Scale-Bright

Scale Bright by Benjanun Sriduangkaew

3.0 Stars

Scale Bright seems to be a variation on a tale of Chinese mythology. I am not familiar with Chinese mythology, so I may have missed a lot that this story was trying to impart. Homosexuality is a part of Greek and Roman mythology, so I will assume the same to be true of Chinese mythology. However, homosexuality seems only to be accepted among men, not women. I suspect that the deviation from the traditional Chinese tales is that the two goddesses in this story, Houyi and Chang'e, were originally male and female, not female and female.

Julienne is the mortal niece of the goddess Chang'e. She is a young woman without a path, without confidence, without a sense of self-worth. Julienne's character is overshadowed by her aunts, whose characters are far more interesting. Scale Bright may be considered a coming of age story of a mortal in a land of demons and gods. In such stories, the main character usually learns a great lesson and comes to terms with growing up. For Julienne, I am not so sure this was the case.

The three short stories appended to this novella were much better, in my opinion. These tales of gods and goddesses, explain some of the relationships between the characters in Scale Bright. It may be helpful to read them first.