Review: Blood Heir

Blood Heir by Amélie Wen Zhao
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a 3-star "did not finish" review. My experience with this book is a huge mixed bag.

ARCs of this book led to a social media firestorm that bullied the author into withdrawing the book so that it could be fixed. Apparently, her expression of slavery as viewed through her inherited cultural traditions/narrative did not support a US-centric view of slavery. I'm not sure if the book was changed/edited from the ARC version.

The general hook for the book was good enough for me to want to read it even though YA oriented works aren't my primary (or even secondary) interest. Bought the book. Made it roughly halfway through.

The author did a fantastic job of creating a unique fantasy world with reasonably consistent rules for the fantasy elements. She also did a good job of developing characters that are compelling and interesting. I hung in there for a while just based on the main characters.

Unfortunately, the story was devolving into "wish fulfillment" territory. The final straw for me was when the one protagonist began to adjust his behaviors simply because the other protagonist was....something. Strong? Moral? Pretty? There certainly isn't a justification for the apparent change in his behavior other than "isn't she special".

A backward look at the narrative revealed several things that happened just because it served the narrative rather than because the characters had skillfully/cleverly managed an obstacle.

I think there is a lot in this book that make it worth reading....if all the reader is looking for is a light read that doesn't require a lot of deep thought.

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