rainwaterspark (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rainwaterspark) wrote2017-08-31 05:25 pm
rainwaterspark) wrote2017-08-31 05:25 pm
Review: The Epic Crush of Genie Lo
The Epic Crush of Genie Lo by F.C. Yee
I almost didn't read this book because of the summary. I saw "teenage girl with powers, demon invasion, infuriating and mysterious Hot Guy love interest" and immediately went "I've seen this summary 34567829 times before, zzzzzzzz."
I guess the summary was so vague because they literally didn't want to spoil anything about the story, but, I mean...knowing the spoiler (really a mild spoiler since it's revealed early-ish) would've made me go "OMG SIGN ME THE FFFF UP FOR THIS BOOK"
(Or if someone told me this was the Percy Jackson equivalent for Chinese mythology, since that's a pretty apt comparison and I love PJO.)
Like "Sun Wukong as a teenager in California fighting demons" would've made me drool for this book. (I am honest to goodness nostalgic for my Journey to the West cartoon DVDs after reading this book.)
Anyway, this book has epic humor (it reminded me of Rick Riordan's style a LOT, though it was slightly less Middle Grade), relatable Chinese diaspora experience, a great heroine who's allowed to be angry and powerful, and [spoiler redacted - see cut above].
If there was anything I didn't like, it was just that I was confused since the pinyin seemed to be slightly inconsistent—"Lo" is generally a Cantonese last name/romanization, yet Genie seems to be Mandarin? It was a weird inconsistency given that everything else about Chinese was spot-on.
I wanted to address one more thing, though, which was that one early review I saw for this book claimed that the love interest (Quentin) was a stalker. Which initially really turned me off from this book.
However...I'm sensitive toward that kind of thing, and yet I found that to be an unfair assessment of Quentin. To put it simply: There's a big difference between "stalking presented as romantic behavior" vs. "the guy starts out stalker-ish but then stops when the girl tells him to."
Epic Crush falls into the latter example. I honestly think it's not a bad thing to have that kind of narrative, because it conveys the idea that guys can learn to be not creepy and respect a girl's boundaries. Plus, Quentin's behavior seems to be a combination of "fish out of water" (on multiple levels, to boot) and interactions that, well, made sense to him in context, but came off as overly-familiar to Genie since she didn't have the same information that he did. It's clear throughout the book that he has a lot of respect for Genie and follows her wishes.
I almost didn't read this book because of the summary. I saw "teenage girl with powers, demon invasion, infuriating and mysterious Hot Guy love interest" and immediately went "I've seen this summary 34567829 times before, zzzzzzzz."
I guess the summary was so vague because they literally didn't want to spoil anything about the story, but, I mean...knowing the spoiler (really a mild spoiler since it's revealed early-ish) would've made me go "OMG SIGN ME THE FFFF UP FOR THIS BOOK"
(Or if someone told me this was the Percy Jackson equivalent for Chinese mythology, since that's a pretty apt comparison and I love PJO.)
Like "Sun Wukong as a teenager in California fighting demons" would've made me drool for this book. (I am honest to goodness nostalgic for my Journey to the West cartoon DVDs after reading this book.)
Anyway, this book has epic humor (it reminded me of Rick Riordan's style a LOT, though it was slightly less Middle Grade), relatable Chinese diaspora experience, a great heroine who's allowed to be angry and powerful, and [spoiler redacted - see cut above].
If there was anything I didn't like, it was just that I was confused since the pinyin seemed to be slightly inconsistent—"Lo" is generally a Cantonese last name/romanization, yet Genie seems to be Mandarin? It was a weird inconsistency given that everything else about Chinese was spot-on.
I wanted to address one more thing, though, which was that one early review I saw for this book claimed that the love interest (Quentin) was a stalker. Which initially really turned me off from this book.
However...I'm sensitive toward that kind of thing, and yet I found that to be an unfair assessment of Quentin. To put it simply: There's a big difference between "stalking presented as romantic behavior" vs. "the guy starts out stalker-ish but then stops when the girl tells him to."
Epic Crush falls into the latter example. I honestly think it's not a bad thing to have that kind of narrative, because it conveys the idea that guys can learn to be not creepy and respect a girl's boundaries. Plus, Quentin's behavior seems to be a combination of "fish out of water" (on multiple levels, to boot) and interactions that, well, made sense to him in context, but came off as overly-familiar to Genie since she didn't have the same information that he did. It's clear throughout the book that he has a lot of respect for Genie and follows her wishes.