Review #336

5/5 stars!!! I rarely love a book this much. AND it was a sequel, which is unheard of for me. All the hideously perfect dark prose made me super giddy. Read “The Keeper of Night” first. Here’s my live thoughts while reading:

This sequel already starts with beautiful darkness of soul sucking of humans in Tokyo. The recap is refreshing without being info dump.

Ginza, Yokai, & Jinrikisha are new words for me so I need to figure that out.

Is she your highness, as in royalty, or a goddess?

So, is Tsukuyomi the brother of Ren’s love interest in the first book? I’m hoping he’s not the secondary love interest. I’m glad it’s unpredictable so far and I’m completely obsessed with the poetic prose.

Why are the Reapers coming for her for punishment and why is she nervous if she has the powers and title of Goddess of Death?

If the moon god hasn’t seen his sister in a thousand years then how can he predict how she’s going to respond. Does he assume she hasn’t changed or grown over time?

I love how the descriptions don’t slow down the action. When a beast appears, the emotions are intense, the scene is quick, yet I can still picture its details without confusion. This is rare writing.

Giant murderous centipede? YES!
Invisible cloud bridge? YES YES! A palace in the sky? YES YES YES!

A sword of divinity? Yes! A festival of the dead? YES! This is awesome!!!

Halfway through and Im obsessed with this book. After a chess game with a soul, she finally has some answers.

The origami dragon is similar to an idea I have for my next manuscript, The Phantom Ink.

Rob the emperor? Awesome. I’m on board.

I love the brilliance of how Ren’s character is shown by comparisons to her predecessor.
When I made it 3/4 through this novel, I was so in love with the prose that I preordered Kylie Lee Baker’s next novel, releasing October 2023, called “The Scarlet Alchemist.” Everything about that title intrigues me.

When they call her Wren, is that a typo?

So I was a tiny bit sad that Ren wasn’t more rage driven at the climax. Some of her choices felt a little against her character. And at the finale, the title of the novel doesn’t quite add up to me. But this was a rare 5 stars for me. I didn’t want it to end.