Empress of All Seasons / Emiko Jean

Title / Empress of All Seasons

Author / Emiko Jean

Published / 2018

Page no. / 384

Overall Rating / ★★★.5

Empress of All Seasons is a standalone YA fantasy book influenced by Japanese culture and folklore. It is set in a fictional world that is inhabited by humans and yōkai (supernatural beings) and it follows Mari, a young yōkai, who joins the competition to become the next Empress. 

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• The world is a well written one and I loved the influence of Japanese folklore.  Jean has done a fantastic job at creating a complex and unique world that is so immersive from the very beginning.

• One of my favourite things about this book was the exploration of all the different yōkai. I knew a little about them when I started this book so it was really interesting finding out more about them.

• Although I enjoyed the plot overall, it felt a little bit rushed at times. I wanted it to be a bit longer so there would be more time for the plot, character development and depth to the world. I think this would have made a great duology, because it would have allowed for some things to be explored more.

• The characters are quite well written, but they lack depth. This book is under 400 pages long so there just wasn’t the time to really develop these characters. The romance was OK, but again it felt a little rushed and was overall pretty predictable. 

• The writing is good and I found it so easy to settle into the flow of the story. I was immersed from pretty early on and I found it to be an engaging read throughout. 

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Overall I enjoyed this book, but I think it definitely had potential to be even better. I would definitely still recommend checking it out though. Have you guys read this book? I’d love to know what you thought. I hope you are all having a wonderful day and I will see you next time.

 

 

 

Pippa