Beyond Selidor

There's a fair number of The Dark is Rising fics in Yuletide and Madness this year, actually, so I'd definitely recommend that course of action.

The Kuang book is undoubtedly good at what it's trying to do, it's just that the whole series really isn't my thing. I quite enjoy reading things in grim or even cruel settings, but the third book in particular is just a litany of violence, and genocide, and torture, and starvation, and cannibalism, and, and, and. To be fair, the historical period it's drawing on was horrific.

YA fantasy that both wears its shojo influences and the author's knowledge in British colonialism on its sleeve. Which is a combo I never thought I'd see.

That's certainly an odd combo, but hopefully it works!