Empress of all Seasons, Emiko Jean | Book Review

This enchanting book grabbed my eye as soon as I saw it and continued to impress me. Often compared to The Hunger Games, this book is fast-paced and full of action!

Empress of all Seasons, Emiko Jean

Themes: Fantasy, young adult, romance, magic

Reading Format: Paperback

4 STARS

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“Do not let your fear decide your fate”

This quote and theme ran throughout this beautiful book, which is a story about choosing your own path. Based on Japanese legends, this book follows Mari who has to face four seasonal rooms that had Hunger Games like challenges to become Empress. She is part of a dejected group in society, creatures that are alienated by humans called yōkai, enslaved if they are caught by humans. There are different types of yōkai, Mari is an Animal Wife, whose purpose in life is to seduce men and then steal their wealth. Mari’s clan believe she has not been blessed with the beauty usually seen in the Animal Wives, so she has a different task. Instead of seducing a man, Mari is to win the tournament to become Empress, something she has been training for her whole life. Instead of using her looks to steal a man’s fortune, she is to use her skill.

Mari’s challenges in this tournament are in the form of four rooms, named after each season. To start with hundreds of girls were going up against her, this was then narrowed down to ten and then five. Each room was made to break the girls, to try and make them loose and in some cases, to kill them. This is why this book is being compared to The Hunger Games and these scenes are also the ones I enjoyed reading about the most. Seeing what Emiko Jean’s imagination could bring together to be a danger for the characters was great fun.

The whole way through this book is the mention of the paths each character can take. We meet many, many new characters in this book, all of whom’s paths change when they intertwine with each other. They decide their own fate in the decisions they make throughout this book. A brilliant example of this is Akira, Mari’s best friend from home, a half-human half yōkai male called The Son of Nightmares. Akira follows Mari when she leaves to try and become empress and in doing so discovers his own path and a cause he wants to fight for.

This book was so well written, it completely drew me in and made me not want to put it down. We saw glimpses of other characters when the narrative perspective changes on some chapters, which allowed us to know more about Akira and Taro (the Emperor’s son). Ultimately both of these characters had their flaws, but this only made Mari look even more kick arse. She was a character with morals and beliefs, but also with dilemmas and hard decisions to make, which made her all the more real to read about.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Empress of all Seasons and would highly recommend it.