Adriana Reads

It wasn't bad. It was just totally unmemorable. The characters lacked depth and the narrative was not particularly compelling. I wonder if perhaps this book has been marketed incorrectly. It might work better as a YA novel than a straight up historical novel.

There was a lot of potential, but the execution fell short. Part of the problem was in choosing to tell the story in the first person from the perspective of a naive 17 year old girl. More detailed stories of the grandparents and the great-uncle would have been nice.

Also, I'm not particularly knowledgeable about the Chinese uprising and how it affected neighboring countries, and this story did those events a huge disservice by casually glancing on it as it did. Again, more detail would have been nice in addition to far more depth to the character in question - his history, his family's history, his ambitions, motivations, how did his actions impact his friends and family back home?

Honestly, the more I think about The Moonlight Palace, the more irritated I get at how little it actually told me.