Sound the Gong – The Bookish Mutant

Happy Friday, bibliophiles!

Finally summer! Finally, more time to read…and most of what I’ve read this month has been good, I’d say.

Let’s begin, shall we?

GENERAL THOUGHTS:

Save for the first week of the month, May has been the first month where I’ve been able to relax somewhat! Finals were over and I’d moved out of my dorm before I knew it. Straight A’s and finally being free of my STEM requirements isn’t too shabby, I’d say! I’m so proud of what I’ve accomplished this year—and I’m so glad that I can have some downtime. And I’ve made good use of it so far—May has been my best month in terms of amount of books read (although the quality of…some of said books is another story), and I’ve definitely benefitted from the time spent reading! I’ve also been trying to focus more on art this summer, and consciously taking a slice out of each day to draw has been an adventure so far. I had a solid week where I had three or four blog posts all on the back burner simultaneously, so I unintentionally made a loose schedule for blogging every day as well, so I’m getting some writing in while I recover from writing two short stories and a 20,000 word novella all in one semester. I’ve also been pruning my Goodreads TBR…I’ve managed to cut it down from around 770 to around 720, so I’d say that’s been a success?

Other than that, I’ve just been cleaning things out of the dorm and bringing them back to my house, sleeping, watching Abbott Elementary (THEY FINALLY DID IT!!! THEY FINALLY LET THEM KISS!!!), Taskmaster, and Hacks (we love Jean Smart in this house), and relishing in the warm weather and the beginning of summer. I feel like every time I’m in the car with my family, I just pass the hills and feel the need to comment on how much I love that shade of green that summertime brings. But it’s so beautiful. Every single time. It never gets old. Thank you, shades of summer green.

READING AND BLOGGING:

I read 19 books this month! I’ve been oscillating between both ends of the spectrum this month, for sure—I read one of the worst books I’ve read this year, but also two of the very best. Somehow, it’s pretty evenly split as far as ratings go when I’ve lined them all up that way, but it’s been up and down all month, but on a track towards betterment midway through. I focused on AAPI books for May, and I found some fantastic books as a result from both familiar and new-to-me authors!

1 – 1.75 stars:

Dear Wendy – Ann Zhao (⭐️.5)

2 – 2.75 stars:

The Space Between Here & Now – Sarah Suk (⭐️⭐️)
Damned If You Do – Alex Brown (⭐️⭐️)
The Mimicking of Known Successes (Mossa & Pleiti, #1) – Malka Ann Older (⭐️⭐️.5)
The Emperor and the Endless Palace – Justinian Huang (⭐️⭐️.75)

3 – 3.75 stars:

Fathomfolk (Drowned World, #1) – Eliza Chan (⭐️⭐️⭐️.25)
Ruthless Vows (Letters of Enchantment, #2) – Rebecca Ross (⭐️⭐️⭐️.5)
While You Were Dreaming – Alisha Rai (⭐️⭐️⭐️.5)
The Last Bloodcarver (The Last Bloodcarver duology, #1) – Vanessa Le (⭐️⭐️⭐️.5)
Empire of Sand (The Books of Ambha, #1) – Tasha Suri (⭐️⭐️⭐️.5)
Off With Their Heads – Zoe Hana Mikuta (⭐️⭐️⭐️.75)
Camp Zero – Michelle Min Sterling (⭐️⭐️⭐️.75)

4 – 4.75 stars:

Sound the Gong (Kingdom of Three, #2) – Joan He (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
Road to Ruin (Magebike Courier, #1) – Hana Lee (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
Cursed Bunny – Bora Chung, translated by Anton Hur (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
The Goodbye Cat – Hiro Akigawa, translated by Philip Gabriel (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
This Book Won’t Burn – Samira Ahmed (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.25)

5 stars:

Squire – Sara Alfageeh and Nadia Shammas (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
The Travelling Cat Chronicles – Hiro Arikawa, translated by Philip Gabriel (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

FAVORITE BOOK OF THE MONTH – Squire – 5 stars

POSTS I’M PROUD OF:

I had fun reviewing Off With Their Heads, Dear Wendy, Squire, and The Traveling Cat Chronicles!
Music rambling! Here are my Sunday Songs for 5/12, 5/19, and 5/26.
I made another list of recommendations for AAPI Heritage Month!
I reviewed St. Vincent’s (excellent) new album, All Born Screaming!

POSTS FROM OTHER WONDERFUL PEOPLE THAT I ENJOYED:

SONGS/ALBUMS I’VE BEEN ENJOYING:

strong contender for album of the year!!!

why did I put off listening to this album for so long??

affirmations: I have listened to this song a healthy amount of times

this show was…insane?? idk if I’m built for punk shows but IDLES knocked it out of the park

lovely new album!!

got hooked on this band after seeing them open for IDLES!! fantastic stuff

such a wonderful album!!

Today’s song:

That’s it for this month in blogging! Have a wonderful rest of your day, and take care of yourselves!

Happy Tuesday, bibliophiles!

Descendant of the Crane and The Ones We’re Meant to Find made me an instant fan of Joan He, and so I was immediately hooked when I found out that she was cooking up another piece of folkloric-feeling historical fiction! And now that I’ve finished this novel, I can safely say that Joan He has never once let me down. Fingers crossed that it’s consistent.

Enjoy this week’s review!

Strike the Zither (Kingdom of Three, #1) – Joan He

Zephyr has spent her whole life mapping survival out strategically. It was necessary after she was orphaned while she was still young, but as the strategist of the warlordess Xin Ren, she now holds the fate of a warring country in her hands. Three factions are fighting for dominance under a figurehead of an empress, and any sudden moves could mean that one faction takes over the entire Xin Dynasty.

When Zephyr is sent on a mission to infiltrate the ranks of the enemy to ensure the safekeeping of Xin Ren’s loyal followers, she collides with Crow, an enemy strategist with an agenda of his own. But the boiling point of all three factions is fast approaching, and Zephyr must do anything in order to make it out alive—even if it means exposing herself to the enemy.

TW/CW: death, blood, war themes, violence, torture, animal death, vomiting, abuse, body-shaming, xenophobia (fictional)

I’m not sure why I’m so hesitant to say that Joan He can do no wrong at this point. She’s never missed. Not with Descendant of the Crane, not with The Ones We’re Meant to Find, and certainly not with this novel. Her first two books were already works of art, and I’m glad to say that He is consistent in the quality of her writing, and consistent in her ability to put out so much unique media into the world of literature.

Each Joan He book is memorable in its own way, but what stood out to me about Strike the Zither was how wonderfully cinematic it was. It wasn’t frustratingly quippy or overtly self-serious; He knew just when to hit the balance, juxtaposing war with well-placed zither solos and political intrigue. He seems to do political intrigue especially well—there’s a way to make it genuinely interesting without having the entire focus be on court drama, which happens so often in YA, and with both this novel and Descendant of the Crane, she teases each development just enough to continually keep my attention. With the stylized art on the cover, I could honestly imagine this novel being adapted into a darker Laika Studios stop-motion film, but no matter the medium, Strike the Zither feels like it was born for the screen.

He also has an awareness of her characters that not many YA authors do—she knows that Zephyr and all of the other supporting characters are over the top, and she absolutely rolls with it. Again, Strike the Zither was a master class in balance; Zephyr neither fell into the all-too-common self-seriousness of YA, nor did she constantly break out into the dreaded Marvel Funny personality. She’s theatrical, but in a fun way that doesn’t mire itself in angst unnecessarily. Given this novel’s roots in Chinese classics and folklore, it’s the perfect way to write it; He mentions that the original epic of the Three Kingdoms had a tendency to put historical figures on a godlike pedestal, and this felt like a tongue-in-cheek response to that style.

The pacing of this novel also sealed the deal for me; although it was a little difficult to get into right out of the gate with how the world and its characters were so rapidly introduced, once it got going, the pace never faltered. Every action felt calculated, like the strategist that Zephyr is, and each choice elevated the plot to heights that I didn’t expect Strike the Zither to reach. The main twist was so deftly executed, and it had me grinning from ear to ear when I came across it, and my excitement never waned over the course of this novel. This one’s a must-read, trust me.

All in all, an impressive display of Joan He’s talent on all fronts. 4 stars! I can’t wait for the rest of the duology!

Strike the Zither is the first book in the Kingdom of Three duology; the sequel, Sound the Gong, is set for release in October of 2023 (!!!). Joan He is also the author of Descendant of the Crane and The Ones We’re Meant to Find, both of which are standalones.

Today’s song: