It was a pretty fun read in a pretty rare setting. The exploration of its various themes (fate, desire, gender etc) was surprisingly mature. The characters were well written and stood out.

Towards the end it became a bit too melodramatic for my tastes.

Also I didn't understand the point

fisting

scene, felt completely out of tone with rest of the book and didn't add anything, especially because after that

Ma & Zhu barely interact

.