I really enjoyed this book and Shelley Parker-Chan does an incredible job paralleling their characters with each other. I felt so tied to these characters and their journeys and I enjoyed seeing them change over the book, for better or for worse. I really just love these characters so much I could gush over them for so long. Shelley Parker-Chan does a remarkable job at making you connect to characters who are unlikable as people. It’s also formatted so nicely to be adapted into a tv show almost. It would be a very fun show to watch. 

I also could not go on without commenting on the queerness of this book and how lovely it is.

Zhu’s exploration through gender and learning who she is is a wonderful journey to read through and

it’s lovely to read something that explores gender so in depth. It  explores the social role of womanhood and manhood in many characters relationships with others and themselves and I just love it so much.

The book includes several
twists in it and it’s interesting to see what choices and thoughts lead up to these and often times I found myself underestimating Zhu’s thirst and let out an audible “wow”. 

I’m not a huge fan of historical fiction as it can be a bit dense for me, but this book’s setting is absolutely fascinating and I really enjoyed the environment built here.