The Hand, The Eye and The Heart Book Review

The Hand, the Eye and the Heart by Zoe Marriott

From Goodreads: Zhilan was assigned female at birth; despite an unusual gift for illusions, they know they will live out their life in the perfumed confines of the women’s quarters. But when civil war sets the country aflame, Zhilan is the only one who can save their disabled Father from death on the battlefield. 

By taking his place.

Surviving brutal army training as a male recruit – Zhi – is only the first challenge. Soon Zhi’s unique talents draw them into an even more perilous fight, in the glittering court of the Land of Dragons, where love and betrayal are two sides of the same smile. The fate of an Empire rests on Zhi’s shoulders. But to win, they must first decide where their loyalty, and their heart, truly belongs.

First of all, thanks so much to Book Box Club for including this in their April Bold and Brave box. I’ve had my eye on this book for a while now, and I’ve been hoping to pick up a copy since I heard Marriott speak about it at the Walker Books blogger party in December. (Annoyingly, I only realised I hadn’t done my book blog photo for the book until after I posted my copy to a friend, so we’re sticking with the cover design image for this review).

It turned out to be a pretty interesting read. I know there’s been a lot of backlash about the way this book handles its representation of transgender people, and whether the author should even be touching the subject, but I’ll get into that a little later in my review.

I thought the opening was pretty strong, and drew me into the world. This illusion was shattered a little by a friend telling me that it’s almost identical to the opening of another of Marriott’s books, which are still sitting on my shelf, so I’m not quite sure what to make of it in retrospect. I did think it launched us into the action nicely, as well as throwing up a lot of tension and introducing the magic, but I also thought the dialogue was a major drawback here. It sounded stilted and more than a touch corny and could have been done better. But it still kicked the story off in a memorable way.

The book did a pretty good job of tackling the Mulan myth. I thought it made a lot more sense for their father to agree to them taking his place, rather than simply running off to join the army without telling him. Marriott patches over a lot of problems I had with the Disney version (alas, I am yet to actually look at the original tale, so please excuse my woeful ignorance on this matter). The world-building was okay, at least in the first half of the book, although again this is coming from an utterly Western perspective, so I’m not certain how historically or culturally accurate it is.

Where I felt the book starts to go downhill a bit is with the explanation of the magic, which is never truly explored. Zhilan has this ability to create illusions, and it is briefly mentioned that they train and practise this ability once they uncover it, but we never get to see much of it, so in a way it comes across more as a ‘get out of jail free’ card whenever the author fancies wielding it. It also got confusing when other people in the world have this ability, since there’s not a lot of information about how the magic works. Again, we’re kind of briefly told that it is rare and girls who have the power are seen as witches, while men are treated as valuable, which sort of makes sense but also… doesn’t. It could have been really cool, but I felt like it wasn’t explored enough to make it satisfying.

I also wasn’t a big fan of the trans narrative. While on the one hand, I appreciate that Marriott is trying to be inclusive, and I applaud the fact that she showed readers a lot of the characters’ thought processes and struggles and confusion regarding their gender. I also really liked that she uses the correct gender pronouns in the synopsis of the book. However, I also feel like it wasn’t handled well enough. First up, I found it a bit problematic that Zhilan’s ability to use illusion and effectively transform their appearance at will glosses over a lot of the challenges trans people face with their own bodies, since it effectively means that they can (at least in the eyes of others) transition their outward appearance at will. I’m simplifying it a bit for the sake of a review here, but ultimately I found it a little hard to digest and I winced once or twice. It makes it seem (in my opinion) like transitioning is easy, and never really a hardship. I get that it’s fantasy, and I appreciate that the author tries, but I’m not entirely sure that it doesn’t come across as ultimately a bit insensitive. I think we need more fantasy with transgender protagonists before a book like this should be considered inclusive.

My other main problem with the diversity in this book is the romance in the latter part of the novel. It seems almost too neat and convenient, and none of it is really explored. I didn’t mind so much from the characters’ perspective, since I feel like it made sense to them, but from a reader’s POV it seemed strange that the author never delves any deeper into this romance and it basically comes across as forced. It doesn’t help that the plot twist at the end of the book is visible from a mile away, and undoes a lot of the intrigue of the first half of the novel.

Overall, I’m giving The Hand, the Eye and the Heart:

I thought the pacing was okay, and the protagonist has a good voice, but I’m docking a lot of points for the predictable ending, the forced romance, the allegedly self-plagiarised opening scene and the awkward and not entirely sensitive attempt at diversity. Again, I should stress that this is just my honest opinion of the book and its representation, and others might feel very differently. But personally I found it quite awkward and not all that inclusive.

Has anyone else read this book already or plans to? What do you all think of it? Let me know in the comment section down below ❤