The Last Dragon of the East is a fantasy romance (kinda) novel written by Katrina Kwan, a Chinese Canadian author, and is inspired by different Chinese myths - most notably that of the Red Thread of Fate that connects every person to their own "fated one" (soulmate). The book follows Sai, a young man who lives with his sick mother and can see people's Red Threads of Fate and who helps other people with that power by matching them up with their fated ones. Except Sai's own thread is mysteriously gray and frayed and when he is forced by the powerful Emperor out on a dangerous journey to find a legendary green dragon, Sai finds that his own thread is connected to that very same green dragon.
The result is a story that is really delightful, weaving in bits and parts of other Chinese Myths, an adventure to escape from the dangerous corrupt Emperor, and of course a romance between Sai and the Green Dragon Jyn. I said "kinda" romance above, because there really isn't the classic romance arc you usually see in a usual romance (Jyn and Sai are fated to be together as we know from the start after all), but the romance that we have here is very charming and enjoyable, helped along by Sai's voice and the excellent writing of Kwan. There are bits and parts here and there that are predictable and might not really make much sense if you think about it too hard, but I was so charmed by this novel that I didn't really mind.
More specifics after the jump:
Plot Summary:
For most of his 25-year-old life, Sai has lived a life where has largely kept his head down and not tried to make big waves in the world. His biggest care is his mother and the teahouse that his mother and late father once ran...and now, with his mother sick, that burden has fallen to him. But with the teahouse failing, Sai's only way to make enough money for his mother and him to stay alive (and his mother get her medicine) is to use his one special skill: his ability to see the Red Thread of Fate between a person and their Fated One. It's a skill Sai can't explain, but he's been able to use it to match up those who come to him with the ones who are meant to be with them. Alas, Sai's skill presents him with a puzzle as to himself, for the thread attached to Sai himself isn't red...but is gray and fraying, unlike all of the other threads he's seen.
But events soon conspire to send Sai out into the greater world against his wishes: first, he discovers that the only thing that may heal his mother are forbidden green dragon scales, and then he comes to the attention somehow of the dangerous Emperor....who threatens to kill Sai's mother if Sai doesn't follow through a single task: to seek out the last Green Dragon herself and bring her to the Emperor. It's an impossible task, but Sai has no choice, and soon he finds himself with the Emperor's army on his way to parts unknown, in search of what he believed to be only myth.
And yet as Sai goes into foreign lands, he feels for the first time his own gray thread tugging him in a direction, as if his fated one is near. And when he finds the thread tied to the Green Dragon himself, he will discover truths about himself and his own love that have been fated since time immortal...
The Last Dragon of the East is told in the first person voice of Sai, a protagonist who I found to be really charming and delightful. Sai carries this book, because Sai is honest, caring, and well accepting to things in a way that most other people aren't. It's not that Sai is against necessarily keeping a secret (he certainly does at points). But when Sai goes on a journey in this book to find the green dragon and does and finds that his Thread of Fate is connected to her, Sai doesn't fight that (to the extent one can in this story), but goes all in on it. And yet while he's occasionally snarky and definitely a little quirky about it, he never feels rude or annoying, but just someone who I cared about and could carry this journey in full earnest good faith.
And it's a really delightful journey (sorry for reusing that word, it's hard to describe). Sai winds up meeting really two people of interest: a Huntress named Feng who is snarky herself and wants to kill the green dragon for reasons that are later revealed and the Green Dragon herself, who transforms herself into a woman named Jyn. Jyn and Sai's relationship is really lovely, as Jyn tries to push Sai away and Sai pushes but isn't rude or making inappropriate advances in response to those pushes (it helps that he can sense her true emotions). And the story colors that relationship with bits of a myth that reveal the truth about it and that are helped by the story not really trying to hide from Sai too long the truth as to the connection between he and Jyn in the first place, something that other books might do to keep intrigue up and to annoy the reader.
It's not the usual type of romance between Sai and Jyn, as well, there's very little feeling out of their character traits or why they should love each other in this book: they are fated to love each other. But how that love re-blossoms through their adventure is really well done, and the tragic nature of their pasts is surprising but works really well. And before I make this book sound too light and fluffy, it is strengthened by Kwan being absolutely willing to pull off plot twists that the reader might find shocking and disturbing...even though they make perfect sense. There's one moment here that made me go AHHHHHH and it worked really well for doing so.
There are certainly themes here about true love and caring vs a love being manipulative and power hungry as well to add to the plot that I haven't really gotten into here. The novel just works, even if some plot twists and character actions probably don't work if you think about it too much (how the antagonist is defeated is like, "why didn't the antagonist have a plan to deal with that?"). Recommended.
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