In the Vanishers’ Palace
Ratings13
Average rating3.7
*In a ruined, devastated world, where the earth is poisoned and beings of nightmares roam the land...*
*A woman, betrayed, terrified, sold into indenture to pay her village's debts and struggling to survive in a spirit world.*
*A dragon, among the last of her kind, cold and aloof but desperately trying to make a difference.*
When failed scholar Yên is sold to Vu Côn, one of the last dragons walking the earth, she expects to be tortured or killed for Vu Côn's amusement.
But Vu Côn, it turns out, has a use for Yên: she needs a scholar to tutor her two unruly children. She takes Yên back to her home, a vast, vertiginous palace-prison where every door can lead to death. Vu Côn seems stern and unbending, but as the days pass Yên comes to see her kinder and caring side. She finds herself dangerously attracted to the dragon who is her master and jailer. In the end, Yên will have to decide where her own happiness lies—and whether it will survive the revelation of Vu Côn’s dark, unspeakable secrets...
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This was both interesting and weird and finally, let me unsure about my feelings for the book. The Vanisher's Palace was kinda cool but the magic system with words was pretty confusing. The characters were okay but I liked the twins more than the MCs or their romantic plotline. And I think I'm having quite a bit of bad luck that I keep picking up these books with contagious diseases or viruses during the pandemic - so if you wanna read this novella, this is probably not the right time.
I loved the representation though - a sapphic romance, an all Vietnamese cast, multiple characters using they/them pronouns and in general, nobody's gender is assumed. I think my rating is definitely more for the inclusiveness of the world as well as the idea of the story. Maybe I could have connected to it more if the story was longer.
There's a lot to like in this post-apocalyptic fairy tale: Bio-tech as magic, Dragons, romance, a bit of coming age, and things that made me think of Ghibli forest gods. Recommended.
