The Night Ends with Fire by K.X. Song

Book Review

Elloise Hopkins

Anlai, The Forbidden City, in the heart of Chuang Ning. The Imperial Commander’s decree forbids all talk of spirits, gods and magics. All must worship him instead. It seems the Three Kingdoms have reached the end of peacetime, and its males are called to war.

Hai Meilin lost her mother to madness. Now, her father is drifting away, ruining her family and their prospects through opium and gambling. Her stepmother does what she can to hold things together, but the time has come for Meilin to marry. Her dowry will save her siblings.

But Meilin has always dreamed of a different future for herself, and when she sees her betrothed’s true colours, she knows she must find another destiny for herself. Her father may refuse to enlist, so she will go in his place. Little does she know that when she saves a life in fleeing from her own, the life she saved was that of the warlord’s youngest son, Prince Liu.

The Night Ends with Fire is written in a classic three-part structure and is based on the legend of Mulan. We follow Meilin’s journey as she shuns her societal obligations, enlists, and puts all of herself into hiding her secrets and proving her effectiveness as a soldier, strategist and friend. She is a heroine to be admired, unafraid to speak out for what she believes, but as is classic to the genre, she is flawed by her naïvety and disadvantaged because of her position in society.

The narrative moves at a swift pace, and the tension holds up right until what can only be described as an explosive and thought-provoking finale that sums up the hypocrisy of a patriarchal society and the injustices when it comes to the denial of female achievements and inherited societal prejudices. The antagonists are incredibly well-written. Threatening on the page, they provide superb shadows to Meilin’s light. The love interests are intriguing, and they, too, are laced with their own dangers. Betrayal is all around, and it will certainly be too long a wait for the next book.