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July 21st, 2015
King by Ellen Oh
I'm obviously feeling a lot of emotions right now.
For those of you unfamiliar with the Prophecy series, it is a trilogy of books that center around Kang Kira, a women destined to save the world.
The prophecy finally played itself out:
Seven will become three...
Three will become one...
One will save us all...
Before I go further, I want to say, I feel as though this is a feminist/womanist book. I mean that as a compliment. If you're a reader who can't handle a woman who is vulnerable yet strong, to have gender roles challenged and turned on their heads, or just prefer damsels in distress, this book is probably not for you.
If you'd rather live in a bubble, where patriarchy is never challenged, this book is probably not for you.
If you can't handle a woman of color saving the day, this book is probably not for you.
Now that I've said my piece, let's get started on the review.
We start where Warrior left off, right after the Fulang attack. Between being the Dragon Musado, the warrior of destiny meant to save the world
Some serious -ish is about to go down, and I mean REALLY go down.
Kira's journey has been nothing but tortuous. Upon finding her cousin, Kira finds her Tiger spirit slipping further and further away, until she comes to a point where she feels powerless.
In other words, like the rest of us. Since she's been alive, she's been nothing short of exceptional. While being a woman didn't exactly earn her respect, very few could argue that she was gifted in more ways than one. But as her powers fade, everyone, including Kira herself, begins to question whether she actually is the Dragon Musado.
The trilogy ends with a bang. If you've started from book one, and am here with me, you'll get your conclusion settled by the end of this book.
The world building is the same, as well as many other conflicts that came from day one. If you want Kira to go out swinging, she definitely does with King.
I think the only complaint I had with the storyline was Kira's love triangle, and the way the death of a main character was handled toward the end. I think I sometimes like love triangles, but Kira seemed like a woman who was better at making up her mind than most heroines, so I kinda thought she was above that, but Kira still is young. She doesn't have to commit to someone now. Im just merely stating I didn't connect to the triangle, because it seemed as though it wasn't a fair one ^_^
Most of the points about editing and such still stand much like the first two books, so no complaints there.
The book is pretty friggin' diverse considering all it's characters are Korean(or inspired by an ancient Korea). It wasn't just diverse as far as race, but I think it was diverse as far as it's depiction of women as well.
There were a blend of different types of femininity in the book. Much like book two, there were strong women who were what our society might deem "lady-like" but there were also women like Kira, who didn't limit themselves to traditional gender roles.
It's hard to tell girls they can be anything or anyone, when there are no examples showing them they can be anything. Add in being girls of color, and it becomes even more limited to overcome these obstacles set in place by a patriarch society.
This is a story you can read to a little girl, and show her all the multi-facted ways she can allow herself to be, without restrictions or limitations. A book like King, or any book in the trilogy for that matter, seems like a real confidence boaster, especially for girls of color, and ESPECIALLY for girls of Asian descent.
I still think Book Two was my favorite! But even though I was sad to say goodbye to the trilogy, Im glad that I was able to finish it, and that a generation of girls have so many awesome books to look forward to reading, that girls of my generation didn't.
I've already fancasted these characters in my head in past posts =)
You can view Prophecy: Book 1 here, and Warrior: Book 2 here!
But you can purchase King, and it's predecessors here!
For those of you unfamiliar with the Prophecy series, it is a trilogy of books that center around Kang Kira, a women destined to save the world.
The prophecy finally played itself out:
Seven will become three...
Three will become one...
One will save us all...
Before I go further, I want to say, I feel as though this is a feminist/womanist book. I mean that as a compliment. If you're a reader who can't handle a woman who is vulnerable yet strong, to have gender roles challenged and turned on their heads, or just prefer damsels in distress, this book is probably not for you.
If you'd rather live in a bubble, where patriarchy is never challenged, this book is probably not for you.
If you can't handle a woman of color saving the day, this book is probably not for you.
Now that I've said my piece, let's get started on the review.
We start where Warrior left off, right after the Fulang attack. Between being the Dragon Musado, the warrior of destiny meant to save the world
Some serious -ish is about to go down, and I mean REALLY go down.
Kira's journey has been nothing but tortuous. Upon finding her cousin, Kira finds her Tiger spirit slipping further and further away, until she comes to a point where she feels powerless.
In other words, like the rest of us. Since she's been alive, she's been nothing short of exceptional. While being a woman didn't exactly earn her respect, very few could argue that she was gifted in more ways than one. But as her powers fade, everyone, including Kira herself, begins to question whether she actually is the Dragon Musado.
The trilogy ends with a bang. If you've started from book one, and am here with me, you'll get your conclusion settled by the end of this book.
The world building is the same, as well as many other conflicts that came from day one. If you want Kira to go out swinging, she definitely does with King.
I think the only complaint I had with the storyline was Kira's love triangle, and the way the death of a main character was handled toward the end. I think I sometimes like love triangles, but Kira seemed like a woman who was better at making up her mind than most heroines, so I kinda thought she was above that, but Kira still is young. She doesn't have to commit to someone now. Im just merely stating I didn't connect to the triangle, because it seemed as though it wasn't a fair one ^_^
Most of the points about editing and such still stand much like the first two books, so no complaints there.
The book is pretty friggin' diverse considering all it's characters are Korean(or inspired by an ancient Korea). It wasn't just diverse as far as race, but I think it was diverse as far as it's depiction of women as well.
There were a blend of different types of femininity in the book. Much like book two, there were strong women who were what our society might deem "lady-like" but there were also women like Kira, who didn't limit themselves to traditional gender roles.
It's hard to tell girls they can be anything or anyone, when there are no examples showing them they can be anything. Add in being girls of color, and it becomes even more limited to overcome these obstacles set in place by a patriarch society.
This is a story you can read to a little girl, and show her all the multi-facted ways she can allow herself to be, without restrictions or limitations. A book like King, or any book in the trilogy for that matter, seems like a real confidence boaster, especially for girls of color, and ESPECIALLY for girls of Asian descent.
I still think Book Two was my favorite! But even though I was sad to say goodbye to the trilogy, Im glad that I was able to finish it, and that a generation of girls have so many awesome books to look forward to reading, that girls of my generation didn't.
I've already fancasted these characters in my head in past posts =)
You can view Prophecy: Book 1 here, and Warrior: Book 2 here!
But you can purchase King, and it's predecessors here!
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