The Night Ends With Fire by K.X. Song (2024)

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Often described as a retelling of Mulan, The Night Ends With Fire delivers so much more. A fascinating story exploring freedom, ambition, and fate, K.X. Song takes us on a journey we are not soon to forget. While the beginning offers a darker echo of the Disney Mulan, it quickly deviates and takes on a life of its own. Overall a fast-paced novel- I never found myself trudging through sweeping descriptions or pointless plot events. Song makes a point of each chapter furthering the story and adding new layers. The lore was well-developed; I found myself wanting to delve deeper into the history of the magic and the kingdoms. Yet, the most fascinating aspect I was drawn to was the relationship between the reader and the narrator. Without going into spoilers, you often find yourself wondering, much like Meilin herself, who can be trusted? Read on for a detailed review and theme analysis.

SPOILERS ARE BELOW.

MAJOR SPOILERS TO FOLLOW!

Overview:

Our story begins in a hazy opium den with feelings of distain. A far cry from the happy, puppy-chasing Disney portrayal, this refreshingly adult perspective immediately shows you the story will not shy away from the harsh realities of life.

Instead of a wise and loving father, our heroine, Meilin, suffers under the drug-addled whims of her abusive father. Her mother was lost to madness and committed suicide when Meilin was a young girl. Now, she and her peer-aged step mother, Xiuying, forge a comfortable friendship trying to protect themselves and the two young children from her father's tyrannical rule.

This society is set up as many have been before- women are property and bound to obey their fathers, then their husbands. There is no freedom or autonomy in their life and they live within the confines of a domestic cage, one that Meilin refers to often.

The family is suffering financially because of her father's squandering and subsequently, Meilin is betrothed to a wealthy merchant. She sneaks out, witnesses her husband-to-be beating a servant girl, and makes the only choice she sees afforded to her- escape and join the army.

There is a war going on between three kingdoms and young men are being drafted. While the Mulan of Disney enlists to save her ailing father from being killed in war, our Meilin enlists to save herself from yet another societally constructed cage. She admonishes herself for her selfish greed, but the reader is rooting for her courageous choice. Armed with a natural aptitude in life force, her inherited spirit seal of the Azure Dragon, and a mission to save the kingdom, we join Meilin on her adventure to discover her own power in freedom.

Characters:

The characters were memorable; I'm still angry at Sparrow and Tao for their betrayal. Sky, I found to be a little static at times. We don't get a lot of backstory on the 7th Prince of Anlai and he's pretty predictable with his unwavering sense of duty. I'd like to see him tested or pushed a bit in the next novel.

I really liked Prince Lei- he has a lot of depth to him, and I can honestly see Meilin choosing him for a litany of reasons- we girls do love a good bad boy...His tragic backstory provides a sense of connection for the reader and a good motivator for some of his more questionable deeds. I'm curious to see what Song will do. It would be interesting to see her put him put in a position where he has to make a conflicted choice.

Let's talk about Meilin's mother- the enigmatic woman allegedly lost to madness. Towards the end of the novel, Qinglong admits he had some hand in her mother's death. I made that assumption early due to the fact that she drowned despite being a strong swimmer, and was certainly in contact with the Azure Dragon before the seal was passed to Meilin. Her story felt under-developed in this novel, but I hope that was intentional. There's SO much to be done with the little information we do know about her, and I'm excited to see this ephemeral character come into focus more in the second novel.

Chancellor Sima was an interesting villain. His need for vengeance is understandable to the reader based on his backstory, but perhaps his method of killing everyone with the Phoenix's fiery power, is not. I think Song could have explored his offer of mentorship with Meilin a little more. Sima offers to teach Meilin at least twice, but nothing is done with it so I didn't see a point to his reaching out. Given Meilin's innate desire for power, I think it would have been fitting to see her give in to Sim's offer of temptation, then overcome it later on.

Themes:

Trust: Who can be trusted?

Trust is examined under multiple lenses in this novel. Early on, we are told to never trust a dragon. With little effort, the reader can then assume that anything a cardinal spirit who feeds off greed says cannot be trusted. Meilin, however, doesn't always see this. Qinglong's selfishness becomes masked by her own evolving desires and she stops periodically to question if her actions are her own, or influenced by the dragon's obscured agenda. We can see that his intentions are not pure when he becomes upset about her hiding her true thoughts. Yet, because of her reliance on his lixia power, Meilin often has to make a choice to trust him which leaves her vulnerable throughout the novel.

Sky can be trusted to be honorable, but he will not put his friends before duty. That makes him consistent, but she recognizes that he couldn't be counted on as a savior. Her trust in him inherently only extend as far as his duty will allow.

Lei is always painted as a shifty character. We don't really know what his main goal was, but his back story allows us a glimpse that he can be trusted to not be motivated by power alone. Meilin could trust him not to kill her, but his integrity wavers beyond that.

Sparrow and Tao, we learn, can be trusted to conform to their society. As a cross-section of the common man in this world, we can infer their reaction would be that of most. Meilin's misinterpretation of their loyalty shows us that her dreams of social acceptance would not be well-received.

This brings us to the interesting dynamic between the reader and the narrator. As a reader, we inherently trust what the narrator is telling us. What Song does here is really excellent. She subtly undermines the reader's trust in Meilin through both the influence of the dragon, whom we are told can never be trusted, and the history of madness in her family that we come to know is likely wrought by the inevitable corruption of lixia. With this, Song has possibly set up the ultimate demise of her heroine; we know Meilin cannot defy the laws of nature that are in place in this world. I'm excited to see where she goes with this.

Ambition: Perversion or appropriate aspirations?

Where is the limit of want? Is the line dictated by gender? Status? Power? Meilin struggles with this question throughout the novel. Initially, her wanting is simple and pure- she wants to experience freedom and accepts that her choices will likely lead to her swift death. However, this want changes, grows, and expands to a desire to best all her male counterparts and even save the whole kingdom as she continues to exist undiscovered. With this, Song is examining the human heart's natural tendency to never be satisfied. Meilin calls herself a perversion for her ambition as a woman, but she's still a product of her written world. Would she be called a perversion in the real world? Likely not, but ambition is often times a frown-upon attribute because left unchecked, it can grow to maniacal heights regardless of who wields it. I enjoyed how Song explores ambition throughout the novel and consistently asks the reader to consider what cost is too high.

Inheritance: What is left behind?

There's an excellent paragraph on page 241 where Meilin realizes her mother might have stolen the spirit seal to begin with. It hits her all of a sudden that her mother might not simply be the haunted figure she knew, and in fact used to be clever, impulsive, and full of life. She might have had ambition of her own. Meilin realizes that her own impulsiveness and growing ambition might be an inherited trait from a mother she never knew. This was a beautiful moment where Meilin says "I cried for her. I cried for the inheritance she left me." In this case, she's for once not referring to the madness, but the inheritance of vitality and reckless abandon she never got to see in her mother when she was alive. What a fantastic duality on the idea of inheritance.

Fate: Can we really change our destiny?

From the very beginning, Xiuying's words echo throughout the novel: "they will never let a woman hold on to power" By the end of the novel, this rings true- Meilin went from being a celebrated war hero to a title-less prisoner in mere moments with the revelation of one fact- her womanhood.

On page 330, Meilin has Prince Lei at knife-point and we get a glimpse of her rage against the idea of fate. She considers how her kingdom uses star-reading as a form of divining the future. The stars predicted things about her life and were wrong. They certainly could not have predicted the fantastic situations she's found herself in. She finally settles thinking "I believe in making my own fate" and takes action against her situation. This was a powerful moment in the idea of railing against your foretold fate. Meilin shows us there's power in deciding the course of your life for yourself.

The Ending:

Let's talk about the ending. Meilin is betrayed by her indoctrinated friends and forced to chose between going back to live as a conventional woman, or life in prison. She aptly responds that there is no choice- both options are a form of cage. It speaks to the author's intent to explore what would happen if the Mulan we are so familiar with suddenly decides that she wants more out of life than simply going back home. A valid point. She's lived, fought, killed, and worked towards her own goals- none of which are afforded to women of this society, and let's be honest, many societies that still exist today.

So she sticks to her guns and chooses life in a legitimate cage after almost being offered a Battalion Commander position. The fall from grace was so fast it was almost laughable, and you feel the betrayal of Tao and Sparrow. After she saved their lives in multiple ways, their prejudice and betrayal is truly despicable.

Sky makes a feeble attempt to stop her imprisonment and Meilin is dragged down into the dungeons. But she isn't worried. Because she has found a power in herself- a confidence and self-empowerment that cannot be broken by the laws of men she lives under. She laughs. There's a striking confidence that would have her laughing, knowing she won't be caged for long. She has known what it is to live free and she will not allow that to be taken from her again.

In the end, a lot of Qinglong's manipulative visions came to pass. They served as a major motivator for Meilin- both positively and negatively. She obviously didn't want her family to perish in a fiery phoenix blaze and did everything possible to avoid this outcome. But, she was equally motivated to reach for her glorious rise to power and acceptance. Ironic however, that when it came down to it, Qinglong was correct in showing her in a cage- this was her fate...for now. Meilin, as we've seen, has a knack for defying what the stars decree. We leave her laughing to herself in the dark, knowing she can't be kept down for long. Not because of the spirit seal, but because of who she is inside.

Final Thoughts:

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. It was an easy read but not without giving the reader some serious themes to tackle. The lore was fantastic; I found myself wanting to learn more about the history of lixia, the other two cardinal spirits, and how her mother came to possess the jade seal. I do believe if a few more things were resolved, this could have been a standalone book, but it seems Song isn't done with Meilin yet. I hope to see those loose ends expanded on to bring the reader more closure.

As a final note, I appreciated the heavy-hitting themes and powerful lines throughout this novel. It gave the reader a classic love triangle, strong action sequences, dynamic character arcs, and well-thought-out lore, while consistently asking the reader to consider tough questions about ambition, power dynamics, freedom and fate. To that I say, what more can you ask for?

What are your thoughts? How did you interpret Meilin's ambition or Song's intent to explore an unconventional, unsatisfied version of our beloved Mulan? Tell me in the comments!