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Phoenix Extravagant + The Downstairs Girl
May. 31st, 2026 10:09 amPhoenix Extravagant by Joon Ha Lee follows Jebi, an artist working for the invaders of their occupied country in a fantasy world that's based on the Japanese occupation of Korea in the first half of the 20th century. Jebi works on the magic glyphs that bring the invaders' automata to life, but is prompted to join the rebellion when they discover how the magic pigment is made.
It's a fairly slow book, but I really enjoyed the pace and the world-building, and getting to know Jebi over time. The romance aspect of the book didn't work for me at all because it had no basis and very little development to make the relationship credible. But I liked the other inter-relationships and dynamics between different characters.
Jebi doesn't have much agency, apart from isolated instances of direct action, but the overall arc of the story is interesting, even if the ending is very strange and quite nebulous.
The Downstairs Girl by Stacey Lee follows Jo, a young Chinese woman living and working in Atlanta in 1890. It has very heavy themes of racism and persecution of minorities, which are hammered home perhaps a bit too much in places - and it's very interesting to see the Chinese experience of living in the American South at this time. Jo is an excellent protagonist and I really enjoyed seeing the story through her eyes. I also liked the romance aspect, because it felt well-earned and it was fun seeing it develop over a shared love of wordplay. The climax was a bit too over the top in some ways, and certain aspects of the story were (necessarily) left unresolved, but overall I really enjoyed this.
It's a fairly slow book, but I really enjoyed the pace and the world-building, and getting to know Jebi over time. The romance aspect of the book didn't work for me at all because it had no basis and very little development to make the relationship credible. But I liked the other inter-relationships and dynamics between different characters.
Jebi doesn't have much agency, apart from isolated instances of direct action, but the overall arc of the story is interesting, even if the ending is very strange and quite nebulous.
The Downstairs Girl by Stacey Lee follows Jo, a young Chinese woman living and working in Atlanta in 1890. It has very heavy themes of racism and persecution of minorities, which are hammered home perhaps a bit too much in places - and it's very interesting to see the Chinese experience of living in the American South at this time. Jo is an excellent protagonist and I really enjoyed seeing the story through her eyes. I also liked the romance aspect, because it felt well-earned and it was fun seeing it develop over a shared love of wordplay. The climax was a bit too over the top in some ways, and certain aspects of the story were (necessarily) left unresolved, but overall I really enjoyed this.
