This is the kind of story with a world that will totally swallow you whole.
In the best possible way! I love it when books promise epic and deliciously complex settings and then deliver. Like, tHANK YOU, I have been waiting to be totally captivated by a story world! This is also based on Japanese mythology and totally immerses you in the world with Japanese legends, weapons, food (um yeah thanks for that I’m hungry) and settings.
Like I really felt I could SEE it all. Which I’m actually super impressed with myself for (self five) because I have the imaginative abilities of a refried gnat. But aaaanyway.
- Mari being epic with her naginata sword and sighing about men in the first chapter.
- humans vs yōkai monstery things
- a contest to win the prince’s hand and also the empire if you survive the trials in 4 magical season-themed rooms of DEATH
- very soft™ but lonely prince who likes mechanical things
- halfblood yōkai who is all scars and would do anything for Mari
- epic woman everywhere, like did you see one?? there is another. two more over there. LOOK AT THEM FLOURISH.
- exquisitely detailed illustrious palace
- the humans enslaving the yōkai and how this is going to go baaaaad
- fighting! plots! rebellion! betrayals!
It has three narrators: Mari, Taro and Akira.
I really definitely liked Mari’s above the boys’, mostly because she was so complex and interesting! She’s an Animal Wife, a type of yōkai who basically woos men into marriage and then runs off with their fortune, which tbh is the best idea I’ve heard of all day. But she’s actually a FIGHTER. And because her family thinks she’s not pretty enough (she’s very smol, muscly and round, instead of super pretty/slim) she gets to enter the contest to win the princes’ hand because it won’t rely on looks. Just her stabbing things. Excellent.
I just found her so excellent. She sighs at men. She’s tired of people telling her she’s not pretty. She’s badass but enjoys being feminine. Her #1 love is her freaky family. I mean !!! this girl !!!
Then we have…
- TARO, the prince: Look. I enjoyed that he was this big badass looking guy but in reality he was soft and liked making mechanical birds. BUT. He was still super entitled and I didn’t like him. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Couldn’t ship it either. I mean they knew each other for like a week and he’s like “SHE COMPLETES ME” because she hit him in the face.
- AKIRA, halfblood yōkai: I liked him because he was all scarred and noble. Buuut like he couldn’t take a no. Mari said “ya no” to a relationship but he STILL followed her around, determined to protect her and wait for her love and I just…hmm.
- The males in this book. Why tho.
- ASAMI, contestant: Ok she and Mari team up and tHEY ARE EPIC TOGETHER. Can’t say much for spoilers!! But loved Asami!!
- HANAKO, weapons master: She basically heads up the yōkai resistance bless her and her idea she can just snark everyone into obeying her. She’s pretty creepy and therefore awesome. She has 0% time for Akira’s loyal puppy-dog act and just puts him to work and wE STAN A WOMAN WHO WANTS TO FREE THE WORLD.
- The emperor: Honestly? I’ve met Vegemite that was more logical than he was. As much as I love the setting/premise, why was his idea of finding a wife for his son like “Hey who can survive finding a scroll in the middle of a summer room that’ll roast your face off!! You are empress material!!!” I mean. Mate. You’ve got serious hate issues for the yōkai also. But aside from that: who thought this plan thru.
I do admit I found it slow paced.
It’s a fantasy that takes time to build the world, which I appreciate! But it took 100pgs to get started and then in 100pgs the whole bulk of the plot was over and I just???? We took so long to get here and then we rush through it?!
I loved the magic of having four rooms in the palace that contained whole worlds in them where the seasons and elements were super vicious. LIKE HOW COOL. And I loved the twist of girls winning the boy’s hand in marriage for once! But I didn’t quite understand the POINT of it all. Except…dramatics?! But I mean, I appreciate dramatics. So.
And, just really quickly, things I don’t like reading about do include: love triangles, instalove, and Burying Your Gays™ and they all rear their little heads here. (The BYG was very very small. More like an off-handed comment, so doubly unnecessary. Like why do this?! But it wasn’t the ONLY death so that at least helps.)
But WOW did it leave it open for a sequel!!
I’m really excited to see what will happen next and it’s definitely a world I want to go back to! Goodreads doesn’t say there’s more yet but like fingers crossed!?? All the little segments flashing back to how the gods made the world were super awesome too. And MARI, MY QUEEN. She needs to get better male companions, like…replace all of them ok. But otherwise I loved the monsters vs humans storyline. That will never get old.
This is definitely the kind of diverse epic fantasy we need more of!
It wasn’t quite perfect for me, but subjectivity always arises there. I just prefer more balanced pacing and it was hard getting through two other POVs when I was only interested in Mari’s!
THANKS TO HMH TEEN FOR THE ARC. Empress of All Seasons by Emiko Jean is published 6th of November 2018.
In a palace of illusions, nothing is what it seems.
Each generation, a competition is held to find the next empress of Honoku. The rules are simple. Survive the palace’s enchanted seasonal rooms. Conquer Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall. Marry the prince. All are eligible to compete—all except yōkai, supernatural monsters and spirits whom the human emperor is determined to enslave and destroy.
Mari has spent a lifetime training to become empress. Winning should be easy. And it would be, if she weren’t hiding a dangerous secret. Mari is a yōkai with the ability to transform into a terrifying monster. If discovered, her life will be forfeit. As she struggles to keep her true identity hidden, Mari’s fate collides with that of Taro, the prince who has no desire to inherit the imperial throne, and Akira, a half-human, half-yōkai outcast.
Torn between duty and love, loyalty and betrayal, vengeance and forgiveness, the choices of Mari, Taro, and Akira will decide the fate of Honoku in this beautifully written, edge-of-your-seat YA fantasy
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I just finished this one AND I FELL IN LOVE STARTING ON PAGE ONE. I’m a sucker for everything Japanese (I was a die hard otaku when I was like 15) and reading this book made me remember jusy how glorious Japanese myth is. AND YES TO MORE ASIAN SFF BOOKS.
My recent favorite is The Poppy War (can’t stop shrieking about this) which features Chinese myth and culture and there was blood all over. I’M— I’m just obsessed with this book.
I don’t like multiple POV’s that much but Six of Crows really worked for me. I LOVE ALL OF THE NARRATORS AFSHSJSJS
AHHHH I’m so glad it lived up to expectations for you!! Omg monsters tories are my FAVOURITES though. Give me monsters and I will find soft squishy spots for them even though…ya know…they’re monsters. 😂
I NEED to read The Poppy War!! I have the audio, I just need to find some time.😂
And Six of Crows is an absolute work of ART.
I’m going back and forth with myself like “should I read this? Should I wait till more people on GR have read it?” Should I be first? ” maybe I’ll break down and add to my release tbr . . . And then forget about it until next year which would be unfortunate. Also it’s so weird to me that the main guy in this is named Taro cause that’s way to close to my main guy n my NaNo book who’s named Taros
My favorite diverse fantasy is probably Six of Crows, I mean it’s set in a European world yet Leigh Bardugo actually remembered it’s her world where she can do whatever she wants including taking out sexism and racism and that people of color and disabled people exist (wow, who knew). I also like An Ember in the Ashes and The Epic Crush of Genie Lo which has an all Chinese cast.
Six of Crows is a marvellous work of ART and I love how she doesn’t choose traditional western settings or characters. I get so ridiculously happy seeing disabilities in her books too 😍Like MOST of her protagonists have a disability and it’s so refreshing and good and … unusual?! Fantasy should NOT make it this hard to find diversity omg. I also need to read more of the Ember series!
And I hope you might get a chance to try this one! It’s probably not my favourite ever fantasy, but it had a lot of great parts!
…Wow. I hadn’t even heard of this, but now I really want to read it.
I like third person multiple narrators more than first person ones.
Me toooo! I actually remember the characters’ names and whose chapter I’m in. 😂😂
I SO CANNOT WAIT TO READ THIS. the premise was kinda similar to one of my wips and I was like !! I NEED TO KNOW HOW THIS GOES. bc maybe I can steal ideas??? HAHAH NO no no just kidding. I was concerned the author stole my ideas XDD (jk again) NO I am just curious cos the plot sounds really cool !! And a Japan-inspired fantasy world has gotta be good!! BRILLIANT REVIEW like usual.
btw I have stopped getting your posts in my email all of a sudden, so I just resubscribed. Hope that solves it xxxx
ok so I went and read some previous posts and realized you addressed the email subscription issue in a post and so ignore what I said above about it lol XD
Ahh I hope you get a chance to read it! It might turn out to be a good comparative title for yours? I always collapse awkwardly when a book comes out with an idea super similar to mine lmao. 😂 It’s like “Nooo you stole the idea that I hadn’t mentioned yet!!”😂
Aww sorry yes! I had this post scheduled so I forgot to write that the email subs need to be resubscribed if you’re not getting them anymore. I am still trying to fix the old one though. 🙈
no worries, cos I just discovered that YOU CAN FOLLOW WORDPRESS BLOGS VIA YOUR BLOGGER FEED so we’re all good ;DD
Ah, I read this recently and I so agree! I really liked Mari a lot more than the boys (though Taro was my favorite at first… and then he became so weird and entitled). The romance pretty much ruined a lot of my enjoyment of the book — it was so frustrating and insta-lovey and I hated it!! Hanako was DEFINITELY my favorite character out of all of them, though! Which is sad because she didn’t get that much page time. But yeah the male characters in this book… yikes. 😒
And oh no, I actually didn’t notice the BYG trope??? I only saw Hanako mentioned as a sapphic person but that was it :/ Do you mind telling me where/who it was? Because that stuff really needs to be called out 🙄
Great review, Cait! Glad to see that we pretty much thought the same of it 😂
Yes Mari was the BEST…and Taro’s character arc was disappointing 😭 but maybe he’s going into a villain origin story?! I’m very intrigued to see where the story goes next for sure. (I just LOVE monsters ajdksald.) But I’m glad we had a lot of the same feels here!
***SPOILERS*** (for anyone else reading through the comments)
So the BYG was like just a line (and possibly might be changed since it’s an ARC?) and I hope I’m not misremembering 🙈 but yeah one of the girls in the contest was sapphic. I think she mentioned being in the contest for some other reason, but she didn’t want to win the prince’s hand? And then she died. I feel really bad that I can’t remember the names, but I read this ages ago and scheduled in advance. When I get home, I can flick through my ARC and find it. Sorry about this. 😭
Ahh it’s a pity that the male characters in this book weren’t that great. I think I still want to read this though! I love the concept, and the female protagonist sounds AWESOME. Wonderful review! <3
Eeep, thanks Kyra!! I had a lot of fun with this one for sure!
This. Book. Looks. So. Good!!!!! I seriously need this one in my life right now!! Ugh if only I had money 😂 😂 The story sounds good and the Japanese diversity is making me really happy rn!! The only other diverse fantasy that I can think of is Children of Blood and Bone, which was amazing!
Definitely adding Empress of All Seasons to my TBR right now!! Thanks for the amazing recommendation Cait!!
IT IS!! I hope you get a chance to try it! And just the amount of diverse fantasies coming out now is incredible…minority authors should get all the chances to share their culture in fantasy worlds! COBAB is also amazing
Caaait! Empress of All Seasons is one of what seems to be a whole hoard of diverse epic/high fantasy (I can never tell what the difference is between the two? Aren’t they just the same thing?) coming out at the end of this year and the beginning of next year AND I AM SO EXCITED! Hello, Girls of Paper and Fire! Hello, Empire of Sand! Hello to next year’s We Hunt the Flame, The Weight of Our Sky, Descendant of the Crane, and The Candle and the Flame! They just all make me want to happy dance!
Ok. So. I am a little disappointed that it takes 100 pages for things to start, and then everything happen in the next 100 pages. This bothers me quite a bit more than it normally would, as I’ve just recently finished a 600+ page book, A Discovery of Witches whose pacing was all off. You know me, I love a long book. But 200 pages before we even know the why behind things, and then more slowless and nothingness, and I can’t! My review is going live on Friday if you are interested in hearing me vent a little. BUT IT WAS SO INTERESTING IN THE LAST QUARTER, and even though I’m a little worried the next book may be slow, too, I bought it today, because I just need to know! I need to know! But I also want to read books that aren’t slow! Lol.
But Empress of All Seasons does sound really good! And I’m so intrigued! So I will read it, but I might wait and read a few other books first. But yay for turning the winning the hand of royalty trope on it’s head! And the monster side of things? That just sounds awesome! I’m really looking forward to reading it!
Thanks for the review, Cait!
I’m SO excited by all the diverse fantasy too, especially how such a lot of it is Asian! (Although The Weight of Our Sky isn’t fantasy, it’s historical fiction! I’ve read it and fjadksla it’s gut-wrenching.) But so many happy dances right!? 😍
I kind of had vaguely heard a Discovery of Witches, but that pacing sounds so frustrating too…I will definitely be there to read your rant! It’s kind of frustrating when books are good but not GREAT and then you don’t know whether to read or not. 😂😂
Sounds super interesting but also I feel like I am already shipping the wrong boy (scars! tragedy! demon boy!) so can feel it might end in tears for me….. hhhhmmm.
😂😂 There are plenty of twists with the romance, don’t worry!
I love how detailed your review is, but in a good way! Mari sounds amazing but the guys are pretty meh :/ I can’t wait to read this!
Ahhh, I want to read this so badly!!! I want violence and winter and badass women … so I think that I would like this??? Hopefully??? Lol
OMG this sounds like the epic Asian fantasy I’ve been looking for! I love the sound of Mari who is completely badass and smol and unapologetically herself, yes please. Lovely review Cait!