Lilibet Bombshell's Reviews > The Water Outlaws

This book had all the components of a great LGBTQ+ Asian folklore remix turned into an epic high fantasy with great wuxia battle scenes: Great worldbuilding, interesting characters, a great plot, fantastic prose, fantastic battle choreography, and the exposition is deftly woven into both the narrative and the dialogue and never dumped.

So why am I rating this book three stars? Because this book simply failed to make me care about any of it. There were so many characters I never got a chance to get invested in any of them, we got to the home of the Liangshan bandits and I didn’t ever feel very invested in their mission, we didn’t get to meet the Emperor until close to the end of the book so whether or not he actually cared about what his subordinates were doing was always a toss-up (at least to me), and I truly didn’t understand the character of Lu Junyi. I didn’t understand her motives, her goals, her aims, or her emotions. To be honest, there are so many characters it feels as if we don’t ever get to feel any of their emotions unless it’s pain, anger, or anxiety.

So what I felt like I read was a plot-and-atmopshere driven slog of a nearly 500 page novel I felt no investment in. I didn’t care what happened to anyone in it or what the outcome was.

So why did I keep reading? I genuinely like Huang’s prose, her worldbuilding, her imagery, the battle scenes, and the work she was doing with alchemy and physics. It was interesting enough for me to slog through. I wouldn’t read it again and I personally don’t recommend it.

I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you. Personal policy dictates that this review will not appear in my social media accounts due to receiving a rating of three stars or less.