First of all, I loved this book to bits. One of my best reads this year. I loved all the characters, they were really like-able and well developed. The romance was very nice and made me love them so much. I would recommend this to all my friends who like reading ya or fantasy. 5 out of 5 stars, I love this book.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley and am voluntarily posting a review. All opinions are my own.

Song of Silver, Flame Like Night is the start to a new duology by Amélie Wen Zhao, and I feel like she’s definitely finding her feet a bit more in publishing with this series. I had mixed feelings about her first series (to the point where I still haven’t read book 3), but I like where this series is going so far.

I love the inspiration in Chinese history and myth, with Zhao explicitly mentioning wuxia and xianxia stories from her childhood as inspiration. These elements, from the way China’s imperial history were incorporated to the clan structure, make the book stand out, even amid its peers in Asian inspired fantasy. And to further explore the passage of time, with the impacts of colonization, gave it a bit more a distinct, modern feel in that regard. And while it can be dangerous to mysticize qi (looking at you, Mulan (2020)), Zhao’s qi-based magic system is well-rendered, especially in its duality and balance of yin and yang.

As far as characterizations, the story does still utilize some familiar YA tropes. And while I found myself feeling very mixed about them in her first series, I feel Zhao managed to more effectively inject her own style into them this time around. Lan particularly drew my attention due to how the current colonial regime impacted her, essentially stealing her name and identity when they killed her mother and oppressed her people. Zen is a practitioner of magic with a dark past of his own. I really liked seeing them connect over their respective experiences with trauma, and found their romance pretty believable.

As this book is rather long, it is a bit of a slower burn. However, it is well paced for the most part and doesn’t lack for action or intrigue. And it builds up to a cliffhanger, leaving me eager to continue, and anxious for the next book.

This is a solid start to a new series, and I’d recommend it to anyone who enjoys Asian inspired fantasy.

Song of Silver; Flame like Night by Amélie Wen Zhao
“She would take it. She would no longer be the flower. She would be the blade.”
~~~
Words can’t describe my thoughts for this book. It held so much emotion, so much power. It felt so different as well from her other series Blood Heir Trilogy. I have never watched a K-drama but as I read this; I had one playing out in my head with so much detailing and enthusiasm.
Any person could tell that the setting and plot had a lot of thought going into this. Then for the characters, their chemistry was fantastic. Let’s also not forget the comical side to this book, the banter between the two; I love me so good banter. Along with the slow burn, I turned into a giddy little girl with it sometimes. Sometimes I couldn’t stop smiling even when I wasn’t reading the book, I was thinking of certain parts.
Then the ending broke me, I won’t go into detail. But it broke me, with one line. One scene, I crack like an egg. I stayed up one night till 3am to finish it, thank the gods I didn’t have to work the next day. But I stared into the abyss after that. *insert The Grinch* gif. Just do yourself a favor now. Preorder this book and be prepared to read it in Jan. For some of you, you may need tissues, just a warning.
But thank you Amelie Wen Zhao, Random House Children, Delacorte Press, and the GetUnderlined booth at YALLfest for letting me have access to a physical copy to my favorite author. *side note: yes when I got this in my hands at YALLfest. I cried like a absolute baby. Don’t judge me*

firist of all, the cover of this book is so gorgeous
second, this book was amazing. the characters were all likable and well-developed, and the romance was absolutely swoonwrothy I would highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys reading ya or fantasy, because they will definitely like it as much as I did
overall 5 out of 5 stars

Song of Silver, Flame Like Night is one of the best books I have read this year. Zhao was able to make a poignant commentary on colonization and its effects on the colonized while maintaining a beautifully created world and fully-fleshed-out characters. I loved the writing style, which was very lyrical and seemed to flow across the pages. The main characters Lan and Zen were perhaps my favorite part of the book, with Lan's sometimes stubborn personality bringing a lot of flavor to her character and Zen being a true morally grey character.

I only found the book to be just a little bit tedious in the second half. The first half moved very quickly, establishing plot, characters, and motivations, but the second half seemed to slow down a lot more and I was sometimes a little bit bored.

Overall, this is a novel I would definitely include in an in-classroom library to give my students a great option to read!

I have mixed feelings, personally, on Zhao’s epic fantasy. My undergrad was EAS (strong emphasis on China) and I felt some of the world building was tedious and academic. I would have loved to have seen a glossary of words to support readers. The East vs West themes were also very strong in such a way, that parts of character motivations seemed shallow.

For the story, I loved it. Until I realized we weren’t concluding the story in 1 book. It’s not that I didn’t like the story, either, but it was a lot to absorb.

Based on the epilogue, I WOULD like to read the sequel and would recommend to others to read. However, I wish this had been a one-and-done book or a longer book.

The world building is beautiful. I could see this being a popular pick from our libraries, especially with the beautiful cover.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for the ARC.

I did not expect to like this as much as I did. Well, as someone who mostly reads fantasy like this I did but I didn't expect it to quickly become one of my favorite books of the year. The world was absolutely beautiful, with an incredible magic system and amazing characters. This book was beautiful and I'm beyond excited to read more books from Amélie, with the way she writes it was easy to be pulled into this story and I ended up finishing it extremely quickly once I picked it up.

I loved reading about Lan and Zen's journey, however, I found the first half of the story to be more enjoyable than the second half; it also felt very similar to Spin the Dawn with the involvement of demons, etc. and the second half felt like I was reading its sequel (Unravel The Dusk), which I did not enjoy as much as the first. Overall, this was a very enjoyable book and would definitely read the sequel.

Amelie can create a world like no other. She is intricate, detailed, and immersive. Her worlds leap off the page and fantasy lovers will fall in love with her characters and settings.

However, the pacing dragged a bit for my taste. Whether it was just the fact that I’ve been out of fantasy for awhile, or something else, I still think this book will be great for a lot of people.

At some point in my life I watched many dramas with beautiful universes and fantasy worlds. Well, none of them matched the feeling this book gave me. It was so beautiful written, lyrical in some ways, I felt it deeply in my heart how much research the author put to make this worldbuilding so vast and unique.

I love fantasy, I love romance, I love everything that have to do with forbbiden love and powers who can bent a person will and make him go beyond repairs to protect the ones he loves. This book is about sacrifices, about the helpelness that comes when all you ever wanted is to protect and keep alive the ones you love. Is about a found family and cherish good memories, about lost, about making new friends.

The book was well written, with such a complex worldbuilding and characters that are so real, so vivid, so true to their nature. I loved Lan, definitely she's becoming one of my favorites of this year, as she was just a mere girl trying to protect the one she loved. She's been thru a lot and she still knew how to smile, how to love. Zen had my heart since the beginning and I felt bad for him so many times I can't count them on my fingers. All he ever wanted was to protect them, to love them, and that is something I can only admire. Ya, maybe he took bad decisions but he made them only thinking of the greater good.

I don't think there was a single thing that happened that wasn't answered. The cover itself made sense at the end of the book and I loved what that meant. After all, because of the cover I fall in love with this book. I simply saw it and I knew it I want to read this book. And good that I did. It was mindblowing, such a roller coster of emotions and feelings.

In a world here their people doomed them, these people found in them the power to do good, to do better. This is a book you need to read to fully understand my words and love for it. I recommend it to everyone who loves fantasy. Who loves forbbiden love. Found family. Found friends. Powers and gods and demons.

This was a DNF for me, A lush world glimpsed through the pervasive yet unbelievable romance was intriguing, but never reached. The antagonist was so overpowered that it seemed all geared to set up sequels, but reading the first book was a slog. The characters beyond the main pair are NPCs, there to offer a hint or quest to the leads, or to die dramatically to set them on their way. The leads are flat as well, and the magic system incoherent in what seems to be an effort to remain true to Chinese mythology without being set in China. Read Joan He's Strike the Zither instead, and put this one on the return shelf along with Last of the Talons.

If I could give this a million stars I would. HOW PHENOMENAL! I loved Amelie’s other series and couldn’t wait for this. This blew my expectations out of the water. The qi based magic, the weaving of Chinese folklore into this fantastical world. I loved it and can’t wait for book 2.

Thank you to Netgalley and Delacorte Press for sending me an early copy of this book! All opinions are my own!

Hello and welcome to one of my new favorite books of all time! That's it. That's the review. It's literally so amazing from start to finish that the last thing I wanted to do was put it down. The world immediately immerses you and is so unique that it was unlike anything I've read before, even when it takes so much from Chinese lore and legend, with yin and yang and qi being the basis of the magic system. I wanted to know more not only about the characters, but I wanted to understand how the world worked and the intricacies of qi.

The characters are so relatable even from the beginning, and I loved watching their growth. I can't say too much more about that without spoilers, but the journeys they go on are so touching and heartbreaking at the same time, and I can't wait to see where it goes next.

The plot kept me essentially screaming, and the last 20% of the book turned into me just switching between crying and screaming and gaping with an open mouth. The plot twists were things that I absolutely did not see coming, and they were so well revealed for the maximum effect.

When I finished the book, I felt empty and wanted to stare at the wall for 2 hours. That's how you know it's good!

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I was so grateful to have received an ARC of this book; I was so excited about this one! Also, the cover is absolutely STUNNING. Overall, I gave this book three stars, but I don't think it was a "bad book". I think there was some content that I don't typically enjoy (just little things like one or two comments about body shaming/thinness, things like that- again, this is just something I don't enjoy seeing in books, but does not mean I think the book was bad!). The plot was really interesting and definitely thickened near the end of the book; the concept was really unique and well-done, but I just don't think this book was entirely for me. There were some points of the plot that moved more quickly than others and could have been fleshed out a bit more, but overall I had an enjoyable time reading this book. The plot twists in this book were great- I truly didn't see them coming! I think the plot will really be built upon in the sequel(s) and will give the author a lot of great possibilities to build upon. Again, thank you so much for the opportunity to read this!

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

Loved that this book is influenced by Chinese mythology, the world is beautifully described. Lan and Zen's relationship is interesting; her a headstrong song girl, him a reserved magic practitioner, each with their own secrets waiting to be "unleashed". Their personalities may clash at times but they continue to care and put trust in one another. As much as I loved learning about the mythology, there was a LOT of history that is covered. At times, it felt like it slowed the effect of a scene with action or suspense.

All in all, I really liked this story and will probably read again, especially in anticipation of the next book.

Song of Silver, Flake Like Night is fantasy novel by Amélie Wen Zhao. It centers around a young woman who has to navigate her life after a foreign entity conquers her homeland. With her family gone, Lan, our main protagonist, must learn how to survive when she learns more and more about the circumstances around her mothers death.

This book is great for people who enjoy fantasy books with world building and magical systems. Amélie mentions in an excerpt before the book that the plot honors the stories and legends told to her as a child by her grandmother. This comes off really well in the book.

SoS, FLN tackles the concept of colonialism really well and the way an entire culture and people can just be replaced and taken over. I found the magic system intriguing and it was incorporated into the plot really well. Our two main leads, Lan and Zen, were fun to read about and you can see their clear character development as you progress through the book.

I don't understand who this book is meant for. When I got this eARC, it was sent to me by Random House Children. However, there are themes in this book that would suggest its adult. While at the same time the banter between characters at times felt middle grade. Overall, it felt like it's meant to be young adult. Through these inconsistencies of who the audience of this book is meant to be, we loose momentum when it comes to the overall book and character development.

I felt like the beginning of the book and the world building could have been flushed out more. It would have made the middle of the book less confusing. The ending was extremely well done and makes me intrigued to see what happens in book 2. However, the lack of development in certain areas throughout the books leads plot choices at the end to not hold as much weight as they might of if the plot was flushed out more.

Overall, Song of Silver, Flake Like Night is an overall compelling fantasy book. However, slight bumps in the road make it so that you can't fully immerse yourself in the story like you would want to. I would still recommend this book to people who enjoy fantasy books, especially people trying to get into the fantasy genre.

Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin Random House for giving me an eARC of Song of Silver, Flame Like Night!

3.75 stars


This is an advanced reader’s copy from NetGalley. Lan and Zen are two of the most tragic characters I’ve read in a long time. This book was deeply engrossing and it did take me a while to read but the lore was so deep I wanted to make sure I really understood all of it before moving on. I am eagerly awaiting the next installment despite this novel not even being out yet!!

If you loved Daughter of the Moon Goddess, The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea, the Poppy War, or Six Crimson Cranes, consider picking up this incredible and lyrical fantasy that follows a girl into a world of magic and danger.

Thank you to NetGalley for sending me an e-ARC of this book for early review!

With a luxurious writing style and intricate magic system, Amelie Wen Zhao carefully transports you into the world of Lan, a songgirl with a devastating past and future, learning the ways of a world previously only known to her in folktales and superstition. Meeting the first practitioner of magic ended in her mother's death and the invisible seal on her wrist. Meeting the second practitioner, Zen, leads to bloodshed, but this mysterious figure is able to see the seal on her wrist and sense the magic within her.

Together, these two magic users will set off on a journey to escape from evil Elantian soldiers and magicians, making for the Hin sanctuary of a practitioner school, all while the mystery of Lan's seal unravels around them. The Winter Magician who killed her mother tracks them ceaselessly, and it is up to Lan and Zen to make it out alive.

I greatly enjoyed this fantasy story filled with Chinese myth and legend. I am excited to see how the series will continue and I definitely recommend it for fans of political drama, mythology, and slow-burn romance.

I don't know where to begin: Lan and Zen, you have my heart!

This book made me realize why I love fantasy all over again. The world building was easy to follow and the descriptions were very detailed and vivid to the point I felt like I was watching a Chinese drama in my head from start to finish. The magic system was quite unique: Hin practitioners and Elatian magic with metal. Love the plot twists and character development 80% toward the book until the end.

Lan was a refreshing and bright girl who I really enjoy reading her POV. She was snarky and witty with comments here and there-made me enjoy the book even more!
Zen- He was the opposite from Lan, but in a cute way. Always smart, practical, and follows the Way- but when it comes to Lan, he opens up little by little and is very protective of her. Even towards the end of the book.(He gives me Sasuke vibes for those who watched Naruto series)

Demon gods, colonialism, secret-school and society jam packed into one book- it was a fun ride and great execution.

If you like The Poppy War series, but in YA version, this book is just for you. I’m looking forward to the sequel!
I gave this book 5/5 stars!
Thank you Netgalley and Random House Children publisher for this Arc!