For No Mortal Creature
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
What is dead can die again.
When Jia Yi suddenly finds herself alive again after being stabbed through the heart by an enemy’s sword, she realizes she possesses a rare power: the ability to move between the living realm and the mysterious, shrouded world of ghosts. Including the spirit of Lin, her ex-best friend and the love of her life, who betrayed her horribly before disappearing for good.
At first, Jia wants nothing more than to leave the past where it belongs – especially after Lin's ghost nearly kills her during their first encounter. Until her beloved grandmother abruptly passes away, and Jia learns her one chance at saving her might lie with a legendary artifact rumored to be hidden somewhere in the afterlife.
To rescue her grandmother, Jia must traverse the treacherous layers of the death realm, all while navigating her complicated feelings for Lin. But there are others searching for the artifact, too – people such as Essien Lancaster, the young prince of a rival kingdom, and Jia's longtime enemy.
Jia will need the help of both Essien and Lin if she wants to survive the afterlife. Only, she isn't sure whether she can trust either of them. With tensions high and new and old connections blooming, Jia must confront the ghosts of her past … or risk becoming one herself.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A 17-year-old combs the afterlife for a powerful weapon in this clever but convoluted Wuthering Heights riff from Chow (The Girl with No Reflection). While gathering herbs to heal her ailing grandmother, Jia strays too close to the land border separating her country, Jinghu Dao, from neighboring nation Yske, and is killed by an enemy soldier. Thankfully, Jia possesses the ability to self-resurrect—a fact she and handsome Yskian prince Essien both learn when she reanimates for the first time while inside his castle. Essien lets Jia leave after she promises to revisit the underworld and retrieve for him a fabled sword that can purportedly conquer death. Following losing her grandmother, however, Jia secretly hatches a new plan to find and use the sword to resurrect the old woman. But navigating the demon-infested death realm requires help from a resident ghost—namely that of Jia's best friend and first love, Lin, who betrayed Jia before dying in a drunken brawl. Intersectionally diverse characters are slimly developed, and the jam-packed plot's ample twists result in a read that's often confusing. Nevertheless, rich and inventive worldbuilding inspired by Chinese folklore and mythology, conveyed via darkly funny first-person narration, make for an entertaining horror-tinged romantasy. Ages 14–up.
