The Golden Hairpin Chapter Completed Discussion

I MTLed this novel but also read the raws and English together. I would rate this 2.5 stars.

My synopsis

MC from a young age solves crimes and becomes famous for her skills. One day tragedy befalls her and she is accused of mu*dering her family. She escapes to find an opportunity to investigate the truth and clear her name.

About the tone of the novel and why I ranked this so low

While I found this novel intriguing in plot and mystery, what rankled me time and again was the author writing the emotions always amped up to eleven. It felt like every other moment was some earth shattering eureka moment or deep sorrow with weeping blood and tears. While I get that MC is facing a deep tragedy, true grief and lost of loved one ebbs and flows in strength. However the author overuses melodrama and almost every other paragraph has some deep or dramatic moment, maybe the author was trying to capture the emotions of an emo teen. Well if that was the purpose, they certainly got it right. MC is kind of a tragic heroine constantly thinking she must be serious and aloof and stubborn while always falling into sporadic moments of tragic reflection. It gets old real fast. Also MC tends to go off on her own s*upidly and get into trouble. Granted sometimes the novel had some good lines. But it just seems like the author is always trying to sound deep and profound that it's actually unnaturally so. Like a song with very few notes.

Annoying side character

In writing, authors tend to have an idiot character or at least someone who doesn't know stuff so they have a chance to spout their exposition and lore. Well this author had a real annoying side character that just grated my nerves every time he appeared. He did nothing to endear himself and rather than have a personality, he was more like a caricature of a goofball coroner obsessed geek. Every time he appeared I would have to grit my teeth to read through. I know he was used to lighten the mood but the author could have done a better job of not making a character so annoying to read.

About the MC

The MC is constantly getting into situations by going to places alone, and having confirmation bias in her investigation that have to be broken later by some weird logic twists. It's like the author is trying to gimp her to pad out the mystery sometimes and that just grates my nerves reading it. As a personality, she seems to embody a resilient girl but at times acts reckless or without much thought, and to be honest her deductions and her attitude don't actually convince me of her so called intellect. Rather it just makes me feel that officials in the novel want to do a lazy job and that's probably true. The interesting or positive thing I can say about her is her view on justice. The nuance of her belief in the law and her discovery of tragic stories of people who commit crimes for sad reasons was the better done part of her character. Some of the stories try to imitate a little of the feeling of Justice Bao for those who might know Chinese opera and or the famous tv shows. Her inner thoughts were sometimes written well but often times over the top.

About the ML

He was very lightly described and while their growing interest in each other is slow and gradual, their relationship in writing never seemed to find its mark. It was a bit shallowly written. He basically takes a back seat to the whole novel and most of it is about the MC. At least he's not the typical cold ML. He's vulnerable, makes mistakes and feels better written and more genuine at times than the MC.

Should you read this novel?

I don't think most readers who are just looking for some entertainment will find some of the points I've noted here. I stuck to it til the end because I was interested in the novel enough to finish it out of curiosity. It was such a slow slog because I wasn't really that into reading it but felt curious enough that I was hoping it would get better and it did and it didn't. Okay if you have nothing else to read but there are other historical female detective novels that are better than this one. If you can read with the mindset of moody emo teens historical mystery romance, it should be ok. I'm probably a bit too old to read this kind of story that reads like a young adult novel. Don't let me stop you from reading this as I think some people will still enjoy it. It's just not my cup oftea. It's not a bad novel but not a great one either.