A Song to Drown Rivers

★★★★★★★★☆☆ 8/10

368 pages

What’s it about?

This story was inspired by the legend of Xishi- one of the four great beauties of China.  Xishi is in her late teens and lives in a small village in Yue.  Xishi is a good girl known for her great beauty.  To the villagers, her beauty insures a good match, and thus her family will be taken care of.  When she accidentally meets a young military advisor from afar, her fate is suddenly changed.

What did it make me think about?

The complexities of war.

Should I read it?

OK- so I want to say this is a "fun" read but that seems wrong when it has some definite things to say about the futility of wars.  BUT- it was a quick and easy read.  I enjoyed the pace of the story.  It kept you interested, and yet it took time to develop complicated characters.  I was not surprised to learn later that it was written by an author who previously wrote YA fiction.  My only criticism is that it was often a little unbelievable that adult characters would make some of the decisions these characters make.  But I still really enjoyed this quick, fast, fantasy, romance, war novel. If you are looking for something original to distract and entertain you- try this one.

A passage I marked

"People always prefer the beauty who is oblivious, unaware of her own power, who blushes easily and is taken aback by strangers' approval, who is soft and demure and lacking in just enough confidence so as to seek it out in the opinions of men.  But these are such lies.  All my life, the very same people had told me time and time again how gorgeous I was.  How could I not know it?  That was like growing up not knowing you were tall."