Jade Fire Gold by June CL Tan

Oct 22

I remember around June 2021, I had stumbled upon the title “JADE FIRE GOLD” by June CL Tan and I was intrigued when reading the caption because the book was pitched as “What if Katara was the Dark Avatar and Zuko had to hunt her down?”. I had grown up watching Avatar: The Last Airbender and always felt very close to Katara’s character (very much the rational mom friend over here), so the fact that this pitch existed, I got super excited. I followed the author on Instagram and slowly became friends with her! I constantly hyped up the book and when I bought myself (on pub day) a regular copy from Indigo (I have not received my signed copy. Yet) I even managed to convince a friend to buy it as well (Shout out to Matthew who puts up with my book nerd self haha). I didn’t get the ARC (still kinda salty about THAT but it’s okay) but I was still incredibly excited about the book. June shared snippets of quotes and of course the character art! It was amazing. I really loved the queer representation and the characters were just so amazing. Here’s a brief synopsis of what was my most-anticipated book of the year and what has become my favourite book EVER:

In an empire on the brink of war...
Ahn is no one, with no past and no family.
Altan is a lost heir, his future stolen away as a child.
When they meet, Altan sees in Ahn a path to reclaiming the throne. Ahn sees a way to finally unlock her past and understand her arcane magical abilities.
But they may have to pay a far deadlier price than either could have imagined.

This book was so, so good and I cannot stress it enough. I really loved how much Ahn cared for her grandmother because it very much reminded me of me and my grandmothers who I care for very much (despite them being very, very far away from me). I really loved Altan’s character and he reminded me very much of Zuko (kudos to the author haha). My favourite character was probably Linxi because she very much reminds me of me (again, very much mom friend vibes. I have been told I am literally the mom friend haha) and Linxi and Tang Wei were very, very adorable (including Linxi slightly over-exaggerating her and Altan’s adventures which was very much a mood). I enjoyed the characters of Lieye and Tai Shun but frankly wished their relationship was explored a bit more (to be fair, with a dual POV, it’s difficult to completely flesh out every single character which I understand but hopefully we’ll get more of these two in the future! I am looking at you June!)

I really loved the world-building as well. The plot twists were there and I did not see them coming. It might seem that this book has 0 flaws but I don’t think there is such a thing as a flawless book but, that being said, it is very evident that the author very much put her heart and soul into this book (not saying that every writer doesn’t but in some books, it is very much more obvious than others that the books mean a lot to said author) and a debut book is always very, very special. Additionally, I really loved this book and my one true criticism is that I would have liked much more of Lieye and Tai Shun. I love all the characters very much and the world that June has created is astonishing. Perhaps it will be a great movie one day (given that it’s not screwed up haha).

This was truly the first book I have ever pre-ordered. I usually take the book from the library and read it before deciding to buy it but I had become very good friends with the author and I figured I would pre-order it. I usually went to the bookstore on the day of the pub date or a few days after because I wasn’t on Instagram when I first really started getting into books and had grown into this habit. I figured that since I am older, I have the chance and money (most of the time) to pre-order once in a while, I will, to give extra support to my favourite authors! I pre-ordered a signed and personalized copy that should get to me very, very soon and it comes with the pre-order swag which I am incredibly excited about.