Book Review
Title: Empress of all Season
Author: Emiko Jean
Genre: YA/Fantasy
Rating: *****
Review: I knew Empress of all Season focus on a tournament of some sort that revolved around the seasons and it was based on Asian mythology, but I wasn’t prepared for this synopsis: “Each generation, a competition is held to find the next Empress of Honoku. The rules are simple. Survive the palace’s enchanted seasonal rooms. Conquer Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall. Marry the prince. All are eligible to compete—all except yōkai, supernatural monsters and spirits whom the human emperor is determined to enslave and destroy. Mari has spent a lifetime training to become Empress. Winning should be easy. And it would be if she weren’t hiding a dangerous secret. Mari is a yōkai with the ability to transform into a terrifying monster. If discovered, her life will be forfeit. As she struggles to keep her true identity hidden, Mari’s fate collides with that of Taro, the prince who has no desire to inherit the imperial throne, and Akira, a half-human, half-yōkai outcast. Torn between duty and love, loyalty and betrayal, vengeance and forgiveness, the choices of Mari, Taro, and Akira will decide the fate of Honoku.”
The first perspective we are introduced to is Mari’s as she faces a samurai, I am not sure what this purpose is whether it is to train or whether she is actually an executioner of sorts. However, we do learn of Mari’s yokai form and how skilled she is despite her human appearance. We are then introduced is Taro’s, he is the son of the Emperor and the prize in the competition, however, Taro won’t let his hard-won freedom be taken from him so easily. As the synopsis states, the competition bares on yokai from competing and Taro’s father is slowly ridding their lands of yokai, but Mari is going to compete. The brief glimpse of the Winter room and how a yokai responds to it tell us of the hardships that lie ahead for competitors.
We learn that Mari lives in a village filled with yokai in the mountains, and her people are ruthless. They trick men into giving them riches in order to survive and only baby girls born to yokai women are allowed to survive. When Mari’s best friend Hissa gives birth to a boy and refuses to give him away Mari is faced with the ruthless and cold society in which she lives. Taro also holds a deep sympathy for yokai, but he can’t let it show, he knows what this costs. Finally, we are introduced to Akira, a half human, half yokai boy who is madly in love with Mari and her friend. He is also the keeper of her secret; Mari’s mother send people for her to kill but she only maims them and then with Akira’s help she sets them free. Each and every one of these characters is forced to pursue a destiny that none of them want for themselves, which is saddening, and I have a feeling that this novel is only going to get sadder.
I did like how the story is broken up with little bits of history surround yokai and Honoku, the story of the first Empress of all Season was very enlightening and may even hint at what is to come. As Mari sets off on her week-long journey, we also learn that Akira is planning to do something to prove that he is worthy of Mari’s affections while Taro is also planning is escape for his destined bondage. When Mari arrives in Tokkaido, the Imperial City she is faced with the lives yokai are forced to will and while she wants to help her self-preservation keeps her from doing so, the whole before the self as she was always taught. However, it was nice that Hiro, a Ronin paid to escort her along with Masa, was the boy she freed years before, the first person she was ordered to kill be her mother. For saving Masa he gives her a life debt that he might be repaid later in the novel.
As we cross the ¼ mark in the novel, we learn of the Resistance which in the past has just been small bands on yokai fighting back against the Emperor, however, there is a rumour of someone called the Weapon Master gathering a yokai army which Akira wants to join but he is drugged before he gets anywhere. Meanwhile, Mari actually meets Taro and she intrigues him enough to put his escape plan on hold and he even hopes she wins because she has no desire to be Empress. The first test Mari faces in the Summer Room, where she must find 1 of 10 scrolls by solving a riddle. While this seems easy enough, there are hundreds of girls competing, and some are just as skilled as Mari. The Summer Room itself doesn’t seem like much but these rooms have minds of their own, and the rooms pick the girls as much as anything else, the weak are the first to go. Mari is beginning to realise this competition is going to be harder than she thought as she finished in 10th place not what Mari or I was expecting.
As we approach the halfway mark in the novel, Mari prepares to face the fall room which doesn’t seem to bad since she has found some allies in Asami and Nori, however there is more going on behind the scene as a priest unchains 5 oni which kills all but four of the girls; Nori, Asami, Mari and Sachiko. Satoshi, a priest also learns that one of the oni has strange wounds which are probably from Mari, but it also seems that a few of the girls were killed by another competitor not anything in the Fall Room. With only two rooms left to face; Spring and Winter, Mari seems to be doing ok, but it is plain to see that without some help from others she wouldn’t have got this far. Between the competition chapters, we follow Akira and his training with the resistance with the weapon he has chosen when the shuriken or throwing star.
As we cross into the second half of the novel, I was really enjoying the story and how it merges mythology with the underlying story of rebellion and unrest regarding the treatment of yokai. We also see that Mari isn’t the only yokai competing as Asami is one and Nori might be one also. I have Sachiko pegs for the murders of the other girls as she seems the silent and deadly type. There are two sides of this story waiting to explode as the Weapon Master has a spy within the palace, in the competition with instruction to win no matter what and if she doesn’t, they will storm the palace. However, Akira knows Mari is in the tournament and has to protect her no matter what. Meanwhile, Mari finds herself falling in love with Taro and he is beginning to love her to the point where he is willing to burn if she is the fire, but she has secrets to keep hidden at all cost. However, Taro is nothing like his father and if Mari wins the tournament and marries Taro then they could change the world.
As Mari learns there is more going on than the competition through Asami, she knows that even once the tournament is finished it will not be the end of her fight. As she emerges the sole victor of the Winter room, she now has to face the Spring room alone. However, I was wondering how Mari is going to protect Taro from the coming fight without revealing that she is a yokai and how her choice of the prince will affect Akira who is helping the Resistance, will it drive him to kill Taro or will Mari be forced to kill her friend in order to save the man she loves? As Mari is declared the winner of the tournament Akira relays the information to the Weapons Master who plans to storm the castle. He tells her that another yokai won the competition as together they can kill the prince and the Emperor inside the palace walls before morning and the Master agrees. However, we know that there is no way Mari is going to hurt Taro and she will be forced to pick a side, but if she chooses Taro there will be a war as yokai storm the palace at dawn if Akira doesn’t complete his mission.
As we approach the ¾ mark in the novel, the revolution begins, and all Mari dreamt of, all of her hope crashes down around her when she realises what has been set in motion. However, Mari can’t think of Taro at this time because she needs to warn her family and get them to safety, the whole before the self. With other yokai, they begin heading towards the home Mari had always dreamt of escaping.
As we cross into the final section of the novel, the ending wasn’t what I was expecting but I loved it, I was expecting this to be a series, but it turned out to be a standalone and while I loved it I did want so much more from this universe and these characters. I especially wanted more from Taro and Mari, I would have loved for them to be married, have the wedding night where Mari falls pregnant but doesn’t find out until the very end. There was also so much more potential in the rebellion idea that could have turned this into a duology or even a trilogy, but I am very happy with what we got in the end. This book will definitely make you cry but in a good way.
Buy it here:
Paperback/Hardcover: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
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