Member Reviews

My thanks to NetGalley and Orion Publishing Group for a review copy of this book.

This one is again a young adult fantasy–adventure, set in a world inhabited by humans and by yōkai (beasts, some of whom are part human, or have the ability to transform), the latter being subjugated by humans, kept in collars with all kinds of restrictions. Our heroine Mari, belongs to one group of yōkai, the Animal Wives, who are exceptionally beautiful and have a human form (with the ability to change into beasts at will), and who marry rich men and make away with their fortune. Mari not having been blessed with the looks of the other animal wives, her mother plans a different future for her. She trains her rigorously to win the ultimate contest, a battle against the seasons, held in the imperial palace to choose the bride for the prince, and in effect the next Empress of the land. On the other side, we have the prince Taro, who doesn’t wish to either be a prince, nor a ‘prize’ in a contest, and is happiest when he is with his inventions, working with metal to create various things. And we also have Akira, a half-human-half-ghost, who has been Mari’s friend and loves her but feels he needs to prove himself to earn her affections. This is a story that has many aspects of course, love, family, the contest, betrayal, and duty, but at the heart of it is the distinction/discrimination that one people makes against the other, and the consequences for them both, and for the world they (we) live in.

I had requested this fantasy title mostly because of the Japanese fairytale–folklore background to it, and I really enjoyed these elements—the story is told from the perspective of three characters, Mari, Taro, and Akira, but interspersed between their chapters are stories of the gods and goddesses, who face similar struggles, similar issues as we do, and must face the consequences as well. The elements of the seasons too were enjoyable (certainly a different idea), and the monsters pretty imaginative as well. From other reviews, I see a couple of criticisms of this book were on account of its plot being too similar to other books of this genre, and of the contest, which seemed like the main ‘event’ in the book so to speak, being too short a part of the book. As far as I first goes, I did see some similarities with other such books involving contests and such (The Hunger Games, for one), but since I haven’t read very many titles in the genre, it didn’t bother me too much. Plus, I actually rather enjoyed the plot, I wasn’t sure how things would pan out in the end, and in fact I really liked the ending of the book (definitely not a typical one). The pacing too was good—the book moves really fast (I’d probably have read it a lot faster, except that it was an e-book, and I am generally slower with those). Re the second criticism, however, I agree, the contest part did feel a little too short considering that was basically what everything was centred on. The characters too were quite likeable, though the ‘villain’ of the piece was pretty obvious, and the romance was just ok (while it was building up ok, again it felt like everything happens too quickly). But the central points of the story on discrimination whether against genders or against just different living creatures, I think stood out well and is one that can’t be made enough times. An enjoyable read for me, and certainly one that much more than just a fantasy–adventure!

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I was so excited to read this book, but it turn out to be a disappointment. The characters were flat, the pacing slow and the writing style not so remarkable. Only the worldbuilding was good, with Japanese myths and culture, but it wasn't enough to improve the story. What a pity.

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This book is like reading one long Japanese Proverb - the narrative often has hidden meaning, is full of illusion and has beautiful Japanese inspired world building. I adored Mari, the main protagonist, who truly fights for what she believes to be right - freeing slaves, releasing creatures from cages and hiding her own inner monster.

Mari is an Animal Wife, a Yokai. This book is full of folk-lore, interesting and unique creatures named Yokai; some of which hide behind a human face, like Mari, and each with their own rules and title. An Animal Wife is callous, deadly and manipulative. They lure men in with their beauty, but deep within is an evil cursed creature just waiting to steal their fortune and slaughter them in their beds. If that doesn't sell it to you, wow I really don't know what will!

Whilst the blurb will lead you to believe this book has Hunger Games vibes - a deadly competition in which there are four enchanted rooms to battle through, each of which represents a Season. I'm getting excited again just describing it to you! The winner who conquers all of the rooms will win a highly coveted prize - she will marry the Prince of Honoku (and plot to slit his throat in his sleep probably, because this isn't a happy book guys!). Except Yokai are not allowed to enter this competition - the Prince traps all Yokai in awful collars and enslaves them - so Mari will have to be very careful not to let her claws slip out.

I really appreciated that the story is quite evenly spread between the characters. Whilst Mari is undoubtedly the main protagonist, Taro (the cold Prince) and Akira (a half-human, half Yokai boy who loves her) have equally large chapters to build their stories and perspectives into the wider plot. This feels like an incredibly well-imagined and developed idea - the author must have put countless months of researching and planning into creating it and it shows.

Mari's relationships make up a small part of the plot - her mother in particular who is a cold, detached woman determined to see her destroy the Empire, has a really interesting relationship with Mari which I found refreshing. Equally, what might at first appear to be a love triangle really isn't - Mari is often ruthless with her emotions and I loved her straight talking nature.

For me, Akira is the character I felt most attached to. Outcast, ostracised and unfamiliar within his own skin, Akira really struggles with his identity - he is utterly compelling and I think represents a great deal of people who perhaps do not quite know where they fit; particularly considering his half-human, half-yokai roots. That feeling of belonging is what encompasses so many of our inner turmoils, and I just wanted him to find himself, at whatever cost, and be accepted. He has the most challenging journey, but he is most definitely the best character in this book.

A book utterly filled to the brim with awful supernatural monsters, corrupt creatures, betrayal and Japanese inspired beasties. How could you possibly resist? What an incredible book by Emiko Jean.

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I loved that this is a Japanese fantasy novel. The prologue and the first chapters were excellent, and I was hooked.
Our protagonist, Mari and she will compete for a chance to become the Empress. However, to become an Empress, she has to survive four seasons or four seasons rooms-Summer, Fall, Winter, and Spring. As if that wasn't enough challenge, she is a yokai ; a supernatural creature who are enslaved by humans.

I would have given this book four stars if the book wasn't so rushed. There was no character development. It would have been nice to hear more about the yokai rebellion. I expected some romance between the Prince and Mari, but that also felt rushed and fake.

Empress of Seasons left me unsatisfied. I liked Emiko Jean's writing and wish to read more of her works.

Thanks to Orion Publishing Group, Gollancz, Emiko Jean and NetGalley for the opportunity to read in exchange for an honest review.

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I try to never DNF ARCs because I want to give a full honest review. But where e-books take me little time, I've been dragging through this one for days. At 64% I give up.

I love that this is a Japanese fantasy novel by a Japanese person. I love all the yokai and finding out varieties I've never heard of before. I loved Hanako. I even enjoyed the gods sections.

But everything else was so dull.

I didn't feel for Mari, like Akira or trust Taro. So much about this book felt fast and predictable. I wanna have more good things to say but I just kept rolling my eyes.

This book wasn't for me but if you're looking for first steps into some Japanese fantasy then I would recommend checking this out. It opens your eyes to the yokai and that was awesome.

It's just a shame I didn't love the rest.

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Thank you NetGalley and Orion Publishing for providing me with a copy for review.

In Honoku, a competition is held every generation to find the next empress, a competition in which everyone except the yōkai are able to compete. Mari has been training her whole life to become an empress, despite being a yōkai, and is determined to win the competition whilst keeping her identity a secret.

This novel was a little confusing when I first started reading it as you learn all the concepts and get involved in the story, but it was brilliant once I got into it and started to understand what was going on better. The storyline is brilliant and takes the typical YA tropes and combines them with Japanese folklore to create a fantastic and unique story that feels like nothing I've read before.

The world and the characters, especially Mari, were all great and well-written. Mari is a very feminist character who seeks to enter the competition for herself and to show her own assertive strength, without concern for the romance. It gives a great demonstration of what women are capable of without falling into the 'I'm not like other girls' trap. 

Overall, it was a great story with brilliant characters and I'm so glad I got the opportunity to read this novel.

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I really love any book that has a sort of Japanese setting. I loved the Flame in the Mist series by Renee Ahdieh, so when I saw the premise for this book, I was really excited to read it.

The premise is very interesting. It mentions Yokai (sort of demon or supernatural type of creatures) that play a significant role in Japanese folklore.

Our hero of the story, Mari, is a yokai and she will compete to become the next Empress. To become the Empress, she will have to survive the four season rooms: Summer, Fall, Winter and Spring. She will compete against a 100 girls in total to grab the crown.
Now, yokai are actually collared and enslaved by humans and Mari is worried someone might find out she actually is a yokai.
I won't give away any further spoilers for the story.

I did like reading this book, but I felt that it was very rushed. There was hardly any character development and I would have loved to find out more about the yokai rebellion.
The romance between Mari and the prince felt forced and not believable. The last few chapters were incredibly rushed and did not leave me satisfied at all.

All in all, Empress of all Seasons is a good read, as long as you do not expect too much of it. I will give it 3 stars, mainly because I love the Japanese folklore setting.

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Empress of All Seasons sounded like a great book so I was eager to get reading. While it was an interesting read, it fell a little short for me. I loved the idea of the yōkai, and the games to win the title but it just didn’t grab me like I was hoping for. Akira was the character I liked the most I think, I was less enamoured by Mari and the others to be honest. Empress seems like a mish-mash of other popular franchise books, but it’s still a good read.

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I'm loving the move to more diverse worlds in YA fiction recently. This is the second Japanese inspired novel I've read this summer and I've loved both of them.

The Concept

The premise is very high-concept. What would happen if a magical woman whose very freedom is banned tries to win the hand of the emperor's son in a high-stakes contest? Mari is a yokai. She is an Animal Wife whose people seek wealthy husbands in order to take their wealth for themselves. Mari sets out to do her duty and try to win the hand of the emperor.

YA novels involving competitions are usually very predictable and what I loved about this story was that the contest didn't occupy every moment of the novel.

The Characters

Mari wasn't preoccupied with the idea of finding love through a game, like so many of the heroines of past stories. Instead, she was going to find herself and do her duty by her people. And that is exactly what she did. She is fierce!

The other characters are also fascinating. The emperor's son Taro loves to make mechanical creatures. Seeing the journey of his clockwork bird high into the sky as it crashed, trapped just as much as he was, was one of my favourite scenes in the first part of the novel.

Mari and Taro are the first two point of view characters. The third is Akira, Mari's friend and another yokai. He is known as the Son of Nightmares. The details about his origins felt real, adding depth to the world Emiko Jean has created. Even though I liked Akira, I didn't enjoy the chapters from his perspective quite as much. I wasn't entirely sure why. The other side characters, including Mari's maid Sei, were much more interesting to me.

The World
The world building in this novel was incredible. Japanese influences were blended with the existence of fantasy monsters to create a world that felt so real. The idea of priests who could hold back monsters through curses written on their skin felt so real, as did the mountaintop village Mari came from.

My favourite aspect of the world in this novel, however, was the rooms of the four seasons. Our first insight into the power of the rooms is early on, through Taro's eyes, when we see how one poor captured yakoi will be tortured on the orders of the emperor in one of the rooms. During the competition the competing girls have to make their way through the four themed rooms. In the Summer Room they will face punishing heat, with fires burning in the trees. In the Winter Room there will be snow and punishing cold. In short, the weather will be turned against them. It is described how nature will reward the competitors for their positive actions and turn against them for their mistakes. Some will kill for the chance to become empress, as Mari will find out...

The Message

I wasn't so keen on the lack of happy interludes that might have added a bit of lightness to the story. I know this novel was focused on the feminist message that Mari could gain happiness without seeking to please a man, which I really enjoyed, but I liked Taro's character too. I would have liked more scenes where they were together and perhaps a slightly less bittersweet ending for him.

Overall thoughts

The Empress of All Seasons was an exciting journey through an original world with characters that grew on me with each page. I'm going to give it an overall 4.5 stars, rounded up to five for Goodreads, as on the whole I loved the adventure Mari had. I hope Emiko Jean considers writing more novels set in this world as the worldbuilding was phenomenal and the experiences of the yokai were so engaging. I'm looking forward to seeing what she writes next!

Thank you to Orion Publishing Group, Gollancz, Emiko Jean and NetGalley for the opportunity to read in exchange for an honest review.

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