📝 What is ZODIAC RISING About?:
Magic meets dark academia at a New York boarding school that’s hidden from mortal eyes. When a student is killed over priceless treasure, the Descendants of the Zodiac assemble a crew to avenge their classmate’s murder and heist back what’s rightfully theirs.
📚 Genre: YA FANTASY
🎧 Format: arc E-Book
💞 Feels: ⭐⭐⭐
what do you like about the book?
I wish I hadn’t seen the twist coming. Fourth Wing has ruined dead brothers coming back to life for me.
I liked the bones of this story. For differentiation, I wanted the characters to be more developed. They all talked the same, had the same temperament (except Alice and Lei) – hot-headed, immortal supernaturals, who just barely control their powers.
In a dark academia/heist story, one thing probably takes the lead. I didn’t enjoy the ratio of what we get from Zodiac Rising. The dark academia felt non-existent, they’re just school age and we get a few scenes at the school. They’re on the run most of the time…so the heist isn’t really a large portion of the book either. The heist was a rush in the finish; we’ve traversed all through the story to lead to a sped up heist.
Around the time I read this I was starting to become fatigued from the amount of books I’d read. Plus, I was also growing tired of reading young adult novels. I’m not the target age range, so I should’ve known I wasn’t going to necessarily love it. But sometimes YAs surprise you and appeal to all ages.
Getting technical
The pacing was inconsistent throughout the book. I did lose track of what was going on. And during some action scenes, visualizing a fight just didn’t make sense to me.
From the ending it seems like there are going to be more books. I’ll wait to see how many books are in the series. Having the momentum interrupt the larger story feels like a disservice. So much information was crammed into the first book – world building, political intrigue, school life, power sets, back stories, and heists. I want to see how characters are fleshed out in future books. More focus on making an original cast of characters will make the story stronger, and make me care more about their struggles. As of now they seem like caricatures of other characters I’ve read in other books.
You’ll like this book, if…
You’ll like this book if you enjoy reading about a rag tag group getting to know each other and becoming a found family.
✅ Spinoff novella nomination:
I want to know more about Julius. How he became who he is, when we meet him at the beginning of Zodiac Rising.
What are you reading? Let me know in the comments.
shop for ZODIAC RISING by KATIE ZHAO:
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