Review: The Phoenix Crown (by Kate Quinn and Janie Chang)

My Rating:  4 stars

As a result of busy season at work and school starting for me, finding time for leisure reading has been quite difficult the past few weeks. Even so, I was able to squeeze in several ARCs that I had lined up to read in September, which, given the timing, I'm glad I was able to finish.

One of those ARCs is The Phoenix Crown, a new collaborative novel by two popular authors known for writing brilliant historical fiction: Kate Quinn and Janie Chang. I've been excited to read this book since I first heard about it earlier in the year, not only because of the interesting premise, but also because both authors have separately written works that I've loved, so of course, I went into this one with high hopes.  And in the end, it definitely did not disappoint.

Despite what the book summary might allude to, the narrative here isn't actually a dual timeline, as majority of the story takes place in 1906 — it is only in the last quarter of the book or so that the story fast forwards 6 years to 1912.  While the plot was not as riveting as I expected (a few scenes did feel a tad bit contrived), the historical details were superbly done — of course not a surprise given that both Quinn and Chang are established historical fiction authors.  One of the things I enjoyed most though was following the character arcs of the four women at the center of the story, all of whom had distinct personalities as well as fascinating backstories — though the character I would've been most interested in reading more about was Feng Suling, the skilled embroideress who hailed from San Francisco's Chinatown in the aftermath of the Chinese Exclusion Act.  The Author's Note at the end of the book is definitely a must-read, as both Quinn and Chang provide quite a bit of historical context for both the characters (several of whom were real people or based on real people) and the various events covered in the story.  It was also in the Author's Note that I learned about a reference in the story to Chang's previous novel The Porcelain Moon, which I had read earlier this year and really enjoyed (for me, its always fun to discover throwbacks and references to authors' prior works).

I don't want to say too much, as I don't want to give anything away, so I will just put my name in the hat to recommend reading this (and hope for another future collaboration between these two fantastic authors).  One thing to note is that the publication date on this book seems to have changed, as I originally had this as coming out this month (September 2023), but I recently noticed that there is now a finalized publication date in February 2024 (I mention this in case it matters for those interested in reading this one).  While waiting for another collaboration, I'm glad that both authors have plenty of works in their own respective oeuvres that I can continue to explore!

Received ARC from William Morrow via NetGalley.

Review: The Porcelain Moon (by Janie Chang)

My Rating:  4.5 stars

Janie Chang's latest novel is a beautifully written story about a little-known piece of history:  the hundreds of thousands of Chinese laborers brought to Europe during the Great War.  These contracted workers — part of the Chinese Labor Corps (CLC) — didn't fight in the war directly, yet they were crucial in keeping the "machinery of war" running through their efforts in maintaining and rebuilding equipment such as tanks and weaponry, clearing out trenches, loading provisions onto boats to ship out to soldiers, etc. — even after the war, they played important roles in helping to clean up the battlefields and, in many instances, restore land that was taken during the war to its original use.  Oftentimes, they were also tasked with doing soul-destroying work such as clearing out decomposing corpses of humans and animals.  The commanding officers overseeing these workers were usually non-Chinese military personnel and misunderstandings were common due to lack of access to translators — many of the workers were either treated poorly or subject to harsh working conditions, especially the ones from the peasant class who were largely uneducated and illiterate, with little to no understanding of the local language and culture, so they couldn't relay their grievances or fight for their rights.  What's worse is that, later on, the contributions of these workers were largely wiped from the history books, with very little information about their efforts available even now.  Chang did a great job bringing this obscure history to light, with research that was both meticulous as well as intricate.  The author's note that detailed some of this research definitely should not be missed!

As far as the narrative goes, the story alternates between the two main female protagonists:  Camille, a Frenchwoman from an aristocratic family fallen on hard times, who tries desperately to escape from an abusive marriage; and Pauline, the illegitimate daughter of a traditional  Chinese family who is sent to France with her uncle and cousin to take care of the family's antiques store — two women who live very different lives, yet whose paths end up intersecting in a tremendous way.  I loved nearly all the characters in this story, but without a doubt, I resonated with Pauline the most.  In a culture where losing face was worse than death and being unfilial was an unforgivable sin subject to grave condemnation, Pauline's life had already been predetermined for her, and as a daughter (especially an illegitimate one), the only choice she had was to obey.  But yet, those circumstances didn't stop her from trying to rise above her fate, which in itself, was hugely admirable.  Though my own family background is quite different from Pauline's, the cultural obligations and conventions that she was bound by were more than familiar to me — which is why I couldn't help rooting for her character more than Camille's, even though overall, I was deeply invested in both women's stories.  

This was my first historical fiction novel of 2023 and I'm so glad I got to start off with a book I loved, especially with this particular genre being one of my  absolute favorites.  I had actually read Janie Chang's previous novel The Library of Legends back when it came out and while I appreciated the obscure history depicted in that story as well, I felt it leaned too much into the fantasy and romance elements at the expense of the historical portion. This newest work, The Porcelain Moon, is in an entirely different vein in my opinion, as it focused more on the historical and cultural elements and balanced both in a way that flowed seamlessly.

Janie Chang has two backlist titles that I'm interested in but haven't read yet — I'm hoping I will get a chance to read them some time soon.  What has me most excited though, is hearing that she is co-authoring a new book with Kate Quinn (one of my favorite historical fiction authors), which is scheduled for publication later this year (in the Fall) — I can't wait to read it!!

Received ARC from William Morrow via NetGalley.  

Review: The Library of Legends (by Janie Chang)

My Ratings:  3.5 stars

The first thought that popped into my head after I finished reading this book was how different it turned out to be from what I had expected.  From a historical perspective, this is a story I greatly appreciated, as it covered a portion of history not widely known, set during a time period not often depicted in novels about the World War II era.  The year is 1937 in Nanjing, China — as Japanese bombs begin to fall on the city, students and faculty at various schools are ordered to evacuate, heading 1000 miles on a journey toward the safety of China's western provinces.  Minghua University student Hu Lian and her classmates, led by revered teacher Professor Kang, head toward the city of Chengdu, where the university will reassemble to wait out the end of the war.  The journey is tenuous, as the students not only need to avoid the constant threat of Japanese air raids, they also need to make much of the trip on foot.  Additionally, the Minghua students have also been tasked with the responsibility of bringing with them one of the university's greatest treasures — a set of encyclopedias containing ancient myths and folklore collectively known as the Library of Legends.  Along the way, Lian grows close to several of her schoolmates, including second year classmates Yee Meirong and Wu Ying-Ying as well as wealthy fourth year classmate Liu Shaoming and his maidservant Sparrow Chen.  But Lian lives in the shadow of a family secret that she has carried with her most of her life — a secret that, if found out, she fears could destroy everything she worked so hard to achieve.  Later in the journey, Lian discovers a connection between those in her group and the story of The Willow Star and the Prince, which is one of the mythological tales contained in the Library of Legends.  Beyond that though, Lian soon learns that transporting the books awakens various immortals and guardian spirits who are headed on a journey of their own.

Overall, I enjoyed this story well enough, but I wasn't as mesmerized by it as I thought I would be.  Part of the reason is because, while I liked most of the characters, they were written in a way that I found it difficult to connect with them. I felt there was a lack of emotional depth to the characters (and to the story itself, in some aspects), which made it hard for me to feel anything for them when various things happen.  Also, the crossing over of genres – this one incorporated historical fiction, romance, and fantasy --  didn't work as well for me in this instance.  I think the problem for me is that I was expecting the story to lean more toward historical fiction and perhaps feel a little more "epic" in scope (especially given the premise and the setting), but instead the historical elements were too brief and, in my opinion, mostly overshadowed by the fantasy aspects with the mythological tale involving The Willow Star and the Prince and the love story associated with it.  Some parts of the story felt a bit all over the place and didn't flow together as well as it could have, which I think was due to the attempt to blend multiple genres.  The story did have a light-hearted, hopeful tone to it though, which made it a good choice to read during this time of uncertainty.

With historical fiction, I oftentimes enjoy reading the Author's Note almost as much as reading the story itself, and this instance was no different.  Reading about the real life events that certain details in the story were based on and seeing how the author adapted these details is always fascinating and, for me, the additional insight often puts the fictional story in better perspective.  Prior to reading this book, I had heard about the evacuation and temporary relocation of China's universities during the war, but had not read anything substantive about it until now.  I appreciate that author Janie Chang decided to cover this largely overlooked historical event, though of course, I would've preferred for the historical aspect to be stronger as I had mentioned earlier.  But that's just me – overall, this was still a worthy read, one that I would heartily recommend, especially for those who enjoy historical fiction with quite a bit of fantasy (more along the lines of magical realism I guess) mixed in.

Received ARC from William Morrow (HarperCollins) via Edelweiss.