Review: The Red Palace

Sooooooooooooo, I ended up adding a new book to my February tbr.  Well, this is officially the beginning of our February reading, yay! I could make a wrap up of the month video. We could do that, but then again that word every single goddamn student hates, "examinations". Maybe I'll do a podcast or something. Baby sets.

The Red Palace by June Hur is the story of Hyeong, the illegitimate child of Lord Shin. If not anything else, Hyeong knows one thing, is that as an illegitimate child, she'll never be recognized by her own father who's a royal. Being a palace nurse is the closest thing she'll ever know of royalty. But when there's a massacre where the prime suspect is the Crown Prince and her own mentor is taken into custody, Hyeong must do all she can with the help of the handsome inspector Eojin that her mentor's innocent.

QUICK THOUGHTS AND REVIEW: 3.8/5, Amazing prose, needed a bit of that push though.

PROS:

1. Mystery: Okay, I love how everything is so damn mysterious and scary-ish. I mean, there are secrets that keep unfolding in the story. There was this aura, I guess. And I thought I'd almost figured out the plot but I didn't.

2. Easy flowing narration: From the beginning, the whole thing flowed like Bengal muslin through a ring. There wasn't any drag, and it went whoosh by. I mean, I was reading for two hours last night and I managed to get through 80 pages of it. Also I have superhuman reading speed.

3. Characterization: I love how everyone was double layered. Other than what they show, there's another deeper later in between them. Maybe something they did in the past, or maybe something that happened to them in the past, or even something that they chose to hide and not reveal later on in the story.

4. Eojin.

5. It really picks up near the end. Especially after Hyeong is stripped of her royal title.

CONS:

1. Anti Climatic: At some places, I couldn't help but feel like the story was too anti climatic in the beginning and right at the end. I mean, there was this thrill right in the middle. I wanted it to be more thrilling I guess. I'm an adrenaline junkie, I need the adrenaline.

2. The X factor: As much as I liked the book, it lacked something. It lacked more of that oomph that you actually require in a historical fiction mystery. And that's what brought it down for me. I didn't particularly feel anything that attracted me to this book and neither did I ugly cry or laugh with this book. 

OVERALL, A NICE READ, I think I need to read it again for a better understanding.