Amélie Wen Zhao

Dark Star Burning, Ash Falls White / Amélie Wen Zhao

/ Alisha Helms / Leave a comment 
Dark Star Burning, Ash Falls White
By: Amélie Wen Zhao
Genre: YA, Fantasy
Number of Pages: 345
Published: January 2, 2024
Publisher: Delacorte
Dates Read: February 28, 2024 - March 2, 2024
Format: Library Book / Audiobook

The ending of the Song of the Last Kingdom duology picks up years after the Elantian’s invaded Lan’s homeland and killed her mother. Determined to finish her mother’s legacy, Lan departs to destroy the Demon Gods. Meanwhile, Zen makes a deal with the Demon God known as the Black Tortoise and has set out to save everyone – even if that means destroying himself. 

The world building in this book was so much more than I felt like we got in the first book. We find out more about the Demon Gods and how they came to be and why. We find out the history of the imperial clan and how they’ve wiped out complete clans and disconnected people from their culture and ancestors.

There is a lot of yearning in this book – which is why I didn’t give it full five stars (sorry, I’m not the biggest fan of YA romance). As much as the first book had more action packed scenes, this one was more of a build up to the conclusion, which made me care more for Lan and Zen. 

I was worried we wouldn’t have everything wrapped up as we were still given quite a bit of newer things with this book as well, but I really love and appreciate the ending of the series.

Overall, I can see myself recommending this series to those who love fantasy, especially those inspired by Chinese mythology and folklore. The writing is gorgeous and the world building was amazing. This was a series that I myself got into better while listening to as an audiobook, and that was mostly because I would get stuck on pronouncing things correctly.

Song of Silver, Flame Like Night / Amélie Wen Zhao

/ Alisha Helms / Leave a comment 
Song of Silver, Flame Like Night
By: Amélie Wen Zhao
Genre: Fantasy, YA
Number of Pages: 480
Published: January 3, 2023
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Dates Read: November 8, 2023 - November 13, 2023
Format: Library Book / Audiobook

Lan has always had a strange mark burned into her arm by her dying mother – a mark that only she can see, until one night, a boy who saves her, can see it; Zen. Zen’s a practitioner – one of the fabled magicians of the Last Kingdom. Their magic is rumored to have been drawn from the demons they communed with and now must be hidden from the Elantians at all costs.

Both Lan and Zen have secrets buried deep – ones they must hide from others and ones they must still discover themselves. Both hold the power to liberate their land – or to destroy the world.

I originally tried reading this a while ago and couldn’t get into it right then – it’s a heavy fantasy, with an a-mazing world building. When I first read it, I couldn’t place myself in the world. Quite a few months later, I was able to get ahold of the audiobook from my library and listen to it. That’s where I fell into the world fast.

This book reads, to me, like an epic movie. I could see all the fight scenes perfectly, the mood was easily set and understandable. But, again, this may be a series where I listen to the audiobooks of them because there was so much info dump to get you set into the world and the scenes that, to me, I was able to visualize a little better when I heard it, rather than when I saw it.

This is the first book of a series though, so it gets to have the info dumps. I’m still excited to read the second book in the series and have already put a hold of it at the library.

Overall, this is a wonderful fantasy book based in Chinese Folklore and Mythology that I can see a great deal of readers enjoying – especially those who really like to get dropped into a world totally unlike ours currently.

*Thank you Delacorte Press and NetGalley for an advance digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review