SONG OF THE SIX REALMS by JUDY LIN
A REVIEW by ALEXA DUNCAN
Hello, dear readers, and welcome back to your regularly scheduled book reviews! I took the summer off to focus on summer reading, but now that it’s over, I’m back to reading and reviewing. The first book of our new reviewing era is Song of the Six Realms by Judy Lin. This Chinese inspired fantasy novel follows Xue, a talented qin player (here’s a qin if you don’t know what it is) who meets a duke and is promptly whisked away to his manor to help him solve the mystery of the death of his shifu and Xue’s uncle. What follows is a fantastical and gorgeously written story full of Chinese mythology and beautiful poetry.
Song of the Six Realms is Lin’s third YA novel, and as a reader, I could tell. I enjoyed this more than her first duology, which starts with A Magic Steeped in Poison. I didn’t love that book. In fact, I didn’t even finish it. Not for any particular reason, it just wasn’t…my cup of tea. Sorry. Bad joke. Anyway, Song of the Six Realms is a vast improvement over Lin’s first two
novels. Mainly because of its setting and worldbuilding. While the book is slow to start–Xue is just playing her qin and wandering around the home she was raised in–it picks up after she’s taken to Duke Meng’s manor.
Duke Meng is another interesting character. The Rochester to Xue’s Jane Eyre, if you will. I liked how awkward he was around Xue at first. Their dynamic was interesting–even if I thought their romance was lackluster. There are a few side characters here that don’t do much for the story, but like I said, this is a book you read for the setting and the prose itself, not the characters. The setting is lush and beautifully described. Lin clearly has a way with words and knew exactly how to describe Xue’s surroundings. I liked Duke Meng’s manor as a setting. It’s eerie and isolated and adds a dash of the Gothic to the story. I also loved how intricite the world is, even if I got a bit confused at times. The plot itself is fine, though the ending is a little odd and I didn’t love how things wrapped up. It felt unfinished, in a way, and could have benefitted from a few extra chapters or a prologue.
Overall, Song of the Six Realms is a pretty YA fantasy novel perfect for readers looking to get more into Chinese mythology. You can pick up a copy at the Oreana Library today!