sophia_sol | The Empress of Salt and Fortune, by Nghi Vo

Today I listened to the audiobook of The Empress of Salt and Fortune, rereading the book for the first time since I read it four years ago. It continues to be a very good book, and it's one that's very well suited to listening to as an audiobook, given the nature of the story it is telling.

But. This is not a review that's intended to convince other people to read the book. (Though you should! it's great!) Rather, I have a burning need to talk about spoilers, with people who have already read the book too and have opinions on some stuff.

Click here for the spoilers

Ok so. There's clearly SOMETHING going on with the identity of Rabbit vs In-yo, right. But I'm not clear on what???? Are Rabbit and In-yo one and the same person? Did Rabbit and In-yo swap places and swap identities, and if so, at what point in their lives? If there are hints that I'm missing here I would LOVE to hear more!

Ok one other note on the book, while I'm here and talking about it, actually.

right I suppose this is spoilers also

I really appreciate that it's a story about monarchy/royalty/empire that makes the ruler compelling in a way that gets you on her side while also being unflinchingly real about the death and destruction that inevitably comes from such a ruler and such a person. Impressive! I love it.

But really I want answers to the questions in my first spoiler cut!!

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Oooh, I need to re-listen so I can think about this. :-)

yesssss please! :D

Okay, I've listened now, and if there are hints, I'm missing them too. The Rabbit who is talking to Cleric Chih has a burn on her arm, and I kept expecting that to prove something, but I don't remember any fires happening. And the way she talks about In-yo makes me think they can't have swapped towards the end of their story, because she wouldn't talk about herself like that, you know? And before that, In-yo was doing all that northern espionage that presumably Rabbit couldn't have done. And In-yo seemed so ambitious; would she give up the throne?

Otoh, the Rabbit talking to Cleric Chih keeps saying, "Do you understand?" and there's one point towards the end where In-yo says that too, so... but I don't know if that means anything.

I always thought it was just the story of Rabbit giving her baby to In-yo to be the future Empress. Hm, maybe I need to read it in text instead of listening in audio.

hmmm yes these are all very good points as to why it might not be the case!! I do still feel like there is SOMETHING additional I'm missing as a reader, though, something more that Rabbit is saying than just the story of Rabbit giving her baby to In-yo. It feels like it's a story that has additional complexity hiding in it! but maybe it's just that there IS that additional complexity but the reader isn't supposed to know what it is; Rabbit's keeping her secrets tightly held.

I do still feel like there is SOMETHING additional I'm missing as a reader, though, something more that Rabbit is saying than just the story of Rabbit giving her baby to In-yo.

I know what you mean. I think it's the repeated "Do you understand?"s, and Chih's hesitation about that. I wonder if the hints/answers are all in the found objects, and we need to pay more attention to those...

yeah exactly....and there's a point where chih switches from not understanding to maybe understanding to understanding, and I don't follow along with them, I feel! Some of the objects have obvious connections with the specific stories that Rabbit is telling, but there may well be more in them than I've noticed so far; I do feel you might be right and that the objects are the key.

I've just ordered a hard copy from the library. :-)

The Empress of Salt and Fortune, by Nghi Vo

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