i love priest and i love her writing and how tropey and fun her books are, but this book is seriously turning me off... the book was going fine until the main character, Chu Huan, a Han Chinese meets the other protagonist, Nanshan, the leader of an ethnic minority group (china 55 ethnic groups) living in a village near the mountains. okay, i know priest is very uncritical of race relations (see: [b:杀破狼 Sha Po Lang |41429949|杀破狼 Sha Po Lang |priest|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1547924437l/41429949._SX50_.jpg|64652703]) although in that book i could still sort of close an eye; but in this one, the full racialized differences come out: Nanshan is uneducated and exotic. BUT very handsome and very intelligent, which makes him desirable and admirable. their language barrier is narrated with a lot of humor, but Chu Huan is the 'center' and Nanshan is the 'fringe' -- Nanshan is expected to communicate in Chinese, and jokes are played on his clumsy Chinese. sigh. it really turns me off. going to see if it gets better.