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A review by mspilesofpaper
A Song to Drown Rivers by Ann Liang
emotional
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for sending me an eArc.
A Song to Drown Rivers is my first book by the author and when I requested it, I was rather hyped for it as I used to have a hyperfixation period where I read everything about the Great Beauties of Ancient China, to which Xishi (Or Xi Shi as was her actual name) counted. So finding out that there's a retelling of the story had me hooked!
In the book, as in history, Xishi and another young woman were picked by Fanli to be trained before sending them as tributes to Wu's king Fuchai in the hope that the king would become so infatuated with her that he forgets to rule his kingdom. The biggest difference is the training period for Xishi and Zhengdang. While it took three years to train both to become concubines, Fanli only needed 10 weeks to train both for their roles: Xishi as a concubine and Zhengdang as her palace lady. That's certainly a fantasy to train two young women from a rural village into learned ladies who can bewitch every man.
My biggest issues with the book are:
1) The romance between Xishi and Fanli is so underdeveloped. They have a few scenes together but I don't think that they would be enough to establish any feelings. It might have been better to increase the training period from merely 10 weeks to at least 6 months to give the reader more scenes between both characters. Would have made the end more believable as well.
2) The pacing is so off. It starts rather slow and drags a bit before it suddenly picks up in speed enough to give the reader a moment of "finally". Unfortunately, it sags shortly afterwards with Xishi spending time in Fuchai's palace but nothing really happens there. Yes, she always talks about her acts of cunning behaviour but it's all off-page. Then, the minor climax happens and the rest is just rushed to reach the end in the allotted amount of pages. Despite the weird pacing, the entire book feels rushed and unfinished. There are a lot of things that the author hints at, which could have made for compelling points, but they would have needed more pages to be developed.
3) None of the characters raised any kind of interest in me for them. Xishi's defining traits are her beauty, her love for Fanli and sometimes her cunning (although pretty much everything is handed on a silver platter to her). Fanli is just ✨mysterious✨. Fuchai is a drunken, careless young man who is either cruel or a helpless boy. Zhengdang is driven by her need for vengeance. I would have expected more well-developed characters that make me care for them. Yes, the end is sad but my only thought was "it is finally over", which is never a good thing.
TL;DR: I wish that the book would have gotten 200 pages more, so the author could have developed the characters and the themes that would have made the novel good. Instead, it's a rushed historical fiction (I really don't know where the fantasy label stems from.) that fails to show the importance of Xishi as one of Ancient China's Great Beauties. If you want to gauge how important Xi Shi was actually for China: China has a rating system for their tourist attractions that goes from A to 5A. Xi Shi's hometown is a 4A tourist area and is also considered a cultural heritage site. It's the equivalent of the UNESCO world heritage sites in Western countries.
A Song to Drown Rivers is my first book by the author and when I requested it, I was rather hyped for it as I used to have a hyperfixation period where I read everything about the Great Beauties of Ancient China, to which Xishi (Or Xi Shi as was her actual name) counted. So finding out that there's a retelling of the story had me hooked!
In the book, as in history, Xishi and another young woman were picked by Fanli to be trained before sending them as tributes to Wu's king Fuchai in the hope that the king would become so infatuated with her that he forgets to rule his kingdom. The biggest difference is the training period for Xishi and Zhengdang. While it took three years to train both to become concubines, Fanli only needed 10 weeks to train both for their roles: Xishi as a concubine and Zhengdang as her palace lady. That's certainly a fantasy to train two young women from a rural village into learned ladies who can bewitch every man.
My biggest issues with the book are:
1) The romance between Xishi and Fanli is so underdeveloped. They have a few scenes together but I don't think that they would be enough to establish any feelings. It might have been better to increase the training period from merely 10 weeks to at least 6 months to give the reader more scenes between both characters. Would have made the end more believable as well.
2) The pacing is so off. It starts rather slow and drags a bit before it suddenly picks up in speed enough to give the reader a moment of "finally". Unfortunately, it sags shortly afterwards with Xishi spending time in Fuchai's palace but nothing really happens there. Yes, she always talks about her acts of cunning behaviour but it's all off-page. Then, the minor climax happens and the rest is just rushed to reach the end in the allotted amount of pages. Despite the weird pacing, the entire book feels rushed and unfinished. There are a lot of things that the author hints at, which could have made for compelling points, but they would have needed more pages to be developed.
3) None of the characters raised any kind of interest in me for them. Xishi's defining traits are her beauty, her love for Fanli and sometimes her cunning (although pretty much everything is handed on a silver platter to her). Fanli is just ✨mysterious✨. Fuchai is a drunken, careless young man who is either cruel or a helpless boy. Zhengdang is driven by her need for vengeance. I would have expected more well-developed characters that make me care for them. Yes, the end is sad but my only thought was "it is finally over", which is never a good thing.
TL;DR: I wish that the book would have gotten 200 pages more, so the author could have developed the characters and the themes that would have made the novel good. Instead, it's a rushed historical fiction (I really don't know where the fantasy label stems from.) that fails to show the importance of Xishi as one of Ancient China's Great Beauties. If you want to gauge how important Xi Shi was actually for China: China has a rating system for their tourist attractions that goes from A to 5A. Xi Shi's hometown is a 4A tourist area and is also considered a cultural heritage site. It's the equivalent of the UNESCO world heritage sites in Western countries.