SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Song of the Crimson Flower by Julie C Dao

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Song of the Crimson Flower by Julie C Dao https://t.co/K5MYrkU0U0 Short Review: 7 out of 10 (1/3)

— Josh (garik16) (@garik16) January 16, 2020

Short Review (cont): A YA fantasy romance story set in an East Asian inspired world (first seen in Forest of a Thousand Lanterns), Song of the Crimson Flower is well executed at its heart, but too short and lacking in substance to be anything great. (2/3)

— Josh (garik16) (@garik16) January 16, 2020

Song of the Crimson Flower is the third novel from author Julie C Dao, after Forest of a Thousand Lanterns (Reviewed Here) and Kingdom of a Blazing Phoenix (Reviewed Here).  Those novels were a duology marrying Vietnamese stories to the classic fable of Snow White and the Evil Queen.  They were firmly in the category of YA/Middle-Grade novels, but again, they worked really well and I enjoyed them quite a bit.  Song of the Crimson Flower is set in the same universe as the duology, but is entirely stand alone and so I was interested to see how it would work out for me.

The answer is that this novel is enjoyable, and definitely works for a YA/Middle-Grade novel, but is far less interesting than the duology in how it plays out.  It's a short novel, with the main plot element, a romance between our two protagonists and a curse that can only be broken by a declaration of love, being rather predictable, but executed just well enough to work.  There are some interesting side issues regarding the ethics of some of the actors involved, and the villain poses an interesting quandry, but the book isn't long enough to really examine these issues.  So yeah, this is a fine book for YA/Middle-Grade audiences looking for something not so Western in origin, but otherwise, adult readers will not find much here.


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Lan is the young daughter of a noble in the Kingdom of he Sacred Grasslands, one of the Kingdoms of the land of Feng Lu.  For years, Lan has been betrothed to Tam, the son of another noble family, but Tam has repeatedly put off the marriage in recent years, to Lan's immense disappointment.  But for a while now, Lan has seen him come to her window late at night on his boat and play romantic melodies at her with his flute, to her great joy.

But Tam doesn't want anything to do with Lan, and Lan's mysterious visitor instead is the orphan boy Bao, adopted by Tam's family as a child and serving as an apprentice physician.  Bao has always been deeply in love with Lan, but when he finally confesses the truth to Lan, Lan is distraught at Tam's betrayal and rejects him.  And so Bao does the only thing he can think of: he runs away.

Or tries, for his running takes him into the path of the River Witch, who curses Bao to be tied to his flute, only able to manifest if around someone he truly loves.  And if Bao is unable to have that person confess their true love to him by the next full moon, he will forever be stuck in flute form.  It is only thanks to Lan coming back for Bao, and trying to make amends, that Bao can even take human form temporarily, and so the two go on a journey to the rebellious Grey City, searching for the witch and a chance to break the curse.

But Bao has a connection to Grey City, which is on the verge of war with all of the rest of Feng Lu over its manufacture of a dangerous addictive drug.  And so not only will Bao and Lan have to find a way to break the curse, but they will have to fight to stay alive to even have a chance to do so.....
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Song of the Crimson Flower is the story of Bao and Lan, and accordingly the story alternates between their perspectives throughout (although some chapters are told consecutively from the same character's perspective).  A few characters from the prior duology reappear, but they are mainly on the periphery, and the story is mainly about the romance, with Bao's family issues and issues over ethics of medicine (more on that below) taking side roles.

So it's a good thing that Bao and Lan are solid characters.  Lan is the more basic of the two, as her story is mainly about her trying to move forward from her disappointment and realizing how wrong she was about Bao, and finding the courage to move forward and act in ways to help both Bao and others.  But she's written fairly well and it's easy to empathize with her and root for her to make things right.  Bao is more interesting, as he has to deal with the rejection of Lan at first, his feelings towards his parents who seemingly abandoned him, and his feelings as an apprentice physician about trying to help those of the lower classes.  Together the two's romance forms the core of this book and it works rather well, with the book's short length allowing it not to feel too slow.

Still, there isn't much else in the book.  There's a secondary romance between ancillary characters, but that's always on the side of the plot and only serves to affect Lan's worldview.  More interestingly, there's the conflict between Bao and the main villain, the leader of the Grey City, and the ethics difference between their works as physicians and the use of dangerous drugs and experiments.  But the main villain's madness regarding her methods render her ideas too clearly as wrong to be that interesting of a conflict, and the book isn't long enough to truly explore these ideas.

But overall the romance works, so the novel works for the most part.  Still, unlike the duology, there isn't much here since it's kind of predictable for the most part for more adult readers.  But for YA and Middle Grade readers looking for non-Western stories, this is a solid choice.