Forest of a Thousand Lanterns - Julie C. Dao

My rating: ⭐⭐⭐

Forest of a Thousand Lanterns is Julie C. Dao's debut novel.  From the cover:

"An East Asian fantasy reimagining of The Evil Queen legend about one peasant girl's quest to become Empress--and the darkness she must unleash to achieve her destiny.

Eighteen-year-old Xifeng is beautiful. The stars say she is destined for greatness, that she is meant to be Empress of Feng Lu. But only if she embraces the darkness within her. Growing up as a peasant in a forgotten village on the edge of the map, Xifeng longs to fulfill the destiny promised to her by her cruel aunt, the witch Guma, who has read the cards and seen glimmers of Xifeng's majestic future. But is the price of the throne too high?

Because in order to achieve greatness, she must spurn the young man who loves her and exploit the callous magic that runs through her veins--sorcery fueled by eating the hearts of the recently killed. For the god who has sent her on this journey will not be satisfied until his power is absolute."

I'm not sure what to say about this book. Parts of it, I liked...the writing was so descriptive, it really brought some of the scenes to life. It was a much darker story than I expected, and reading such vivid scenes was spooky and chilling at times. Loved that.

That being said, I wish the story had been a little less centered around Xifeng's inner monologue. A lot was happening, but so much of it was inside her thoughts that it didn't always feel like a lot was happening. Also, the whole "I can choose between the darkness in me or the light, I love Wei but I don't know if I can be with Wei" deal got old pretty quickly. We. Get. It. You don't have to tell us again every other chapter that Xifeng is conflicted. Ultimately, I thought it was an ok book, but the story felt kind of all over the place and repetitive. I think I would have liked it more if it were shorter.