It's been a while since I read some fantasy, so I decided to try out Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan. I'm a huge fan of mythology-inspired fantasy, so it seemed like a good book to sink my teeth into. One month later, after getting caught up in reading other books as well as other life things, I finished the book last night...and I have a lot to say. Just a note of warning before you proceed any further, this review is not spoiler-free, although I've tried my best to not reveal anything major!
The plot follows Xingyin, the daughter of Chang'e, the Chinese goddess of the moon. If you're familiar with Chinese mythology, then you probably recognize the source material, the folktale Chang'e and Houyi. Here's the basic gist: Houyi was a legendary mortal archer who shot down nine of ten suns that had risen in the sky and were causing havoc on earth. As a reward for his bravery, Houyi was given an elixir of immortality by the Celestial Emperor. In the original story, Chang'e, Houyi's wife, ends up drinking the elixir in order to prevent his apprentice, Fengmeng, from stealing it for himself. Wanting to remain close to her husband even in immortality and deity, Chang'e chooses to reside on the moon¹.
The version of the story in Daughter of the Moon Goddess is that Chang'e is pregnant when she drinks the elixir to save her life during the difficult childbirth. She thus becomes an immortal, but so does her newborn daughter, Xingyin. As punishment for taking the elixir, Chang'e is banished to the moon, where she pines for her husband and her life on earth. Unbeknownst to the Celestial emperor and empress, however, Chang'e also brings Xingyin to live with her, hiding her existence from everyone, and Xingyin grows up on the moon with her mother and her caretaker, Ping'er.
Xingyin's existence is exposed when she accidentally accesses her magic, and she has to leave the moon to prevent a worse punishment for her mother. Unfortunately, enroute to Ping'er's family, where she's supposed to lay low for a while, she and Ping'er are attacked by Celestial Army soldiers, and Xingyin is thrust into Celestial Kingdom territory. Now she must come up with a way to survive in the Celestial Kingdom and free her mother from imprisonment.
Characters
This book is over 400 pages long, so you know there's a massive cast of characters. Key characters include:
- Xingyin, the main character and protagonist. We follow her journey from fugitive to First Archer of the Celestial army as she searches for a way to free her mother from imprisonment on the moon.
- Liwei, Crown Prince of the Celestial Kingdom. Intelligent and kind, Xingyin first meets him after an incident with her mistress at the Golden Lotus. She becomes his study companion at the Jade Palace, and they become friends. Their friendship soon transforms into a tumultuous—for lack of a better word—romance.
- Wenzhin, famed captain of the Celestial Army. Mysterious and handsome, he and Xingyin grow closer as they go through many battles together, and he eventually becomes a love interest. However, he's hiding a massive secret that will affect the course of their relationship ~forever~.
- The Celestial Emperor and Empress, parents of Liwei and the antagonists of the story. They're responsible for Chang'e's imprisonment, so Xingyin understandably hates them even though she loves their son.
Special mentions include Shuxiao, Xingyin's closest friend in the army, Minister Wu, who doesn't appear a lot in the novel but is an essential mover of the plot, especially in the beginning, and the Four Venerable Dragons.
Themes and Symbolism
One of the major themes discussed in Daughter of the Moon Goddess is family and duty, which is unsurprising given the culture woven through the story.
- Confucianism was one of the major schools of thought in ancient China, and one of its virtues is filial piety, which is the idea of respect towards parents and ancestors, as well as other societal hierarchies. Xingyin's main motivation throughout the story is freeing her beloved mother.
- Liwei struggles with following his parents' will versus what he truly wants for himself. Wenzhi seeks the approval of his own father. There's also duty to the emperor and national duty for Wenzhi and Xingyin, who are in the army, and Liwei's duty as the crown prince.
- These various duties and allegiances inform their decisions throughout the novel, whether for good or bad.
There's a lot of class struggle in the novel as well, especially in the first act of the novel.
- Society in the Celestial Kingdom is stratified, and even though everyone is an immortal, their social standing determines their magical power and abilities and how they're treated by other immortals.
- Xingyin is given a rude awakening of sorts in this regard; after escaping the moon, she has to disguise herself as an attendant in a mansion in the Celestial Kingdom called the Golden Lotus, where she's treated harshly by the other attendants due to her unknown parentage.
- Xingyin's lack of status is also an issue when she competes to become Liwei's study companion, and she literally needs his help to win, to the empress' chagrin. Even joining the army is the only foreseeable way for her to get the Crimson Lion Talisman and earn some recognition from the emperor.
- Shuxiao, Xingyin's friend, also has to join the army after spurning the advances of a powerful immortal lord. Since her family doesn't live with the other Celestials, they don't have a lot of influence in the court, so joining the army offers her family some protection from retaliation.
Another important theme is the pitfalls of ambition and desire for power.
- It's the emperor's desire for total control that leads to the civil war between the Cloud Wall and the Celestial Kingdom, as well as the imprisonment of the dragons. And again, his desire for power is what makes Xingyin retrieve the dragon pearls, leading to another conflict.
- Wenzhi's desire for the throne makes him betray Xingyin in order to gain the pearls.
- Xingyin joined the army to become more powerful so she could save her mother, and at the end of the book, in order to not become like the power-hungry antagonists, she decides to return the dragons' essences back to them, sacrificing her own life force.
I also noticed some symbolism in the use of plants.
- Osmanthus trees feature a lot in the novel, especially on the moon surrounding Xingyin's childhood home. According to Lan Su Garden Plant Talks, "In the Chinese calendar, osmanthus is the flower for the eighth month, and its blooming coincides with the Mid-Autumn Festival when the fall harvest is winding down and when the moon is especially big and bright²."
- Incidentally, the Mid-Autumn Festival is a celebration of Chang'e's story, so it's no surprise that the plant is associated with Xingyin and memories of her time on the moon with her mother in the novel.
- Peach blossoms also are referenced throughout the book, especially in regards to Liwei and Xingyin's relationship. The petals represent a "state of intense trance of love³."
What I Liked
- Xingyin. While she does have all the traits of a typical YA heroine, I found her character compelling and wanted to see her to win.
- The relationship between Xingyin and Chang'e. Chang'e is such an iconic character in Chinese mythology, and it was nice to see her humanized through her relationship with Xingyin. I wish that as readers we were able to spend more time with them, but what we got was really sweet and uplifting.
- The worldbuilding. I love how Chinese mythology and culture were intricately woven through every detail in the novel. There were no blocks of text full of info-dumps, which makes sense since Xingyin is as new to this world as we are and wouldn't be privy to a lot of information. So all the details came piece by piece, and it was a delight discovering some new aspect of the world. The magic system could've been explained some more, as it didn't really feel fleshed out and cohesive.
- The writing style was rich and immersive and fit in really well with the legendary and historical tone of the novel. It was descriptive and detailed. While the dialogue did sound a bit stilted at times, I didn't totally mind it.
What I Didn't Like
- The supporting cast wasn't as developed as I would have liked, especially since they got a lot of screen time.
- The love interests/love triangle got a bit too convoluted and I didn't really get a lot of depth from the Xingyin-Wenzhi connection to make me see them as a legit pairing. The love triangle started to interfere with the main plot after a while.
- Dragging middle and poor pacing. The story started strongly, and Act I is probably the best part of the novel for me, but the middle section of the novel got bogged down with what felt like filler. Key events felt rushed and glossed over as they were over in a matter of moments or narrated away by Xingyin or brushed over with time skips.
- A general lack of urgency and tension. A lot of the time, it felt like there were no real deadlines, so no urgency and no tension. Situations that were made to seem difficult were quickly resolved in moments because Xingyin was so good at everything. Seriously, she masters archery (even with the magic bow) AND magic in weeks, and we're not given any real reason why. Even at the end, we're made to believe that losing half of her life force is a really bad thing and that it will take years to recover it, but by the last few pages of the novel, we see that she's already recovering at a rapid rate, and all we're told is that it's because of the ~moon vibes~. She was even able to use her magic a few times afterwards, although we'd just seen how Liwei's healing magic didn't have the same effect on her that it used to, which was supposed to be problematic.
Concluding Thoughts
Daughter of the Moon Goddess was a story with a lot of potential that fell short in the execution. There's a sequel coming out, which I may or may not read. On the upside, this book doesn't end on a cliffhanger and is pretty complete on its own, so there's no pressure to continue on with the story. I do hope some of the questions and inconsistencies raised in this book are rectified in the next. I think this story is great if you're a fan of Chinese mythology and the xianxia genre and don't mind the usual YA fantasy flavoring.
Stay tuned for what I read next!
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