HMH Books for Young Readers, 384 pp.
Published November 6, 2018
Each generation, a competition is held to find the next empress of Honoku. The rules are simple. Survive the palace’s enchanted seasonal rooms. Conquer Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall. Marry the prince. All are eligible to compete—all except yōkai, supernatural monsters and spirits whom the human emperor is determined to enslave and destroy.
Mari has spent a lifetime training to become empress. Winning should be easy. And it would be, if she weren't hiding a dangerous secret. Mari is a yōkai with the ability to transform into a terrifying monster. If discovered, her life will be forfeit. As she struggles to keep her true identity hidden, Mari’s fate collides with that of Taro, the prince who has no desire to inherit the imperial throne, and Akira, a half-human, half-yōkai outcast.
Torn between duty and love, loyalty and betrayal, vengeance and forgiveness, the choices of Mari, Taro, and Akira will decide the fate of Honoku in this beautifully written, edge-of-your-seat YA fantasy.
You'll LOVE it if...you're looking for more fantasy inspired by Asian cultures.
There's been a surge of non-Western-European-inspired YA fantasy novels not only reaching shelves lately, but receiving a lot of publicity and reader attention as well. It looks like a trend that will continue well into 2019—yay!—but there are several novels bringing a strong finish to 2018 as well. Empress of All Seasons draws from Japanese history and mythology, bringing yōkai—demons, monsters, and ghosts—to life alongside emperors, samurai, and ninja. Jean fuses the real and fantastic almost seamlessly; vignettes that treat mythology as the true origin story of Honoku intertwine humans and yōkai from the beginning of time. The inspiration is obvious without feeling derivative. Jean clearly drew from a culture and history she loved, while still crafting an original world. (There's also a handy glossary at the back of the book for any words you may not be familiar with. Not every YA novel bothers to include this, and I was very grateful for the opportunity to learn and understand a little bit more than when I started reading!)
You'll LIKE it if...you appreciate colorful writing.
An imperial palace. Mythical beasts and demons. A quartet rooms enchanted to emulate the four seasons at their most treacherous. So many magical elements require equally magical writing, which Jean delivers. The dialogue and inner thoughts can sometimes feel stilted, but Empress soars when describing the diverse creatures and settings that occupy its pages. Even when the story faltered and ventured into familiar plot territory, it was still a pleasure to get lost in the descriptive writing that brought Honoku and its inhabitants to life.
You MAY NOT LIKE it if...you're tired of the same YA clichés.
You don't have to look very far to find a lot of overused YA tropes in Empress of All Seasons. A girl with average looks and a set of skills other than those prized by her community enchants the most desirable boy without trying. She's caught between this unexpected adoration and the devotion of a friend who might want more. Oh, and there's even a "bury your gays" moment even more offhanded than JKR's surprise announcement that Dumbledore way gay, and it contributes even less to LGBTQ representation. If tropes like these didn't sell books we would see them much less often—publishers do need to make a profit, after all—so someone out there really enjoys them. And that's fine! But if you're like me and getting tired of watching the same story unfold time and time again, then Empress of All Seasons might be a bit of a chore to finish. You can wrap a gift up as prettily as you like, but if I've already got five more sitting at home, that beautiful presentation doesn't make all those duplicates vanish into thin air.
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