While I don't mind slow moving books, this one reaalllly takes its time before it gets going. While I appreciate See explaining to her non-Chinese audience different aspects of Chinese culture that the reader might not be familiar with, a lot of the exposition felt verrryyy out of place. For instance it's somewhat ridiculous that Yunxian's grandmother would be explaining Yin and Yang to HER. I wish that See would have stuck most of her cultural explanations into an index in the back rather than having characters nearly break the fourth-wall to exposit to the reader.

As another reviewer said: "created in a lab for a white woman's bookclub"