The Bookish Mindset

Overview:

Title: The Night Ends with Fire
Author: K. X. Song.
Published: July 2024
Genre: Fantasy
Themes: Female rage

One sentence summary: A Mulan retelling with the grit and determination of a woman told she can’t do something.

One sentence review: Absolutely glorious.

Review:

Disguising yourself to enlist into the army may seem like a drastic way to avoid being sold for a dowry, but truly it’s Meilin’s only choice to escape.

You’ll know of Mulan’s story through the animated Disney film and while you’ll definitely find parallels, The Night Ends with Fire definitely feels like Mulan’s grown up, grittier sister that is still kicking and screaming into reality. Song explains that this doesn’t end as the animated version does, this one has real endings and consequences.

K. X. Song’s debut (An Echo in the City) made a splash but this follow up is an absolute tidal wave. This book and it’s main character fit perfectly into the female rage theme and I loved it. It had anger and determination and damned stubbornness and I felt that the whole way through.

The story gripped me from start to finish, I felt Meilin’s pain and anger from the get go and I held it with as the story peaked and crescendoed. I sped through it, racing to know its ending, all to be confronted with a harsh truth – minor spoiler – that the story will be continued!

I loved the involvement of magic and other realms, it brought more to the story than your standard retelling and I really appreciated it. The cover design and end papers are also absolutely stunning.

To sum up the theme of the book nicely, let me share with you a quote that stood out and stung:

“They would never let a woman hold onto power”

If you’d like to get yourself a copy, you can support local bookshops while doing so on Bookshop.org with this link here.

If you like what you’ve read and would like to access more content, I’d love if you could take a look at my patreon and consider supporting my content on there too.

And don’t forget to check out my other blogs and reviews – you can find books with similar themes in the same folder link below, or click back onto blogs to see the whole offering.

Last updated 11/11/2024