Thank you to Christine Li and NetGalley for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

I love books that interweave fantasy and mythology. Abalone and the Snake Goddess had a very strong premise and the use of fantasy was well thought out. Unfortunately the pacing was off and the first person narrative didn’t work well with the main character. I unfortunately had to dnf. Rating it two stars as it has great potential!

Abalone and the Snake Goddess by Christine Li is a Chinese Romance Fantasy novel that follows the daughter of a great mage, Abalone, who feels unwanted and unloved by her husband, the Elder Master. Desiring her husband’s affections, she seeks out the Snake Goddess to invoke a spell that will give her what she desires.
This is a book that is frustrating to review because there is so much potential within these pages that would intrigue lots of fantasy readers, however, the storytelling falls victim to a severe lack of editing that would have polished everything into place.

The best traits of this novel include the use of Chinese mythology to create the fantasy atmosphere. I found myself super intrigued and eager to learn more about the world, and to even do my own research on some of the mythos mentioned. It was also really nice to witness magic as having a cost. It reminded me a little bit of alchemy and how nature always has to have a balance so that magic cannot be used strictly for personal gain. The consequences and the truth have their way of being known, sometimes like a strong fucking gale. Lastly, the look at racism and bigotry, especially with respect to disabilities, were curiously thought-provoking.

Even with these titbits, the writing ended up becoming the book’s biggest frailty. A large chunk of plot-building and necessary structure wadding occurs in the second half of the work. The majority of this information, if presented much earlier, would have provided improved context, narrative flow, and groundwork for things to come.

The introduction of the main character is also another point of frustration. While the snippet does provide us with basic information on the physical disabilities of our protagonist, it wasn’t described nearly as neatly as said snippet. If you’re someone who goes into the book without reading a full synopsis, which is what I do with most fantasy titles, then the beginning can cause plenty of confusion as her disabilities and physical challenges were not described or defined in a cohesive manner at all. This puts together a foggy and uncertain foundation for things to unfold upon.

Abalone and the Snake Goddess has an excellent concept and fun use of fantasy characteristics. It simply needed the right editor to help iron out the kinks and knots to make it a bit more fluid and tenacious. With that proper attention, this would have been a strong addition to the romance fantasy genre.

This was an interesting historical China inspired fantasy. While I loved the inclusion of wise women, shamans and the concept of immortals that was the primary focus, the execution of the novel just fell rather short for me and for good reason. 🙁

The story follows Abalone, a lonely wife who desires the affection and attentions of an absent husband. She never really evolves from her one track goal to regaining the love of said husband, but the adventures she goes on to gain it just felt random to me throughout the story. That and while it’s hinted at what her past was before her current situation, it was never expanded on nor explained why she had to go through what she did. I just wish we had gotten more insight on the otherworldly beings present here as well as the Snake Goddess of the Yue.🫙

I did see that there was another book called Abalone and the Silent Tiger but apparently it’s only in German and judging from the mediocre translation I could do of the synopsis, it looks like this is the origin story for her? Rather odd that this was offered first before the other one because her journey her might’ve made more sense if I had know what she was doing in the first book. 🤔

With that being said, my review here is kind of skewed because of the revelation of a previously unknown prequel. Before knowing this, I thought it was promising but needed a few tweaks to make the plot more understandable, but now that I know of the other book. . . . Maybe it’s okay? 🤷🏻‍♀️

I’m gonna have to work on my German to see if I can understand ANYTHING of the first book, but for now thank you goes out to @bookwhispererink for recommending this to me! I’m a rather confused intrigued but more of in a positive way now. 😅

Publication date: January 22!

Overall: . . . . 3?/5 ⭐️

I was hooked from the cover and description and so glad I was able to read this. It had that mythical fantasy element that I wanted and enjoyed in this type of book. I was engaged with the magic of it and worked with the plot. The characters were everything that I wanted and enjoyed getting to read this. Christine Li wrote this perfectly and was glad I got to read this.

Thank you NetGalley and Inanna Media. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I absolutely loved the idea of this book from the blurb, but sadly it was hard to get through. Abalone is mute and has amnesia, and it takes you a while to figure that out. It makes the first half of the book very confusing, because we don't have the worldbuilding to explain things that are happening. I was completely lost, and it felt like part of it was flashbacks, but it wasn't clear at all. It felt like we were drifting through fog while grasping for bits of plot.

I thought she was a young woman for quite a while, until it started talking about her having children in the past. Her mindset, and reactions make her feel like she is a pre-teen or a child.

The first half is incredibly slow, but it does pick up a lot in the second half. I did enjoy the folklore, and learning about the social aspects as well.

*I received an eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

The concept of this book really intrigued me: I love books that blend fantasy with mythology, and there was a lot of that here. We follow Abalone, the daughter of a great mage, who is now mute and married to the Elder Master. She doesn’t feel that he wants her, so she sets out to weave a spell with the help of the Snake Goddess to make her husband want her again.

The positives first: the use of mythology was great, and the commentary on racism and bigotry was really well done. I enjoyed the back half of the book a lot more, where we get to really delve into the consequences of the spell Abalone has cast, and the truth of her past.

Unfortunately, therein lies my biggest issue. I felt that everything that happened in the last half could have - and maybe should have - been brought forward much earlier. The plot really doesn’t kick off until over halfway through, and it made it hard to want to keep reading.

I think the writing was broadly pretty good, and a lot of the secondary characters were fairly well-formed. However, our main character felt disjointed and I felt disconnected from her, despite this being in first person narrative. I understand that she seems to be suffering from some sort of amnesia, but I still felt a real difficulty understanding some of her motivations. I also had to keep reminding myself that she is most definitely an adult, when she honestly comes across as a teenager a lot of the time, which is the jarring when certain things are revealed.

Overall, I don’t think this was objectively terrible, but I do think it would benefit from some restructuring and a little more editing, particularly the first half.

I have to dnf this. I can't really get into the story and i don’t really understand what's going on here. I'm sad because when i heard that it was a Chinese mythology, i wanted to read it right away, but as it turns out, it's just not for me.

Abalone and the Snake Goddess by @cchristine_l is the story of a woman with a powerful magic sealed away along with her voice and memories.
Abalone wants nothing more than to create a spell jar to make her husband truly love her but in doing so she winds up on a journey to save a birthing mother, a lost child and most importantly her true self. This book dives into the bigotry that is still prevalent even now between darker skin toned people and their more fair counterparts as well as the inequality between men and women. Christine also does an amazing job with the imagery used when describing a woman's cycle not as gross or taboo but of something that holds magic and power which was so striking to hear and really pulled me in to the story even more. Abalone and the Snake Goddess is available for purchase January 22nd of this year so add it to your goodreads tbr now!
Thank you to Christine Li as well as @netgalley and Inanna Media for sending me an eARC of this book!

Abalone and the Snake Goddess is an entry into the growing sub-genre of fantasy based on mythology, and on that front, it performs well, mixing Chinese mythology into a fantasy novel set in pseudo-historical China. However, I found the story to be somewhat disjointed and hard to follow; I did feel that it got better as the book progressed. A large part of the plotline is based on the main character's inability to speak aloud, but that inability was unclear in the beginning of the novel, which caused some confusion. Plot points that were brought in early during the novel faded out without resolution, which made the overall plot difficult to discern; likewise, some later plot points were not well-supported at the beginning of the story, so seemed to appear out of nowhere. It's not a bad story, but it would benefit from an editor's review.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book provided by Netgalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I feel awful but I could not finish this. I was just so lost in what was going on.. I thought it would be a very interesting read. I loved the idea of the story line. I just didn't grasp a thing. I am sure there is an audience out there that this is great for, but it was not my cup of tea.

I don’t usually read fantasy novels but this one sounded interesting due to the Chinese mythology. I DNFed at around 30% as I was struggling to follow what was going on. Our heroine, Abalone, seems to have amnesia so she’s confused by reality. As she’s the narrator of the story, this in turn led me, as the reader, to be rather confused as to who she was, whether she was human or another creature, and generally what was happening. It took me a while to realise that Abalone couldn’t speak. There’s definitely a good story here but I just wonder whether another round of edits might bring it to full fruition. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

this definitely wasn't for me but i do think there is an audience for it. this weaves chinese mythology, folklore, and history - i loved that aspect. i also think the author did a great job of building the atmosphere and the world of ancient china. however, for my own personal taste, i felt like the pacing of the story was too slow and the writing was a bit dense which made it hard to keep up with.

“Abalone and the Snake Goddess” is by Christine Li. I will say that I’m not the audience for this book, but the summary sounded very interesting so I thought I’d give it a try. Ms. Li does a good job weaving the magical/fantasy and Chinese folklore together. I found myself mixing up a few of the characters, but that’s probably more on me, not the author. I think if you’re one who enjoys folklore mixed with fantasy, this book could be more to your liking. A generous four stars for me because while the book didn’t work for me, I can see others really enjoying it.

Abalone and the Snake Goddess is such a good book. I wasn't expecting it to be so perfect! I rated it 5 stars because I loved the experience of reading it.