Saw this book on a B&N shelf early last year, didn't buy it because my library had it, then didn't check it out until last Friday. I had no clue that it was a retelling (?) of The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky (at the risk of sounding ignorant, I'd never even heard of this book before).

I've started using the CAWPILE rating system (I love formulas) and was surprised that I rated this as highly as I did. I think we all know that I prefer characters over plot, and these characters were so insufferable and weird for a large majority of the book. Still, they, and the plot, were really interesting and I could not put this book down! The writing was at times confusing and hard to follow. Leo Chao, and to a lesser extent, all of his sons, skeeved me out. Annoyed at James

for letting O-Lan (or should I say, Chao Ru) get away and letting his brother go to jail. But, I believe in my heart of hearts, that Dagou will be exonerated

. Ming was a little weirdo, and most of my confusion around the writing was because of his scenes. Though I feel this might have been intentional. 

Still, there was something so captivating about this book and these characters and I couldn't look away.