Note: Song of the crimson flower follows on from the events in Forest of a thousand lanterns and Kingdom of the blazing phoenix but it can be read as a stand alone novel.
Lan is a young woman waiting for the day that she marries Tam, the young man she has been promised to. Tam is her perfect match, he may not be a nobleman and the son of a minister like she is, but his father is a physician and equally wealthy. She has known Tam her whole life, and has come to enjoy the secret visits he makes at night to play her a special song on his flute. Tam is so much more than Bao, the orphan taken in by Tam's family - a man child who is all awkward manners and gangly limbed. Lan tries to be patient as she waits for Tam, but when Bao professes his love for her and tells her a startling truth Lan lashes out at Bao and sends him running straight into a terrible fate.
While running from Lan's anger and her hateful words Bao runs into the mythical river witch and when he asks her to help him forget she curses him instead. Bao is tied to his bamboo flute in the most brutal way possible and he is doomed to fade into the instrument forever - unless someone who truly loves him can save him in time. Wracked with guilt about her hateful words towards Bao, Lan is desperate to set things right and when Bao reappears and tells her about the curse she is determined to help free him from his fate - even if it means defying her father and travelling to a far off city. As they journey towards their destination they find new friends, uncover secrets, and discover more about themselves than they would have ever thought possible.
Finding authors with a fresh voice can be challenging, especially when you read a lot - so it was a real treat to discover Julie C. Dao and her Forest of a thousand lanterns duology. It was a world that was well developed and had a sense of 'realness' that partly came from Dao drawing on her Asian heritage. When I discovered Song of the crimson flower I was a little reluctant to pick it up as I was worried that a single, stand alone novel would not be able to deliver the power and strength of the original duology - but was I ever wrong. Although the cast of characters may be smaller for Song of the crimson flower, that smallness improves the story rather than taking away from it. All the rich background mythology is there, the relatable characters are there, and the sweeping story is there - it is just a more intimate experience rather than a sweeping epic story.
There is a certain amount of predictability to the storyline because that is the nature and style of the story, but there are surprises along the way and it is so well written that you don't really notice. Updated fairytales and traditional stories has been a popular genre over the past few years and it is a real treat to find a story that is both familiar and richly reimagined with a mythological/cultural background that makes everything fresh and new again. Hopefully this is not the last we have seen of Dao and her world building.
If you like this book then try:
- Kingdom of the blazing phoenix by Julie C. Dao
- A court of thorns and roses by Sarah J. Maas
- Girls of paper and fire by Natasha Ngan
- Spin the dawn by Elizabeth Lim
- Sea witch by Sarah Henning
- The glass spare by Lauren DeStefano
- The girl of fire and thorns by Rae Carson
- Not even bones by Rebecca Schaeffer
- Court of fives by Kate Elliott
- Cinder by Marissa Meyer
- Warrior of the wild by Tricia Levenseller
Reviewed by Brilla
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