zachary ying and the dragon emperor review

This means nothing for the plot, but it’s there anyway because it’s topical. Unsurprisingly for a book published in 2020 onwards, Zachary Ying is a victim of racism people assume things because he’s Chinese, and he’s even ashamed to eat his authentically homemade Chinese lunch at school. However, when you’re reading a book by Xiran Jay Zhao, it’s impossible to not get political. I hate that my blog has gotten so political lately, because I wanted to be a breath of fresh air from said politics.

The timing of this couldn’t be better, because his mom is captured by demons and needs saving. Zachary himself is also able to be possessed by the spirit of China’s First Emperor, Qin Shi Huang, via his AR headset. One fateful day, he meets a boy named Simon Li, who is the host of the spirit of one of China’s past emperors. In Zachary Ying and the Dragon Emperor, the titular Zachary is a passionate fan of Mythrealm, an AR-game that combines Pokémon Go with ancient mythology. With all that being said, let’s see if their middle-grade debut novel, Zachary Ying and the Dragon Emperor, improves on their writing style while potentially being less of a loaded gun than Iron Widow was. Regardless, I still think Zhao is one of the most promising rookies in the field. However, if taken with anymore than a grain of salt, it is a toxic and unhealthy tome of Feminism to the most violent, hypocritical extreme.

I still stand by Wu Zetian being one of the few proactive YA protagonists, and the book overall being great as a mindless, anime-like romp. In any case, I’m not going to hide what Iron Widow is anymore. I could write a whole additional post about what I’ve been going through that made me love it at the time, and how I’m only just starting to face my personal issues head-on, but I won’t bore you (if you want context, you could read my other YA novel reviews and see how increasingly depressed I got over time).

Several months after reading the book, my outlook on it has completely changed. One really damning post was my glowing review of Xiran Jay Zhao’s Iron Widow. While I never made the mistake of giving away private information to strangers on social media, I have made posts that I now regret. One of the first things they teach you about the Internet is that anything you say on there is permanent.

Zachary ying and the dragon emperor review