Avatar Legends: City of Echoes

by Judy I. Lin

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Judy I. Lin comes a brand-new series featuring the unsung heroes behind legendary events within the world of The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra

There is no war outside of these walls.

This is what the citizens of Ba Sing Se are told to believe, but Jin knows better. As a refugee whose parents were killed by the Fire Nation, she is haunted by her past. Now, she does her best to keep her head down in the Lower Ring, caring for her ailing grandfather and balancing school with survival.

Her one bright spot is her best friend Susu, whose family treats Jin like one of their own, and whose bakery she helps make deliveries for.
 
Her world shatters when Susu’s father gambles away the bakery and Susu is forced to take a contract in the Upper Ring to pay off the family’s debt. Jin vows to help her friend—no matter what it takes. A chain of events fueled by her desperate promise leads Jin to Xuan, an arrogant boy from the Middle Ring with ties to the Silver Fangs, a major player in the city’s black market.

The deeper Jin delves into her double life, the more she learns about Susu’s own entanglement in a conspiracy darker and more dangerous than she could have imagined.
 
As whispers swirl of the Avatar’s presence within the city’s walls, the Fire Nation creeps ever closer. With Ba Sing Se teetering on the brink of revolution, Jin must defy the powerful forces that control her city and risk everything for the friend she’s determined to save.

Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult, Fiction, Audiobook, Action, Young Adult Fantasy

320 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 22, 2025

About the author

Judy I. Lin is the #1 New York Times-bestselling and award-winning author of fantasy and horror books for young adults, including the Book of Tea duology, Song of the Six Realms, The Dark Becomes Her and the upcoming Avatar Legends: City of Echoes. Judy was born in Taiwan and immigrated to Canada with her family at a young age. She grew up with her nose in a book and loved to escape to imaginary worlds. She now works as an occupational therapist and still spends her nights dreaming up imaginary worlds of her own. She lives on the Canadian prairies with her husband and daughters.

Reviews

[Sobbin’ Scenes]

One of my fav authors writing an atla book ?? Sign me up!!!

(genuinely feel like my worlds have collided)

Edit: I won a copy of this book AAA I feel do lucky rn

[Jada Jade · Rating 5 out of 5]

ALC 🎧 Book Review 🤍

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

As an ATLA fan— This was everything and more.
The feeling when you get to revisit one of your favorite series? Priceless.

Esp since we get a different POV (Jin) to the story we all know and love— A Tale of Ba Sing Se.
The fountain scene? So cuuuute. We all love Zuko & his misunderstood bad boy moments.
Being able to see scenes like that, which we’ve previously saw on TV in a different light is so fun!!
Especially in the mind of a side character, which in this she’s not anymore— She’s the main!!

This had more than just nostalgic moments. This had grief (I literally started to tear up), struggles of the lower ring, found family, revolution, & so much that we all pulled from ATLA growing up.

I felt the burial was such a powerful moment. It really showed inner working of an Earth Nation village at the end of it all.

“They can burn us, but the Earth remains.”
*This line hit hard.

Overall, I enjoyed seeing some of the characters we know & love, literally ‘cause I ate this up the same day I downloaded it lol!!
Special thanks to Blackstone Pub for auto-approving me 🫶🏽 It’s always an honor reviewing your selection.
Nancy Wu did such a wonderful job narrating!!

[Rodger’s Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐️ rounded up

Let’s get the obvious out of the way, this book is definitely for fans of Avatar the Last Airbender. Without the context of this show I do not think this book stands on its own as it runs concurrently with events in Seasons 2 and 3 of the show and has mentions of different events and scenes we see in the show. I do think if you’re a fan, I can highly recommend this book. It lets us see a snippet focused only on the city of Ba Song Se and the ramifications of the actions of the Avatar on the normal people in the Earth Kingdom.

I immersion read this and I think the audio narrator was solid. I didn’t find them bringing an extra spark to the performance, but they also didn’t hurt the reading experience. It was a perfectly adequate audiobook, so if that is your preferred reading method I would not dissuade you from picking it up that way.

Thank you to the publisher for providing a copy of the audiobook for review via NetGalley.

[Susie Q · Rating 1 out of 5]

Was a 2 star. I slept on it and it's now a 1 star

I'm going to be really critical here so if you plan to read this book, please do so instead of this review so you can form your own opinion.

Let me preface this all to say I was a young girl when the original show came out, so I have "grown up" watching ATLA. I also loved season 1 of Korra, but didn't like the forced progression of the showrun due to the writers not having planned that far ahead. Lastly, I amicably enjoyed Netflix's attempt of the live-action remake. It's main trio was weakly written, but the actors who played Zuko and Iroh broke their BACKS carrying that show. It's easy to say that I am a fan of this world and I know it well.

The short: The author does not have respect for the sorce material. We already connected with this world and we already knew who Jin was and this book ain't it.


The Long: Jin was never this bitter, tortured girl who was standoffish too all the boys she meets while being snapish and clueless to her classmate who, at first was rude and bullied her, but then
✨️saw the error of his ways✨️
and then shows her shallow one-sided affection that is there for the sake of a forced love interests.

In the small snapshot we get of Jin from the show, she is this sweet girl who is a little bold and gave a really rude boy (Zuko) and chance with that date. Jin in this book is rude to Xuan (the classmate) and the same time being open to a relationship with a guy (ZUKO) she just met and had shown her zero affection and yet it took her until the 3rd act to realize she had developed feelings for Xuan, and we as the readers should take the author's word on in that they "slowly fell in-love" during that condensed time-jumble of two-ish months of planing a non-existent heist. (the way it was written, it felt like everything happened in 3 days). There is no emotional connection for the reader. The romance was off-screen 65% of the time!

Xuan suffered from the same issues as most male love interests in YA: Falls first and its out nowhere and the romantic build up is shallow and too quick and unrealistic. I tried reeeeallly hard to like this kid, but he was too cookie cutter and generic. It feels like this in another FMC who is a man hater... until it's convenient not to be.

Book!Jin loaths the city and economics around her and criticizes the classisim of Ba Sing Se, constantly making a point to say to the reader that people are poor because the system is broken. These views feel forced and out of touch of this fictional world. Its a little heavy-handed with "real world" messaging where our own global and national (USA) economy is depicted as "in shambles", which is NOT the same scenario as this fictional world. And yet the author tries to force her own views down your throat instead of focusing on the main issue of the climate of the FICTIONAL world which is literally and tyrannical takeovery from a malicious government/party. I'll say the quiet part outloud since people like to tiptoe around this: The Fire Nation is an allegory to Nazi Germany. But the author cares more about the message of "look how modern scociety is keeping the little man from getting ahead in this world! We are poor because They make us poor! Life is unfair because They have privileges that I don't and that's UNFAIR! I just want to have my own small business but I don't want to go to school because of bullies." Its PAINFULLY obvious that this author used this already established world and characters to preach her own message that she couldn't get a platform for, so she had to piggyback off an already known IP to say it. (PLEASE watch TheBackgroundNCP'S video on Why Do They Keep Doing This https://youtu.be/-I-wOSo0SJ4?si=ck1Ua...)

I would be more understanding to the main narative of the book, which is supposed to be a different perspective of the geopolitical climate of this world on a small scale while the Gaang were doing their thing, but this book has this horrible habit of TELLING you and not SHOWING you which is truly my main issue with this book.

We are TOLD through Jin's inner dialog more than half of the plot points and world lore. We are not SHOWN it.

We are TOLD that there is a plan in the 3rd act, and that there are contingencies for failer, but it was never explained or shown until after the fact. You can't have a heist/plan/mission arc without the exposition of said plan! That's just things happening without any set up! How did they get jobs in the palace? Why are we in the Laundry room? We are TOLD because of underworld connections after we are already there! Its a jarring way to change the scene without any explanation.

We are TOLD that she has this best friend who saved her when she first came into the city, but we were never shown that flashback, therefore we didn't have that emotional connection with the characters which makes the 3rd act suffer when they go to save Susu (the best friend), and Jin and Susu have this psudo-emotional reunion and the only core memory they can give the reader is that moment where they were sitting on that rooftop, dreaming of eating roast duck in the palace in the beginning of the book. You mean to tell me that these two girls are so close that Jin risks peoples' lives to save her, and are supposed to be "like sisters" and the best way they could undo Susu's brainwashing was to jog up their most recent happy memory of them dreaming of being rich? Gee, it sure would have been nice to draw up a deep trauma-filled flashback where the reader emotionally connected with these two characters🙄 Too bad it doesn't exist.

I'm tired. I feel like I'm being too critical in bashing this book. There are loads more issues I could touch on but I'm tired of being negative.

What the book DID do good is nailing the main established characters from the show. Zuko and Iroh, Smellerbee and Longshot, they are all very well written. More so Smellerbeed and Longshot since they have a bigger presence in the book. Their relationship was so sweetly written, and they really truly felt like the most humanized characters in the story. (The book should have been about them.) Joo Dee turned a little unhinged in the end, but I'll blame that on the trauma (instead of the writer needing a villain for the sake of a lackluster plots twist.)

In closing I ask, who was this book written for? Was it for people who were barely a teenager when the show came out and are now in their early 30s who want to revisit the universe as an adult? Or was this book written for a 13 year old who after having watched the live-action Netflix adaptation, realized there is a whole superior 3 seasons out there for them to watch for this said 13 year old to then discover there is a BOOK where the MFC is ✨️just like them✨️ in the most generic, safe, broad way so that it can reach a wider audience? Too bad the majority of the people who pick up this book are going to be the former scenario because the latter audience are the 13 year olds of today, and they are too busy reading ACOTAR or whatever book-of-the-week TikTok spews at them.

I don't know the audience for this book but it sure as hell wasn't me.

[Lindsay · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars.

I'm having trouble connecting the sweet girl who gathered up the courage to ask a boy on a date with the loner spy of this novel.

Besides that, this story is fine. Sure, it lacks emotional depth, and the pacing in parts 2 and 3 is off. However, nothing goes against the established lore of Avatar or is downright silly. The ending of Jin's story is bright, hopeful, and triumphant, just like Aang.

[Jada · Rating 2 out of 5]

Jin claims the people of Ba Sing Se are oppressed and poor, and maybe they are in certain ways, but they are far from struggling; Jin alone has a roof over her head, friends, family (whom she doesn't truly appreciate), food, and access to a good education— just as everyone else does. Her issue is that she, personally, is bored with her life.

She does have an actual reason for joining a gang and inserting herself in the political world (how convenient), but it's mostly motivated by her chance to finally get a sense of purpose and an adrenaline rush now and then.

The main problem is how vauge and skimmed over the most important details are: Her oh so-foolproof heists that we never hear details about, which fail again and again until the White Lotus involves themselves somehow; how she fell for
a guy who had no love for her until he suddenly did within the span of two months; and how she managed to even skip weeks of school with no faculty noticing or caring enough to call a meeting with her grandfather or anything.

(The only upside to this was getting more story for Longshot and Smellerbee; the author stayed true to their characters, and gave them closure.)

[Kylie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first thing I want to say is that I am mad I didn't do my research and realize that the main character of this book was an extremely minor character in ATLA!
This book revolves around our main character Jin and takes place during the ATLA show. Jin's best friend Susu has signed a contract to pay off her father's gambling debts in the Upper Ring and Jin is determined to save her.
To be honest, this didn't feel like a book from the Avatar world as much as the books about the previous Avatars do at first. As we got towards the end though, things that I remembered from the show pulled me fully into that world.
Jin is a really likeable character. She was adorable and would do anything to help Susu pay off her contract so she could return to her family. She had such a tragic backstory and family meant a lot to her. There was even a cameo from Zuko and Uncle Iroh!
Like I said, it took a minute to get into the story as an Avatar story, but I still enjoyed it as a story. I really liked how it wove in with the things that happened in the show. We get mentions of Lake Laogai, things happen on the eclipse and the comet. By the end, it really had me hooked and wanting to watch the show again and then read the book again.
The audiobook narrator was also great. She sounded like someone who would be in this world even though she was not the voice of Jin in the show.
I would love to read more books about Jin, or more books about minor characters being brought to the forefront and learning their stories. I think this is a really cool idea!
Thank you to Netgalley and Blackstone Publishing for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

[Matt Leicht · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read every book, comic, and graphic novel to come out of the Avatarverse so I can proudly say this is my favorite from the era of Aang. Although the Avatar himself is only mentioned a handful of time, seeing how these average Earth Kingdom citizens tried to resist the Fire Nation was inspirational. The entire time reading, you’re aware of how this war will end. You know the truths about “Lee and Mushi”, the White Lotus, the Avatar’s fate… but it doesn’t take away from the incredible narrative and journey of Jin who shines like a star in this book. Obsessed with this. Thank you for writing it, Judy I. Lin.

[Faye 🫀]

DNF 66% in

I fear I maybe needed to rewatch ATLA before dabbling with this?? I don’t really remember anything about Jin & I’m finding myself unsure of the other side stories/plot and the overall point of it & how much I was supposed to already know going into this??

I think when I rewatch ATLA I may come back and dabble with this

[Meg (fiction_gryphon) · Rating 5 out of 5]

By far the best YA novel yet in the ATLA universe! Hope they keep these coming!

[Kristen · Rating 3 out of 5]

City of Echoes is a story within the world of Avatar. Jin is a refugee in Ba Sing Se and ends up getting tangled up in the revolution in order to save her friend. This story had a good mix of action, drama, romance, and hopefulness. My biggest issue with the book was the timeline. It was hard to tell how much time was passing between major events. It made the story feel rushed in some areas. Overall, it was a quick and engaging read. It was fun to enter into the world of Avatar but from the eyes of different characters.

[Heather Marie]

It's times like this I need to remember Avatar is primarily a kids/teen franchise. And though I grew up with it, and continue to enjoy the series, I'm way out of the target demographic.

While it's amazing that we're getting extended universe books, this wasn't the strongest start to that in my opinion. The concept and bones of the story are really good, as Jin was a really cool one-off character in the Ba Sing Se arc from the show. And the idea of her working with not only The White Lotus, but Smellerbee and Longshot, makes all the sense in the world, as there's enough blank space for her character to make that work. Making her an Earthbender though felt like it was more out of convenience than anything, as we've seen countless efficient non-benders in the series. Also felt like her grandfather character could have just been cut and not lost anything, as well as her attending an academy, for all that it factored in. What's really compelling is her friendship with Susu being the driving force to take down the brainwashed "Joo Dee" characters, which was always left open ended in the The Last Airbender. And it was really interesting seeing a POV of a character who had absolutely no interaction with the Gaang, and how that reflects her worldview as a result.

All that being said, the writing just felt for lack of a better term, immature. Like it read like a middle grade book, which the length doesn't really justify I don't think. Also after a bit Jin's inner monologue read to me as really cheesy, and wasn't too far off from the Ember Islands version of Katara. I know that's harsh, but I think with a little tweaking, this could've been great, and the execution just fell flat.

[Nashia Darling · Rating 4 out of 5]

Avatar the Last Airbender is one of my favorite shows, and the books are honestly just as good.

I love that this story doesn't follow any of the past or present avatars. Rarely do we get to spend time in the world with normal citizens. This is a story about those who are facing the struggles brought on by the war.

The FMC is Jin who, despite only appearing in a single episode, is well known and liked by ATLA fans. She is the girl that goes on a date with Zuko. With many appearances by other more well-known characters as well.

She lives in Ba Sing Se as a refugee. Her best friend, Susu, must take work in the upper ring to pay off her families debt. The next time the two cross paths, something is clearly wrong. Susu doesn't remember Lin or her family.

This starts a chain reaction that takes Lin's journey to save her friend into the underbelly of the city. The timeline goes from when the avatar arrives at Ba Sing Se, all the way to the end of the war.

From beginning to end this story carries the same energy and atmosphere as the show. With multiple characters with their own personalities and motivations, a sweet and slow building crush between two characters, and the beauty that can come from a community that stands against oppression.

I am very excited to see what other books we will get in this universe.

I'm begging for the Cabbage Man's story!

Thank you NetGalley for the ALC!

[Sevki · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars rounded up to 4.

A solid addition to the Avatarverse. Mostly enjoyed the story. It has been nice to have a novel set during the events of ATLA, Book 2 specifically. The other 5 novels so far (sixth overall a.k.a. second Roku novel to be out in December) were all Avatar Chronicles, so this new series called Avatar Legends is a good idea indeed. I had fun seeing the minor episodic characters as main ones, experiencing the world from their perspective while also having the "cameos" from the main characters of the main show. A good structure.

Even though the progression and pacing have mostly been good, I got bored during the last 30-40 pages actually, which is surprising and weird because basing on the events already known to be occuring from ATLA, the finale chapters could and should have been better. Instead, they were kind of rushed and felt like without a soul, IYKWIM. The author's writing is adequate, but maybe she needs to work on how to finalize a good story? Who knows. We will see if she is picked for more novels, and if there are more Avatar Legends for the future.

I would strongly recommend. If it weren't for the final 30-40 pages, I would have confidently said a solid 4, but it's good at the end anyways. Enjoy!

[TJ · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was so neat seeing the events of books 2-3 through Jin's POV, but this book's pacing is all over the place, making it feel more like an outline/checklist of references. I appreciate this book for fleshing Jin out as a character (she's your typical YA protagonist, so she was a clear pick for a YA book), but I left this story feeling like there were better options to explore this time/place, namely Smellerbee, Longshot, or even Joo Dee (or one of them anyways). The Joo Dee plotline is in this book, but being in that perspective would have been so interesting. There was a place for Jin in this, but I think focusing it entirely on her was a mistake, as it wasn't as interesting as it could have been. I'd recommend this book only for huge ATLA fans, especially those who like Jin (all 2 of you before now?) and/or Smellerbee and Longshot. 3/5 stars.

[Trisha · Rating 4 out of 5]

.5 added for nostalgia

Such a great way to expand more of the Avatar universe, getting to see more of Ba Sing Se and to experience the events from another perspective was nice. I wanted there to be more focus of the ending that did end up feeling a little rushed but this was still an enjoyable read.

[Chelsea Adams · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book!!! The detail, the lore, the story!!! All incredible!!!

[Ethan Fulkerson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book that takes place during ATLA!! 10/10

[joanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Actual Rating: 3.5 ✨

[Kaylee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid three stars. This was a fun read, but it definitely had some issues.

First off, the writing. I’ve actually already read this author’s first series, the Book of Tea Duology. And while I enjoyed the first one in that series, the second one was a bit of a slog for me. So I was a bit hesitant to pick this book up, even though it takes place in one of my all-time favorite universes. Thankfully, the occasionally bland and dragging writing style of the Book of Tea Duology was much quicker paced in this book. The writing was easy to breeze through and overall pretty fun. But there were still some issues. There were a pretty decent amount of grammar mistakes in this book, enough where it made me raise an eyebrow. Sentences were cut off at odd spots, creating small sentence fragments that could have easily been joined to the previous sentence. It happened in such strange places, too, so I don’t think it was a stylistic choice. Or, if it was, it definitely didn’t read that way to me: there wasn’t any meaningful use of it; it felt like it was just thrown in. A couple comma splice errors or places where commas were needed appeared as well, but those were far less proliferous and therefore bothered me less.
I do like the attempt to keep chapters short; I (and many others) definitely feel much more motivated to continue reading when it seems like I’m making a lot of progress. However, I don’t think short chapters were utilized very well in this book. A lot of chapters, especially in the beginning and middle, left off at very underwhelming points. Ideally, chapters should end with a mini-cliffhanger, hook, or natural stopping point to encourage readers to continue. And I just didn’t see that consistently in this book, which made the pacing feel out of wack, too.

But enough about the writing. What about the story? Well, for starters, this is the start of a new ATLA book series, which is super exciting. It seems like this anthology will focus on individual side characters’ stories in more detail. What this means: exciting new content with HUGE levels of potential. What is also means: you 100% have to have watched the show before reading this book. Which, in my opinion, is in no way a bad thing. This is definitely meant to be supplemental material to the main story, which is why I will give it a pass for the constant references to the White Lotus. I think this book’s pacing doesn’t really make sense without prior knowledge of and appreciate for the main show- the Fire Nation attack at the end comes out of nowhere, the whole Jet thing is kept vague on purpose, and the Joo Dees aren’t explained very in-depth. So, for anything the show has already covered, I will be lenient in my criticisms.
However. The book contains a lot of stuff that the show doesn’t cover, of course. And that stuff ranges from pretty good to mid. The beginning of the story is interesting, but I think it lacks a bit of focus. When Susu takes the offer to unknowingly become a Joo Dee, it sets up stakes in the reader’s mind that are then seemingly forgotten about in favor of Xuan and the Silver Fangs plotline. For once, I actually think a main character didn’t think about a missing friend enough. Just one or two more mentions, in strategic places in the story, would have gone a long way in making it seem like tensions were rising. Also, there is a giant timeskip towards the end of the book, right before the climax, which felt extremely out of place and cheap. It means Jin can conveniently not have to go through a grief arc about her grandfather, and also means that we didn’t have to see any of the work that went into learning about the palace and its inner workings. This means that any stakes the book raised earlier are effectively shot down. It doesn’t seem like we need to worry about this going wrong, because, to the reader, it took all of two pages to plan and execute. There were a few other things that bothered me, but I don’t have the energy to complain about everything, so I’ll just say this: the story was entertaining, but the pacing was very weird and the stakes didn’t feel all that high.

Moving on. I think this author has a serious problem with telling instead of showing. Character development is TOLD to us in almost every circumstance where there is a chance for a character to grow. This is, of course, especially a problem with Jin, since she’s our POV.
Jin was. . . Fine. She was entertaining enough as a character, and in terms of the three main aspects of a character at the beginning of the story (backstory, motivations, and personality), Jin has two of them. Her backstory, while not told to us in a very meaningful or interesting way, offers a unique background of her, and her motivation to free Susu and save her friend’s family’s bakery is very well established and continued throughout the story. It’s the third aspect that’s putting me off. Jin is apparently awkward, which is shown to us only when convenient. And. . . She’s curious? Yeah, fair, I can see that. And. . . Uh. . . Brave? Loyal? The exact same as every other main character ever? Jin just isn’t that interesting or unique, and despite the author trying to tell us that she changes from working with the Silver Fangs, she doesn’t. Jin acts the exact same way at the end of the story as the start, just a bit happier. Her supposed ‘arc’ about making a home in Ba Sing Se felt cheap, because we didn’t really get to see that happen. And her romance with Xuan was bland and underdeveloped, though thankfully not toxic.
Xuan was pretty bland, honestly. I can’t get a single personality trait from this guy. He’s just ‘blank slate male love interest’ #45. His romance with Jin was cute, I guess, but I could see it coming a mile away, so it wasn’t that entertaining. I wish he’d had more personality or unique characteristics. He served his purpose, but I definitely wasn’t a big fan.
Susu was a little underdeveloped, in my opinion, but she wasn’t bad. I just would have liked to see some ramifications for the time she spent as a Joo Dee. You would think that would have some impact on her. But I’m not too upset about it; she was a pretty good supporting character.
Smellerbee and Longshot returned! I was actually really happy to see both of these characters, and I was pleasantly surprised that they both seemed true to their ATLA depictions. I think they were some of the best handled characters in the book, if a bit quick to trust Jin compared to how they acted before.

I think the villains were pretty good. Since this book focuses on characters who aren’t as cracked at bending and fighting as Team Avatar, it makes sense to have lower level threats in terms of the power scale. And, for the most part, I think this was done well.
The Dai Li function as a threatening presence and entity more than an actual physical antagonist, but they serve their role well.
Again, the Fire Nation attack at the end was a little out of nowhere, but I’ll forgive it because it probably did feel that way to anyone who didn’t know about the comet.

Overall, while I think this book had its upsides and downsides, and could have definitely been better, I enjoyed the reading experience. I can’t wait to see what else comes in this series!


SERIES RATINGS:
City of Echoes: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

[Brooksie Fontaine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Surprise #1: there's a whole novel about Jin, a seemingly one-off character from the most beloved of filler episodes, The Tales of Ba Sing Se.

Surprise #2: this book is absolutely amazing! Judy I. Lin had a really difficult task here: she had to introduce Jin's whole life while still weaving around pre-established events in the ATLA timeline, and she did a FANTASTIC job.

Some spoilers ahead from this point on, so be warned.

I always liked Jin, even when all I'd ever known about her was her brief appearance in Tales of Ba Sing Se (and she had an even more brief, non-canon cameo in Team Avatar Tales/Lost Adventures, too.) I loved her character design, confidence, and patience while dealing with Zuko's social awkwardness.

This book increased my love for her tenfold. She's smart, insecure, anxious, proactive, and palpably real, tethered by deep love and loss for those around her - especially her grandfather, her late parents, her best friend, and eventually, her boyfriend.

Let's talk a little bit about those last two. Jin's best friend, Susu, is someone I immediately took to; the way she's described is both charismatic and endearing, and it helps that Susu, too, has family ties (including an adorable baby sister) who allow me to be immediately invested in her fate.

Jin's love for Susu forms the basis of the plot. Without going into too many details, the circumstances which drive the two girls apart feel palpably real and absolutely gut-wrenching - drawn in large part from socioeconomic conditions in post-Cultural Revolution China, in which young, desperate girls are often compelled into exploitative working conditions in the hopes of creating better lives for themselves and their families.

I LOVE the fact that the basis of the book is formed around a non-romantic love story between two friends, and Jin's desire to get Susu back creates amazingly compelling tension between the narrative.

And I also love, love, love Jin's love interest, Xuan! The two have amazing chemistry, and the narrative presents their enemies-to-lovers dynamic in a way that isn't overly cliche-driven or indulgent. They're two people who got off on the wrong foot but ultimately have a lot in common, and the book really made me root for them.

The book - like the original ATLA series - also draws from both pre-and-post Cultural Revolution methods of tyranny and surveillance to demonstrate the corruption in Ba Sing Se. The way the Joo Dees are portrayed is especially haunting, and the fact that some of them don't even want to leave the position even knowing that they've been brainwashed because of the relative security it affords them.

Of course, Ba Sing Se and the Earth Kingdom aren't JUST Chinese - it draws from a myriad of cultures for inspiration, including American, and is ultimately part of a fantasy world that isn't meant to perfectly parallel our own. That being said, the cultural inspiration works really well here, and plays into some tangible worldbuilding. The food, the attire, the surroundings, the calligraphy brushes, socioeconomic conditions, and overlapping cultures make this world feel SO real I can touch it.

Jin's vulnerability as a refugee is also really well portrayed here, which brings me to another element of the book I love: the Freedom Fighters! I never thought too much of Smellerbee, but she's one of my favorite characters now. And I loved Long Shot's portrayal, too.

And speaking of favorite characters, the book of course features appearances from two of my favorite characters in ATLA and all of fiction: Zuko and Iroh, or Lee and Mushi, as they call themselves in Ba Sing Se.

This was one of Lin's toughest tasks when it came to appeasing the fandom, and as with everything else, she did a great job. I loved how she portrayed Lin's fleeting but mutually meaningful connection with Zuko, and I loved Iroh's portrayal as well. On that note, the depiction of the White Lotus was super cool, and created a feel of espionage that made the book very thrilling.

In conclusion: it's great. Every ATLA fan should read it. I really look forward to more from this series, and I hope Judy I. Lin continues to write for this franchise!

[Knightfall · Rating 5 out of 5]

This books is so great. I swear to God, it is a new type of storytelling in Avatar Universe.

This book is about Jin. You probably don't remember her, but she is the Earth Kingdom girl who kissed Zuko in Ba Sing Se. She literally had 5 minutes of screen time, but Judy I. Lin somehow wrote a whole goddamn story about her.

The whole point of the story is to show Ba Sing Se and the war from the simple person's view. And why don't they choose Jin? I mean, people always wanted to know what happened to her and some people even say that Zuko's daughter's mom is Jin. I mean, what the fuck you people be talking about? It is 100% obvious that Mai is Zuko's wife. They literally were created for each other, yes, they broke up in The Promise, but Mai still loves him and Zuko still loves her. They'll be couple again. And by the way, Jin had a boyfriend in the end of the story - Xuan and she didn't give a fuck that many about "Lee". Just a kiss, just a memory.

The story showed a war and the corruption of the Ba Sing Se from the Lower Ring girl's view. How she was struggling to eat sometimes and how people from other rings were making fun of her. She has a bestfriend - Susu. And story kind of goes around her. Susu's dad fucked up and gambled away their house and Susu decided to sell herself to the Dai Li agents, so her family would still own the house. Pretty brave move. And Jin tried her best to buy back Susu. She got into gang Silver Fang with Xuan's help and started to deliver illegal packages. Some drug dealing is going on here. She tries her best, BUT the price is big. They also showed Ba Sing Se conquering from the people sight and how her only left family member (her gradpa) dies. While doing Silver Fang's missions, she meets two people that you probably know. Smellerbee and Longshot. So there is new plan. Kidnap her away and Smellerbee and Longshot will help. The thing is that, she already met Susu, but Susu "pretends" that she doesn't know them. She calls herself Joo Dee. Unfortunately, Jin doesn't know anything about brainwashing, so she thinks that by pretending to not knowing her, she protects her. She and Xuan got hired to be some servants in palace and they waited slowly for the eclipse to steal Susu and un-brainwash her. The general (I forgot her name, but he is the first general who met Aang) tells them about eclipse and that Avatar Aang is dead. They lose hope, but they won't give up. During the eclipse, they wanted to save Susu, but Dai Li knew about their attack and arrested them. They were in prison for 4-10 days and it is their first place where they kissed. Then something unexpected happens. Susu comes to them and tells them that she heard that you people know who she is. So there is a hope, Jin tries to recall their shared moment and after 2 days she remembers. Then one day, Dai Li takes them to somewhere where they meet Aunt Sumi (she is Silver Fang's leader). Jin and Xuan feel betrayed, but in fact, she tells them that she is from White Lotus and she need their help to take back the city. Their mission to tell as many people as they can about the war and that they need any help to fight back the city. They escape with Susu from palace and use salt cookies with hidden message to tell everyone about the upcoming war. They want to take back the city during the Sozin's comet (they have no idea its effect). And the war starts, how every bender and every man fight with Fire Nation Soldiers to take back city. Every gang member, everyone. They also saw some huge fire tornado and how this tornado was destroying tundra tanks (he is Jeong Jeong).

And that's it. The really interesting story. In the end, Jin recognizes Zuko from New Fire Nation's King poster, but she doesn't care. She just holds on the memory, that not every Fire Nation citizen is evil. The only problem I have with that story is that why did they choose Jin? This story would be amazing if it was some other unknown girl, but they chose Jin so people would stop shipping Jin and Zuko. And by the way, Jet is dead (some people think he survived), they put him in grave.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

[Turbo Anna · Rating 2 out of 5]

As a huge ATLA fan (like many) now in her late 20's, I went to B&N to purchase this book straight away shortly after the book was released. I loved Zuko's brief arc with Jin from the show, the curious and goofy girl from the Lower Ring who was bold enough to ask out and show our emo, conflicted prince a lighter side of Ba Sing Se. So when I found out that there was now a whole novel on this side character, I was elated and ready to also let Judy Lin - a renowned, post-2020 Asian Canadian YA author whose work is well-informed by Chinese mythologies and ancient history - to immerse us in her adaptation of ATLA through Jin's eyes. And how I turned out be so disappointed...

Even as a stand-a-lone book (forget the fact this is rooted in a franchise), the writing is all TELL, rarely show... I am told ~85% of times what to think and how to feel, mixed upon very straight-forward flat active narrative and some dialogue.

A couple examples of some heavy-handed telling:

"For people like us in the Lower Ring, everything has a cost. If the officials come to us and tell us to jump, then we have to ask how high. It's the way life works here, everyone barely clinging to life." (p. 37)

"What was the Avatar doing when he was so recently spotted at the palace? Did he attend one of the parties and then disappear [... redacted to avoid spoiler] Those are the questions that someone like me, a speck of dirt in the midst of all the people who call Earth Kingdom home, will always wonder about but never find an answer to." (p. 190)

OK, I get it. Jin is a refugee who's very self-aware of her status, convinced that the stakes are always against people like her and struggling Lower Ring folks of Ba Sing Se, and of course -- for some character development -- she will learn a series of things about her world where things are not as they seem. Except we don't actually end up getting any profound depth to her character, nor to the leading male interest who is not Zuko, not surprisingly or any other character really.

There are a couple of chapters that do include Zuko and Iroh, with dialogue straight from the original TV series, but I felt that the cheerful Jin in those chapters feels different than the careful, distrustful Jin of the author's own chapters... It's as if the author introduced excuses for Jin to suddenly say the lines that she's said in the TV show. Zuko is brushed off as a brief crush interest where after that famous kiss scene, Jin realizes that there is no connection... this conveniently sets her up well to fall in love more organically instead with Xuan, the other love interest.

The world building is not bad - lots of clear Chinese influences (as the original ATLA heavily referenced Beijing and Chinese dynasties for Ba Sing Se), such as the mannerisms of Susu's (Jin's best friend) female family members who are hospitable, hardworking busy-bodies like your usual Asian Aunties... down to what makes a good egg custard... calligraphy... alleyways... secret societies that informally govern the streets of the people. The book has all the right dressings, just rarely any memorable depth of settings or interactions in my opinion except for the introduction of the Weeping Hills, where bodies of the poor are buried without much ritual (likely where Iroh set up a makeshift memorial for his son).

The plot follows a really weird cadence. At the height of events, they are resolved as quickly as they happened - actions scenes sloppily written in the most nondescriptive way. The intended emotional arcs are flat, because you can definitely count on Jin to tell us that she is sad, cannot eat, cannot sleep but must pull herself together for the greater good of a mission.

This might as well just be Jin's very self-aware, introspective diary... not a novel.

(I sure hope Judy Lin's original series are better than this book)

[Iain Hawkes · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a letdown, to be honest. :(

I should explain a few things before getting into why. First, I knew going in that this book would be YA at most, since Avatar is intended for the tween to teen audience first and foremost. However, even with that expectation, the writing was too junior for my liking. It's not that this IP can't do more gritty writing (e.g. the Kyoshi books), but this is very much in keeping with the tone of the cartoon. And while there's nothing inherently wrong with that, when the book outright calls Jin a refugee, within the context of the Hundred Years War, I expected a bit more maturity than what I got.

But okay, fine - it wants that tone, it can have it. And that aside, I did have some hopes going in. Despite Jin appearing in one segment of one episode in Season 2 (sans a cameo at the end), I've always liked her character for a variety of reasons. However, the Jin here is not the same Jin as she is in said episode, and while it's not really incongruent in the sense of canon, I can't say I'm fond of the changes here. In Season 2, Jin came across as "the everywoman," the type of person who doesn't shape the world, or even have earthbending, but like everyone in life, is living her own story. Here, Jin joins up with the Freedom Fighters and does stuff, but sort of not, and is also an earthbender, because of course she is. Again, I concede that these are subjective judgements, but it isn't the kind of story I wanted nor expected.

The thing is, the first third of the book ironically kind of gives me what I expected, but not in a particularly engaging way. Set during the timeframe of season 2, the book has a "and then" approach to storytelling rather than "therefore," so while this does fit in with Jin's 'tier' of characters (i.e. background), it doesn't make for engaging storytelling all that much. The novel does start to pick up though, and ironically, because of Jin joining up with the likes of Longshot and Smellerbee from the cartoon, occurring in parallel to Season 2. If the novel had stayed at this quality, I'd have probably given it four stars. Also, incidentally, the novel does replay Jin and Zuko's date from the episode she debuts in, and it feels incidental to the rest of the novel. Also, said novel pretty much sinks the ship, so boo!

But come the halfway mark, things descend. I'm not sure how you make the Fire Nation's occupation of Ba Sing Se boring, but somehow the novel managed it. Now that we've entered the timeframe of season 3, you might expect a bit more 'oomph,' but there isn't. Jin wants to rescue her friend, Suyin, from the Jo Dees (which are actually handled okay), but there's very little bearing on the wider events of the war at this point in time. Towards the end of the book (and by its nature, season 3), I got the sense of it being "doomed by canon," as in, Jin can't take part in any earthshattering (no pun intended) events because it didn't play out that way in canon. She can't be the one to liberate Ba Sing Se, because Iroh did it. She can't be involved in Ozai's airship assault on the kingdom, because Aang was the one who stopped him. That's not to say you can't work around that, but toward the end, it feels like things are happening, yet also not.

So, yeah. This novel was a letdown. It's not bad, I'd probably have enjoyed it more if I was younger, but I didn't like the choices made, and it's welded far too closely to canon to have an interesting story. If "Avatar Legends" is going to be a sub-series, I'm all for it, but IMO, needs to strike out on its own more. The comics succeeded by bridging the gap between The Last Airbender and Legend of Korra, the Chronicles of the Avatar work as prequels, but this still needs to find its footing.

[Fallon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the Last Airbender series (not that one movie) and have watched it with my eldest child and am now rewatching it for the millionth time with my youngest. This world has everything, and this book is a little more teenager-driven than the younger Avatar fans might be used to. Though we see darkness in Aang's world, there is always some levity. This story shows what the people went through when the Avatar wasn't around, and the fallout of the war that they were not allowed to talk about. In Ba Sing Se, when Aang was visiting the Upper Ring, and when Zuko and Uncle Iroh worked in a tea shop, is the timeline where we start this story. It mentions the Avatar, but we never see him or his friends. This does follow Jin, who escaped with her grandfather to Ba Sing Se after her village was attacked by the Fire Nation. Though she is an Earthbender, she only knows the basic skills, as her grandfather thought that bending would put a target on her and calligraphy would be safe. She found a friend in Susu whose family owns a bakery in the lower ring. After Susu's father gambles away the family bakery, Susu signs a contract to work off her debt in the upper ring. Jin is determined to rescue her from this fate that they both swore they would never end up in. As time goes on, Jin finds herself taking jobs from Xuan, a boy from her school, who has her delivering items from a secret group trying to overthrow the Fire Nation from within Ba Sing Se. As the world grows more bleak, these teenagers meet some more along the way, band together to save their friends, and help where they can in keeping Ba Sing Se safe from the tyrannical Fire Nation.

I know I had the timeline start before, but let's go back, we are going from the time that Zuko and Iroh were in Ba Sing Se working in a tea shop to just after the comet. Though Zuko and Iroh were using different names, Iroh always steals a scene. I don't know what it is about him, but he is my favorite character. This man, who would have been an amazing Fire Lord, was a fantastic uncle instead. I love the empathy that Iroh has, and we get to see the softer side of Zuko. Though they are mostly in the beginning, they do have a significant impact on Jin. There is so much heart in this book, and not every outcome turns out well. It brings the spirit of what the show has created and compacts it into a book about the ordinary people making big impacts in the only ways that they could. How in the battle between what is right and wrong, the small pebbles can make big waves. Just a great story with first loves, losses, betrayals, explosions, and coming to learn all that you can do when you believe in yourself or have a goal set in mind. The narrator did a fantastic job as well. Just everything about this story was top-notch. If you are an Avatar fan, you'll need to pick this up; there are many call-outs to things that occurred in the series in Ba Sing Se from a different angle.

[Robert Greenberger · Rating 3 out of 5]

I know this much about The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra, so I approached this first novel in what is being billed as the Avatar Legends series. Is the title intended to be about stories set in and around the Avatar series, or is the legend in question the protagonist in this Young Adult novel? That’s open to interpretation.

Set in Ba Sing Se, the last major city in the Earth Kingdom; mainly in the Lower Ring, we come across refugees from the atrocities committed by the Fire Nation, as they seemingly rampage across the world. The Avatar is nowhere to be seen and is rumored to be dead (we know better, right?). We focus on Jun, a sixteen-year-old whose family was lost, so she and her grandfather take refuge where they can. She enrolls in school, utilizing her skills as a calligrapher to do what she can to support herself.

Jin’s best friend, Susu, is from a family that owns the popular Wen Bakery. Things kick off when Susu signs a contract to serve the Upper Ring after her father gambles away the bakery. Jin promises to find a way to raise the funds to settle the debt and regain her friend. This results in allying herself with the somewhat aloof Xuan, a classmate whose family runs the apothecary where she gets her grandfather’s medicine.

From there, she takes on increasing risks to find money and Susu, becoming a messenger for the Black Market Silver Fangs before being initiated into their ranks. When she encounters Susu, she is a brainwashed member of the Joo Dee and does not recognize her bestie. As the Fire Kingdom’s soldiers invade the city, she also becomes part of the resistance.

Our focus rarely leaves Jin, who is constantly challenged about her assumptions regarding people, as well as her nascent skills as an Earthbender. Her growth drives the narrative as she befriends other refugees-turned-freedom fighters, including Smellerbee and Longshot.

Lin keeps the story moving along at a good pace, offering each character just enough of a personality to be interesting, but none are provided much in the way of depth. Conversations that would have allowed the characters to grow are truncated in favor of advancing the plot. The contrasting lives of the two rings are also given short shrift, so she imagines her readers can picture the locales based on the animated series. Speaking of which, we see Jet’s familiar attack on the Pao Family Tea House from Jin’s point of view, giving you an anchor as to where this fits into the overall continuity.

Events present obstacles and challenges, but few of the characters are truly endangered, blunting the edge this could have had.

Clearly, I am not the audience for this work, but it was an entertaining enough read, and fans of the series should enjoy this self-contained story.

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don’t read a lot of fiction. Even so, I really liked how the struggles of the main character and the Earth Kingdom people are presented. It was also really exciting reading parts of the book that were connected to the main story. But because I picked this book up for the more political side of things, I will lay my thoughts down here:
The political narrative in this book is, unexpectedly, very good. Early on in the book it’s presented that people in the lower ring of Ba Sing Se have a difficult time scraping by and also imagining how they would climb a non-existent ladder. All of the central characters have some sort of struggle that is inherently related to liberation: the Wen family and their success; Susu and her reversal of her brainwashing, etc. Jin is left with a difficult decision which many people in the real world also are: she can’t pay the exorbitant price, so she becomes desperate and joins a gang. That gang is known as the Silver Fangs.
Throughout the story, the Silver Fangs act initially as a gang, but present more so as a vanguard for facilitating revolutionary actions. It’s a self-described "collective" where business owners who pay dues have a say in running the group, but are overseen by the Judge and the Singer. One of their main values is to keep history and to know their past, which is repeatedly a problem throughout the story seeing that many people are essentially kidnapped and brainwashed to become servants, erasing any amount of history individually but also erasing any revolutionary potential any “dangerous” people may have.
Later on, the Dai Li (who are the secret police in the story, intended to suppress dissent) are used by the Silver Fangs, which initially seems contradictory and counter-revolutionary, but it is quickly explained that they use the Dai Li their the benefit of their liberation. They use the Dai Li to arrest Jin and Xuan because they view their attempt at capturing Susu as rash and counter-revolutionary in nature, because this individually revolutionary act is spontaneous and uncoordinated with the larger effort.
It is also briefly explained that the Fire Nation attempted to bribe people into fighting amongst themselves. This is incredibly similar to how Frantz Fanon explains that the colonial entity will stoke tribal differences in an effort to create infighting among ethnic or non-nationalist lines.
Overall I was really impressed with the political narratives portrayed. I’m not at all surprised considering Avatar is known for its political themes, but considering how decolonization is portrayed in the comics, it is a bit refreshing.

[❥・alexi · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars except the extra 0.25 stars are carried by the mere fact that the main character is one of my favourite atla side characters.

the writing style was admittedly very mid and the world-building wasn’t /extremely/ expansive, but this book gets extra points because i love jin and all content relating to her. i also really love atla. my extra biases must be taken into consideration as every positive aspect is enhanced through my rose-colored sunglasses.

jin and xuan’s overall dynamic left me completely unimpressed. i didn't loathe them, but i also didn't give a damn about them, either. that’s a whole other rant i’m too lazy to unpack so i’ll leave it there. if i’m going to be honest, the writing’s delivery left me pretty underwhelmed — and irritated, at times?

this book was heavy on the YA aspect, which usually isn't much of an issue for me, except plenty lines here lingered on too juvenile for my personal tastes. aside from that, some of the internal monologues felt forced and repetitive, and some of them wayyy too on-the-nose. i’d say everything was as subtle as a brick. there was also a feeling of disconnect between show jin and book jin. i enjoyed both versions, but the character work felt off and the show-to-book perspectives could’ve been portrayed smoother.

it was really cool to see how the avatar would seem from a common person’s perspective. as a book itself, though, i’m not certain it would’ve been able to stand on its own, without it being backed up by the nostalgia of the original atla show.

Jing is the energy that is at the center of bending. The earth may seem unyielding, but it’s the essence of neutral jing. The shift of a single pebble can send a rockslide down the side of a mountain.

final verdict :

warm!! + not sold on the writing style and the way a lot of interactions progressed + the new characters were alright but pretty whatever + the ties to the show were fun + jin was cool

unfortunately middling but still enjoyable. did i yearn for more depth? yes. was it still an okay experience? yes. as a jin fan i can give it a half-assed thumps up.

I feel like my grandfather and my parents are watching over me still. They want to see me succeed. They dream, like I do, of a city where I am no longer a refugee, but free.

[Drew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Author Judy Lin did a skillful job turning Jin (a well-liked one-episode side character from "Tales of Ba Sing Se") into the featured character here. I am aware that connected novels, like such of those from F.C. Yee, are considered to be added to the "Avatar the Last Airbender" canon. As a result, myself and other fans of the show are provided an excellent treat about the lore of Ba Sing Se and about the events before and after the Avatar's presence in the city (the last 1/3 or so of ATLA Season 2).

Jin was interesting to follow to learn all of this. She has a tragic backstory, but she is determined to make do what she has to, in order to keep at it in life. I sense that this book can provide an outlook as how real-world refugees and migrants feel: traveled on their bare feet of difficult areas, residing in an unfamiliar place, and doing what one can in order to provide for themselves and their families. Jin has her sickly grandfather to take care of. Jin's neighbor, Suyin Wen, is a girl with an overworked mother, a deadbeat alcoholic dad (often ending up in jail), a fragile grandmother, and a baby sister. Despite their hardships, the two girls remain close with another. When a situation affects Suyin (known as Susu), Jin takes action to help her and the family.

I know I anticipated it, but the scene of the date with Zuko from Jin's perspective was a real delight to read. Despite how things went, Jin was never bitter or upset at Zuko personally. This is implied in the show (and the resulting comic that follows). Traumatized refugees detect trauma from their fellow refugees quite well, and that was what Jin sensed in him.

There is a full plot though, in Jin's attempt to come to the aid of Susu, even with the inner turmoil from the Dai Li (the secret police) and the outer trouble from the Fire Nation (the invaders) are causing additional problems. I enjoyed this book, and I'd give it a 4-star rating. I hope Ms. Lin keeps on writing- I'll keep an additional eye on this!

[Jesse Fitzgerald · Rating 4 out of 5]

Remember Jin, that one girl who went on a date with Zuko in The Tales of Ba Sing Se from Avatar: The Last Airbender? Well, someone decided that the first Avatar Legends novel should have her as the protagonist. Of all the characters to pick, Jin is an intriguing one. Although she was such a minor character, fans, including myself, have been curious to learn what happened to her after that one episode. However, I feel that several other characters would be more fitting for exploration in novel form, particularly those affiliated with the White Lotus or the Red Lotus. After finishing the book, if this is the kind of backstory, character development, and worldbuilding we receive regarding a one-off character like Jin, then I am expecting great things for later Legends novels.

I did not expect Jin's story to be emotional, tragic, uplifting, or as insightful as it was. Through her eyes, we gain a deeper understanding of what life in Ba Sing Se was like for ordinary people. Additionally, we witness her struggles as a refugee from the war with the Fire Nation. Viewers of the show wouldn't know this, but she is apparently an earthbender who has had to hide that aspect of her life to avoid being targeted by the enemy. Her journey delves into the corrupt practices of the Da Li and even intersects with some familiar faces from ATLA.

As an ATLA and TLOK fan, this novel kept me engaged, but it is not without its faults. The story's pacing was initially slow and then became rushed in the last third as the author attempted to cover several key events from the third season of ATLA. Furthermore, one of the main conflicts in the narrative was resolved too quickly. Not that it wasn't challenging for Jin, but I expected there to be more struggle to overcome it.

Despite its shortcomings, I still thoroughly enjoyed this book and am eager to see what other non-avatar characters get their own books. I am still rooting for Tenzin, Zaheer, Jeong Jeong, Piandao, Kanna ("Gran Gran"), Suyin, and the Cabbage Guy.