my favorite ARC I've ever read, and I honestly cannot believe that this was a debut. Julie Dao writes with a refined and skillful hand and I cannot wait for what her next books will bring.

​Also, kudos to her editing team because this advanced copy was show more the cleanest, most grammatically correct book I've ever received. I can just tell how much love and dedication to detail this book received and it definitely payed off - I am so freaking impressed with it!

“For that is the way of the world, Guma’s voice echoed. Some are given a rope to the moon, and others claw up the sky.”

​The story follows Xifeng, a beautiful and suffering woman, who believes in destiny more than anything in the world. She believes she's destined for more and is prepared to see it through. Xifeng is not your typical protagonist, because she is the opposite of that. She is beautiful and she knows it, and uses it to her benefit in every opportunity she can. She's selfish and vain and she won't let anything stand in her way.
Do you like her and the path she takes? No. But you also can't tear your eyes away from the pages because you just have to know how her story will play out.

“Xifeng tilted her face, a pale moon in the evening of the water. She felt like a goddess in the shimmering light. She was a poem come to life, each vein was a lyric.”

This is branded as Asian retelling of Snow White, but the story is so intricate and indigenous that you don't see the references to the original narrative until they are right in front of your face.

​The writing was absolutely beautiful, for the most part, there were few times when it felt very stiff - as if the flow was somehow broken and words just stumbled around till they found the rhythm again. If you're not into high fantasy and descriptive writing, I admit that it might be too much in places, but if you are - then you're in for a treat. Quite brutal, but delicious treat.

“She was a monster, a bride of the darkness, and she rose to face her destiny as though it were the blood-red sunrise of a new day.”

​At some moments it did feel as if Xifeng just couldn't make up her mind, and I know it was meant as a portrayal of her fighting the good and evil inside of her, but sometimes it just came out as wishy-washy. But I loved the strength of her, and I loved how she refused to belong to any man - Xifeng is quite the feminist!

​My goal this year was to read more books in Asian setting and this book just reminded me why I made that goal - because I love the setting so much. The imagery, the legends and the customs - it's all so intricate and almost magical to me.

Julie C. Dao got a new fan with just one book because I cannot wait for the second one. We got a glimpse of what's to come, and most importantly who to come on the scene, and I am already so intrigued. show less