Not my cup of tea I am afraid - I can understand why some readers would love this but I just didn't gel with it sadly so had to DNF it.

The Three Hares has an interesting premise, but ultimately for me fell flat due to the quality of the writing. It focuses on a girl of Chinese heritage who is thrown back in time to Ancient China and caught up in a mystery, and though that uses a lot of tropes of MG historical fiction, I haven't seen it done with a Chinese focus before, so I enjoyed the elements of Chinese history built in (though I am concerned that this is not an Own Voices book). However, it doesn't read very well: the writing is clunky, the dialogue feels forced, and the pacing felt off.

Sara is meant to be 14 years old, but she speaks and acts more like a 9 year old. She is very naive and lives largely under her parents' thumb. Her interactions with her school mates before she time travels are so childish: when answering questions at a museum, she and her class rival pull faces at each other to prove how clever they are. It's behaviour I wouldn't expect to see outside of a primary school. There's also a pet bugbear of mine: teens no longer use the same textspeak as in the early 2000s. In the past, she continues to be surprisingly stupid, referring to modern concepts even after she becomes aware that she is hundreds of years in the past. She attempts to narrate the plot of Star Wars to a merchant; this is clearly attempting to be funny, but just comes off as bafflingly unaware on her part.

I also strongly disliked the fact that after the introductory section where we met Sara, we jumped for several chapters into the story of a seemingly unrelated character in a different time period. It throws away any momentum we have to find out what's going on with Sara. A short chapter's interlude could possibly have worked, but the lengthy break from the main story left me unmotivated to persevere. This was true for all the sections that focused on Shan Wu - I wanted to get back to the main narrative. Perhaps this would have worked better as alternating chapters, if the writers wanted people to be equally invested in both stories. The writing lacks flow, and there is a strong tendency towards not trusting the reader, as every single action is described, and there is no subtlety or complexity in the characters. Middle grade doesn't need to be lacking in nuance.

A great idea, but sadly lacking in execution.

"For the rest of the journey, Sara sat silently watching the road as the bus chewed through the traffic and swallowed the miles."

This book beautifully blends fantasy, various points of view and different times in history. Fast paced, and well written, this is the kind of adventure that compels you to turn just one more page. Sara is an authentic and complex main character, and her physical and emotional journey progresses in a satisfying yet suspenseful combination of events. And of course the cliff hanger at the end of the book leaves so many questions that I'll have to read the next book....

This is the first in what looks to be a series of three stories about a young girl reconnecting with her heritage. The story flipflops back and forth through various points in time, but the common thread throughout the entire story is Chinese history and culture. There is a lot to be learned within these pages!