Now this was an excellent Twisted Tale. Not as dark as apparently the other books are with blood sacrifices and such, but I prefer it that way. This is rather an AU, a potential place for the story to go rather than a grittier and darker take on a tale we already know.

This book doesn’t start at the beginning of Mulan but takes place at the fight on the mountain where Mulan buried the Huns. In the middle of it, Shang gets a fatal wound from Shan Yu protecting her. Guilt-stricken, Mulan does her best to help recover but it’s clear that he’s close to death. So close that she sees the ghost of Captain Li getting ready to take him to the spirit world. However, since neither want it to be Shang’s time, she goes down to the Underworld to fight for Shang’s soul.

And it was intense. While Go the Distance is probably my fav simply because I love Hercules, I can’t deny that Elizabeth Lim is a superior writer in infusing descriptions and subtle character progression. It helps that she is of Chinese-descent so she masterfully describes Diyu. It is the Asian underworld, holding grotesque demons and tricky spirits and hundred unique gates that serve as different sections for spirits depending on what punishment or reflection you need to go through to get to heaven or reincarnation. Really just the imagery in all of it is amazing.

While Mushu cameos briefly in the beginning and is perfectly in character, he isn’t in Diyu with Mulan. Rather the family guardian of the Li family accompanies her. ShiShi is a warrior lion, arrogant and prideful of his grand duty guiding China’s greatest soldiers but he also had a heart under his surly exterior.

But not to worry, Shang isn’t a wandering soul for 500 pages. Rather at page 100, he’s back. A spirit but he’s back with Mulan and ShiShi. Or as he knows her, Ping. Yes, Mulan is Ping this whole time and struggles to keep her secret. Less so that the spirits are questioning why Fa Ping doesn’t appear in King Yama’s book of souls, but because they’re bonding.

Seriously, Mulan and Shang was always a couple I thought was cute. The movie did its job in making me root for them but I never really thought of them outside of it. But this book, now ADORE them together. It helped that it gave insight to Shang’s childhood and what he wants in a woman, the jokes he shares with Mulan and his awkwardness and toughness. So that coupled with how we already know how resourceful, kind, compassionate, clever and brave Mulan is, it made them click all the more.

And that was all in the first 100 pages. There’s about 400 after that and they were all totally engrossing to me as the book is mainly about Mulan. She has her identity hanging over her head all this time, what will happen when she gets home after the war. Will her parents be proud, could she ever reveal herself even as her (totally in denial) feelings for Shang grows. Who is Mulan after all this?

I don’t think I’m describing it as well as I could and I don’t really want to spoil more of it, but basically if you like character development and self reflection (pun intended), this is the book for you. It gives such great insights to Mulan and Shang and again, it’s all wonderful.

But it is not without action, there’s plenty of action in it too from dodging fire demons to climbing the mountain of knives. It also has the ticking clock that Yama set up for them that Mulan has to bring Shang to the top level of Diyu (there’s 100) before the moon fades away or else Shang’s dead and Mulan will be turned to a demon. There’s also the Lady of Forgetfulness that is gunning for them after Shang escapes her tower. And since Mulan is a mortal, she is the only one who gets injured and bloodied and has to endure the physical pain as she keeps moving forward.

Also the book perfectly weaves in previous scenes from the movie pre-avalanche without putting it in flashback form. And also keeps in such classic lines as “You fight good” and allowing readers to meet some of the Fa ancestors too.

Really the book gets 5 stars/swords from me.

If Go the Distance is what I imagined an ideal Hercules sequel to be, this book is what Mulan’s live action should be. It has action, it delves into Chinese culture, well specifically the Chinese mythology regarding Diyu, honor and such. And it does this without sacrificing Shang as some sort of toxic captain nonsense like the live action movie did. Nor did it portray Mulan as super special just because she has chi. Or say Mulan is wrong for being ashamed of her femininity or masculinity. Plus it has an older female figure that Mulan can relate to but didn’t follow what I feel is the tired evil lady counterpart trope. Basically, this is the live action Mulan we should have gotten. Not a still for still remake of the animated but an exploratory alternative journey that perfectly hits the same themes. Great book!