Underneath a Thousand Skies Blurb
In the first world she transmigrated into, Song Jia accidentally killed the original host and made the monarch so insane with grief that the whole world was destroyed with him.
Her boss then declared after she went back to the modern world: “No salary for six months!”
Song Jia: (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻
In the second world she transmigrated into, Song Jia had to raise a cute little bun and thought that her job this time would be easy. In the end, the cute little bun became a sadistic killer that could solemnly say to her, “Just push me below you and take advantage of me.”
Her boss: “…”
Song Jia: “…”
First Impression
Underneath a Thousand Skies is a webnovel on Wattpad that I’ve fallen in love with. If you’ve read some of my other posts, you might have realized I have a soft-spot in my shriveled little heart for East Asian and East Asian-inspired work, something I got into because I’m a bit of an otaku, but also because it’s some of the best research material for my novel.
I was toying with The Call of the Void and looking for something to dull my mind when I found this. It is a quick transmigration novel and quite LONG. What’s transmigration? That’s when a soul possesses a body that is not its own. What’s QUICK transmigration? That’s when the transmigration isn’t spiritual in nature; typically a “system” is responsible for the possession. With quick transmigration, multiple transmigration stories usually occur within one larger story.
OK, enough exposition. Head’s up, this novel opens with a graphic sex scene. If that’s not your bag, You can skip them without missing anything from the plot (there is one scene, usually a chapter long, for every transmigration–four at time of writing this review). This is also an incomplete work that is currently being updated with new material without a schedule.
This work is very fresh for my western eyes. Not to mention, it’s the most comprehensive and well thought out quick transmigration I’ve ever read. Reading peer-written work can be a struggle because often you’re reading a rough draft written by a 12-year-old. Add to that the inevitability of things getting lost in translation when it’s from another culture, well there’s a sliding curve for quality. This book doesn’t have any of that. It’s clever, includes Chinese cultural elements (with footnotes to explain them), and has a clear cause-effect relationship between conflicts (which I don’t see a lot of in peer-written work).
Character
This is a romance. A slow burn, if you will. The main character, Jia (she goes by several names as she possess people, but they all share the given name, Jia), is very pragmatic. She’s never been in romantic love but has some experience dating. Her primary motive for everything is her paycheck, which is written in a very cute, funny way. She’s flawed yet competent and frequently refers to herself as an old auntie because she sees herself as an uninvolved source of assistance for the love interest.
Jia and her antics aside, this book is about the love interest. He is a rather tragic figure. He doesn’t transmigrate, he’s reincarnated. What’s minutes apart for her is an entire lifetime for him. In each new world his soul slowly begins to recognize her and realize it’s falling in love with the same person over and over again, only to lose her each time.
This character has quite the arc. He goes from a normal guy to a classic obsessed yandere. If you don’t know what that means, I recommend googling it before reading this novel. This is basically a story about how his love twists his soul into this devoted but kind of scary version of his original self and (I’m hoping) his redemption through that same love.
Definitely NOT an example of healthy romance. I see it as a fun, angst-filled joyride. NGL, it’s this complicated and scary-but-pathetic love interest that keeps me around.
World
One of the things that makes quick transmigration so fun is that you get a variety of worlds. And wow, these worlds are so imaginative. The main world, where Jia’s actual body exists, is the distant future complete with scifi tech, interplanetary travel, and powerful artificial intelligence. The first world she visits is historical China, the second is based off the fairy tale Snow White.
The point is you get a variety of well-constructed worlds that all impact and influence the love interest’s growth and degeneration in their own unique ways.
Storytelling
The storytelling is my favorite aspect of this novel. Badcooking (the author’s penname on Wattpad) has a great sense of comedic timing. They put their characters in some difficult (and sometimes cliché) situations and lets them react in a very human way that completely breaks the cliché. There’s a healthy dose of Chinese culture, which you know I love, and a good dose of humor to balance out the angst.
If nothing else, this novel takes the star crossed lovers motif and turns it on its head.
Final Thoughts
4.5/5. I recommend with a full, satisfied heart ONLY to readers who don’t mind a yandere or antihero love interest.
I’m a sucker for angst. I really am. My tolerance for bad writing and cliché is directly proportional to the quantity of angst in the story. You can probably make an accurate bell curve for it. This novel isn’t written badly nor is it cliché but I recognize that my thirst for angst makes me biased. It doesn’t check the boxes for thematic messages or healthy relationships, but it’s a great story. Just like Harry Potter is a great story without a lot of depth (there, I said it. Cancel me now!). If you’ve been following my blog for a minute, you should know by now that I care a lot about that depth.
So, why am I excusing this novel? First, it’s a peer-written rough draft available for free on Wattpad. The author doesn’t have a team helping them improve or market their work and they aren’t even making money. I do not hold this type of writing to the same standards I do something that made the NY Times Bestseller list.
Second, this novel has something other novels I’ve criticized for lacking depth don’t: complex characters. Especially the love interest. He is a very troubled character reacting to traumatic situations in a very human and realistic way. Sometimes, in order to add depth to a story, we make our characters act as examples rather than humans. This story doesn’t do that. If nothing else, appreciate it for the study of human nature that it is.
Recommended Reading
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
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