A Song to Drown Rivers

How many women throughout history were blamed for the weaknesses of men? We made such convenient scapegoats. We were raised to be small, to be silent, to take whatever we were given and no more.

I did not love this and it makes me sad, since I loved all of Ann Liang's YA books. Maybe it would've been a more riveting tale if you've never heard of Xishi's tale before, but if you do, then you've pretty much already read this book. It's the exact same story as the legend, just with some romance thrown in and it's not even that good.

If you want a good romance, this is probably not for you. The instalove is strong, and I simply cannot understand why Ann Liang would make it like this when she's written much better romance before. Xishi and Fanli spent only ten weeks together for her training, most of which is done off-page by the way, and she proceeds to yearn for him for the rest of the book. The problem is that he leaves not even halfway through the story, so not only there's barely any development in their relationship, but we don't even see OR learn much about him. Fanli being hot is not enough reason for me to grow as attached to him as Xishi was, so their tragic love story didn't make me feel anything either.

As for Xishi herself, she has so many issues. Her perspective is just so... flat and detached from beginning to end. She also lacks the ability to think ahead, which makes her a terrible spy who managed to accomplish her mission simply because she's the main character. The portrayal of her life as a concubine and the way she seduced Fuchai is just impossible to believe. Both Xishi and Zhengdan don't act like how women were supposed to behave in ancient China either, but were never called out on it. There's just something that feels weirdly modern from the tone of this book, and the mismatch with the settings can be pretty distracting at times.

Not going to comment much on Fuchai. He may not be the best, but he deserves better. The moment of his downfall is probably the only time I felt some semblance of emotion in the entire book, and that was mostly pity.

There are so many plot points that either felt like they were just slapped on to drive the story along, or never went anywhere. Like Susu. Or Xishi's heart condition. Or how Fuchai's perceptive and cautious advisor was reduced to a simple bully before he got discarded. I understand there were limitations, seeing that the book is only 336 pages long, but it's still a shame.

Beautiful ending though. Love the tragedy.