Okay so I don't think cozy fantasy is my thing, but I also don't think cozy fantasy is always this bad? Like the characters were poorly done, the pacing was wack, and there was potential, it just wasn't achieved. The things I do for sapphics....

this book felt like a fever dream (compliment)

i don’t have much to say about this book—which feels weird. on paper it’s something i’d love: i’ve been really enjoying historical fiction lately + it’s an animal story! i love animals! but i just always felt kept at arms’ length from the characters (which could be either due to the translation or the fact that my mental health has not been that great lately and i just feel a bit numb overall). good book, great one honestly, but just not for me at this time.

I found the contents of this book very valuable and informative.

I have some issues with the form though. This is essentially a collection of transcribed speeches and interviews. I think it would be a lot better if it was edited into a more standard book. Several times, I felt like I was lacking context, because “yesterday” or “last month” was referenced. It was a bit confusing. Another issue I had was that some stories and examples were exactly repeated several times. Which makes sense, when you remember that these are just exact transcribed presentations, of course Davis would repeat stories. But it doesn’t make sense in a book. I also found it annoying to have to listen to things like “oops I’m over my time now, I just have one more page to get through”(paraphrasing).

So all in all, I think I could’ve gotten a lot more out of this if it was presented in a different way.

This was an exhausting read that had me putting it down for months before finally picking it up again. Part 1 dragged quite a bit, and so much was happening at once that I felt like I wasn’t retaining anything, which left me feeling lost.

When I eventually decided to continue with the book, I actually ended up enjoying the experience. Parts 2 and 3 were much smoother to read, even though some sections still dragged. At times, I really loved the poetic prose used to tell the story. I went into the book blind, and it took me quite a while to realize that it was fiction rather than a memoir.

This felt like the kind of book that needs to be read in one sitting to fully grasp what’s going on. At the same time, however, certain parts dragged, and the prose occasionally made it difficult to follow.

Beautiful prose, excellent concept and execution, my biggest issues was that I loved Zhu so much that I kind of skimmed Ouyang's parts.... (which is entirely a me problem lol). So many lines in this book were so well written and stood out to me, and I really hope more people read this book because it was so good. Imagine if history was sick as hell. Perhaps there was some glorification of violence but I'm supporting it because nonbinary wrongs.