This book was amazing and truly a wonderful read! I was hooked since page 1 and could not put it down. I loved the way they portrayed the Chinese Zodiacs, and the magic system built around it. The character building was rich and really got you hooked on the characters. I immediately added this to my staff-picks at the bookstore I manage. Wonderful work!

TL;DR: A cluttered mash of supernatural beings, 4 (...or 5 or 6) POV characters, and a half-baked heist results in a bloated and bland urban fantasy story. I was intrigued by the connection to the Chinese Zodiac and the premise of engaging with the difficulties of being Asian-American, but <i>Zodiac Rising</i> fails to significantly engage with either of those.
<b>I received a copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.</b></i>

Vibes: My gut instinct was to say <i>Twilight</i> + <i>Six of Crows</i> with a dash of magic-boarding-school tropes, but the more I read, the more I was convinced it's a [book:Legendborn|50892338] imitation.

Genre: True YA Urban Fantasy

Romance Meter: 🖤 ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡
We have 4 MCs, two of whom are exes, and its clear we're moving toward a pairing off situation

Character MVP: Honestly? None of them. These characters are all either unlikable or forgettable.
Evangeline, the MFC is arrogant and cold and just mean to pretty much everyone.
Nicholas and Tristan are, unfortunately, interchangeable to me. I'm having to exert way too much mental energy to keep them separate in my head because they're pretty much The Same Guy.
And Alice? Is a POV character, but honestly doesn't contribute much yet* and when she does, she's so timid and bland, she is also forgettable.

Verdict: 1.5 stars, rounding up, mainly because of the representation. I *would* recommend this book, but I would add a list of others I prefer.

I really wanted to love this book! I try and read exclusively AAPI authors for the month of May, and I've really enjoyed some of the books I've read in the past. This year, I'm not having much luck.

As I indicated above, I was really intrigued by the connection to the Chinese Zodiac. And there's a letter at the beginning where Zhao tells the reader that yes, this is a heist book, but it's also an exploration of the tensions of being Asian American today: do you stay rooted in your culture and remain marked as Other by Westerners? Or do you let go of your culture and heritage and assimilate (as much as you can) into Western society?

And that was really interesting! And exactly the kind of story I wanted to read in May.

But...Oooh boy. This fell short for me in a lot of ways:

❌ -- <b>So Many Supernatural Beings</b>
We start off with a list of the 12 main families and their connection to the Chinese Zodiac. Cool. Not a problem.
Then it's revealed that each of the Descendants is turned into a Vampire, a Werewolf, or a Fox Spirit -- and it's not connected to house or family or zodiac sign; it's on an individual basis.
And then, in the first chapter (or the Prologue) we introduce the Shamans and Fae, and they're just thrown into the mix because why not. Everyone seems to hate each other, and there's no context as to why.
It's...a lot. And I'm not entirely sure it's all necessary.

❌ -- <b>The Boarding School Trope</b>
This one legitimately baffles me. I have no idea why the Boarding School trope was necessary.
First -- the MCs are literally 160+ years old. They may look like teenagers (and act and sound like teenagers; apparently, after being alive for over a century, they haven't matured at all) but they're apparently wealthy. Why....? Evangeline makes a reference to her Vampire Nutrition class that's held *once a week* -- surely that's an email, not a class that needs to be held once a year since 1906.
Second -- they leave the school instantly. Fine, you want to gather the Human Descendants there? Cool. But there's zero reason for the supernatural ones to attend school.

❌ -- <b>Intense Negative Emotions = Conflict</b>
IDK how else to describe this, but it's a pet peeve of mine in writing -- when the conflict / action / momentum of the plot is driven solely by characters' intense negative emotions. As in, no one gets along and everyone has some sort of tension and that "conflict" moves the plot forward. Characters become defined by their one trait - here, Evangeline is "cold"; Nicholas "hesitates"; Alice is timid; Tristan...IDK. He hates everyone, except he loves Evangeline but he's still so angry with her. And, as a result, characters often react strongly and change emotions quickly, giving the overall story a very clunky flow.

❌ -- <b> Where's the heist?!</b>
It took about 43% of the book to get to the heist.
Most of that initial 43% was rehashing interpersonal conflicts and backstory. Its also the most half-baked heist ever. Evangeline's brother dies --> she finds a letter + map --> she orders these 3 beings to come to her house --> then they set off and are basically winging it. There's very little prep, very little planning, very little fore-thought. There are several mentions that Evangeline "has a plan she's just not telling anyone," but...c'mon.
ETA: The actual heist starts at about 74%. And...I just...it's not a heist. I can't, in good conscience, call this a heist. Everyone (in the book) calls it The Impossible Heist, this epic plan that no one in 150 years has dared to do because it's so difficult to pull off, and they all just literally make it up as they go.
There's also a magical watch in play that everyone seems to have forgotten about. Tristan steals a watch that lets the owner go back in time 12 hours at the very beginning of the plot, and never has time to drop it off with The Collector, so there's that. But it never pops up again, which is mildly frustrating because it seems like it could solve a lot of problems.

❌ -- Also, I feel like I should dock an entire star because the character who is literally known as The Scarlet Spy and is supposed to be this master, epic spy -- his only thought as to how to create a diversion is to *literally* grab a tray and throw food. WUT.

❌ -- <b> Too Many POVs</b>
There are 4 Main POVs -- allegedly. Alice is one of them, but she's been mostly silent so far. Cecil also pops up every now and then to continue the story in the "real world," but I honestly don't think this many are necessary.
Again, the actual plot events of the first half of the book are strikingly minimal: Julius dies; this creates a power vacuum; Evangeline wants to reclaim the fountainheads to maintain control; she says there's going to be a heist; they set off.
Most of the content is (1) internal thoughts -- e.g., Nicholas is oh-so-guilty over messing up 150+ years ago and losing his BFF and his brother, and why can't he be more assertive and stronger? All of the characters have this internal struggle / past trauma, and we keep rehashing their internal conflicted thoughts; and
(2) external conflict -- everyone is annoyed at someone else for something. Even Evangeline and Nicholas who are supposed to be besties now aren't friendly. There are no quiet, positive moments in story -- it's driven forward in fits and starts solely by engineered conflict between the characters.

❌ -- <b>Tackling Larger Issues -- or Lack Thereof</b>
This one might be a bit unfair, but if you have an author's note at the beginning of the book about what you want readers to keep in mind while they're reading...
Granted -- I'm only halfway so far, so I may amend this when I'm done, but I'm not seeing any of the larger commentary that Zhao indicated.
There is, on a broad scale, the disempowerment of the Descendants -- they lost their magic and are trying to get it back.
This is somewhat undercut by their being magical supernatural beings: there are many (so. many.) references to them being inhumanly beautiful/attractive and charismatic, in addition to their magical gifts (strength, speed, disguise, etc). I think we're supposed to understand that they went from 'heroes' to 'monsters,' but this is a bit clunkily done IMO.
There are a few passing references to the Second Opium War -- where Britain and France came in and did the colonization thing and China got the shitty end of that stick -- but it's not engaged with.
Then there are a few passing references to the Immigrant Plight in America, where Chinese immigrants were exploited to build the transcontinental railroad.
But so far, these references are few and far between, and are only mentioned in passing -- not engaged with in any significant depth.

And maybe that's coming.
<b>ETA: No, it's not.</b>

But I can't help thinking of Tracey Deonn's Legendborn, which *masterfully* blends urban fantasy + Arthurian legend + racial commentary to create a powerful story of trauma, power, race, and healing.
The similarities are numerous -- the one that clicked for me is when there's a line about different Descendants not being to be romantically involved because it would dilute the purity of the houses -- and then I couldn't unsee it.
And if that level of engagement with Asian American identity had been present, maybe I'd feel different. But instead I'm just left rolling my eyes at the interpersonal conflict and at how easily the "heist" plot points are solved (to make way for the interpersonal conflict).

A dark academia thrill ride with a magical twist rooted in Chinese mythology, Zodiac Rising delivers mystery, danger, and supernatural drama at a secret boarding school in Manhattan. Think Legendborn meets A Deadly Education, with a splash of Gen V.

I was hooked by the unique blend of zodiac lore and modern-day fantasy. All the elements that keep me hooked were on point, between the pacing, the action scenes, and the atmosphere is everything you want from a dark, magical school setting. With vampires, shapeshifters, werewolves, and mortals forced to confront an ancient curse, there’s never a dull moment. The character brought a lot to the story, each having their own strengths, weaknesses and personalities was a perfect fit.

I enjoyed this as much as I enjoyed Fourth Wing!

So... There isn't a nice way to say this, but I regret requesting this arc. At least this was a buddy read with Mai so I had someone to commiserate with.

As someone who has read a ton of books, nowadays I don't expect my reads to be life-changing or anything. Hell, I can even get down with something that's cliche and tropey if the characters are interesting or the worldbuilding is top notch.

Zodiac Rising is none of the above.

It's like Twilight meets magical school, but make it Chinese American. The writing is boring. The story is boring. The characters are boring. At least the worldbuilding was somewhat passable.

I guess this book is great if you have limited experience with POC authored YA urban fantasy. But if you're looking for something fun or exciting with memorable characters, better look elsewhere.

I feel like this book really tried with its mixture of Chinese and Western lore, but in the end, it read so bland. Vampires? Werewolves? Magic? Fae??? Nothing made sense at all, other than the fact that the novel hit all the right story beats in a very formulaic way, so at least that part made logical sense.

Why are these 160+ year old supernaturals going to a private high school with teenage human Descendants? Why aren't they running multinational corporations, or sitting on boards, or, idk, pulling a Carlisle Cullen and raking in money by playing the stock market?

Instead, they're going to regular classes all day to learn... Advanced Mandarin? Even though they've been alive for 160+ years and were born in China. JFC. Make it make sense!!!! They aren't even going to grad school. This shit blows my mind. And all of this is only in the first 20% of the novel.

I thought I'd at least like Evangeline because she's a girlboss, but I draw the line at being mean to the help and others who literally didn't deserve it. Talk about girlboss, gatekeep, gaslight. Yuck.

One of the MCs, Alice, had the personality of a wet sock, even though people kept saying she was "interesting." It was probably supposed to be foreshadowing, but after reading until the end, I still found her boring.

As an OG lover of Twilight (Millenials, rise up!), I actually got so sick and tired of all the Twilight references (high school, playing baseball, vampire piggyback rides, Alice being so Bella coded that I can't even [oh no, she's clumsy~~]).

There was another huge reveal that was literally recycled from one of the author's previous books. It felt cheap, tbh. Like the author ran out of ideas and decided to do the same thing again. Hell, the entire novel felt like an amalgamation of all the popular YA fantasy tropes and cliches from the past 20 years.

The existence of fae in this novel felt very shoehorned. Like the author had to add in a popular trope to rope in more readers. It didn't make sense because the vibes in this novel were very Asian American and then suddenly, fae!

I think the one overarching theme I hated was that everything was solved so easily. Oh no, the main characters are being attacked? The bad guys are knocked out in an instant. They're being chased by their rivals? No one actually gets captured.

The prison break was boring. The heist was boring. The Six of Crows gang could easily outwit these supernaturals. Two characters almost start a fight with each other in the middle of said prison break. Two characters make out in the middle of said heist. Like, can we not? Are we not in life or death situations with extreme time constraints??

I only finished this because it was an arc. I stopped caring early on in the story. By the end, I wanted Marcus Niu and co. to take over the Descendants. Give me a villainous world domination story that might or might not include using Alice as a broodmare.

I'm getting too old for this shit.

Actually, there was one thing I liked. When a character was described as "Slenderman," that shit sent me.

Thank you to Random House Books for Young Readers and NetGalley for this arc.

Took me a while to get into it, but once the heist started, it was pretty gripping!

The book has a very intense lore and world, but it's not explained in a lot of detail? You kind of have to piece things on your own along the way, I wasn't a huge fan of that. Also, why are these 150 year olds still in school? 🥲

The betrayal at the end was pretty hard to swallow, I'm very invested in how book 2 is gonna go!

Also, I need need Lei and the Prince's story!

-- ty to the author, the publisher and Netgalley for an advanced copy!

I unfortunately had to DNF this. It just felt so convoluted. There were so many characters and like started off with info dumping about the houses but had basically zero world building. So much was happening but also nothing was happening. I couldn’t tell the people apart and didn’t feel connected. And then it reminded me of Zodiac Academy as well.

I give all DNF books a 2 star here in NetGalley, but will not give a star rating on Amazon or Goodreads

Oh boy. Okay. This is as fair and honest as I can be.

"But then a diversion arrived just in time"
"She was neither pale nor hairy, and her beauty was on a level that was ethereal."
A class called "So You're a Descendant, So What?"

This book was trying so hard to be clever and realistic that it ended up sounding trite and immature. Every action or spoken line apparently needs an entire paragraph of overexplanation from the perspective of a teenager who has to put every single thought on the page. It's exhausting to read the repeatedly piled-on ramblings, and it's exhausting to try to filter through the stream of conscious and unconsciousness, page after page after page.

This is what I mean: "Evangeline entered autopilot mode. She hadn't quite accepted the truth yet, but she knew at this critical moment, she needed to be able to display magnificent leadership skills." Like....Really? There are a lot of reasons why authors are told to "show, not tell," and one of those reasons is that telling can very easily become cringey. The secondhand embarrassment I constantly felt while trudging through 400 pages of writing like the examples above....Whew.

And this story could be SO FREAKING COOL. I have NEVER encountered a premise like this, with a world like this, or a central conflict like this. And yet all that is buried under unpolished writing that needed at least a few (more?) rounds of editing from someone who could keep some objective distance. I thought this was going to be one of my favorite reads of the year--but it turned out to just be one of my biggest letdowns of the year instead.


***Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for providing me with a digital copy of this book to review.***

UGH. This was such a great time. I absolutely loved the heist aspect of this book. The magic with the Chinese zodiac was fascinating!

I had a feeling that I was going to love this one from the moment that I read the blurb and I ran right to NetGalley to request it. It was like if someone took everything that I love about YA fantasy whipped it up in a blender and added things that I didn’t even know that I needed. The result was an instant favorite that immediately got added to my best reads of the year list. Absolutely give this a shot and then we can impatiently wait for the sequel together!!

Thank you so much to Random House Children’s and NetGalley for this eARC. All opinions are my own.

Take the elitism of Gossip Girl, the adventurism of Six of Crows, the usual vampire and werewolf mythology, with some mystery and you have Zodiac Rising. Each member of the ragtag team put together to reclaim the missing zodiac statues have their own side agendas and reasons for joining the heist. If they pull it off, they will be legends and everything will be returned to normal. That is if they can keep it together and not let past hurts get in the way. It’s interesting seeing the different members interact with each other and how little each Descendant, mortal and immortal, knows about the others aside from rumors, stories, and embittered feelings.

This book is full of action. It has the academy vibes even though you're not really in that setting most of the book. I like the different houses giving different vibes and abilities. I got a little tired of the main character and just felt like she was kind of whiny and repeating her problems over and over. I did think the ending was a twist I didn't expect and it was a satisfying wrench in the plan.

What is happening. It’s impossible to keep up with everything in this book. Vampires, werewolves, fae + the Chinese lore AND put them all in a high school? My head is spinning. The characters felt bland and I couldn’t get into the plot even after 20% of the book. DNF and wouldn’t recommend.

I received an advance review copy for free from the publisher via Netgalley and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Thank you, NetGalley, Random House Children's | Random House Books for Young Readers, for the chance to read this book in exchange of an honest review.

The descendants of the Chinas zodiac have hidden away at a secret Manhattan boarding school, since the source of their magic, twelve statues, were vandalized and lost to time, bringing a curse on them, forcing them to live as creature of darkness. Until the lost statues resurfaces and one of their classmates is killed.
All signs point to the fae and the descendants can finally get back what's theirs and break the curse, but to get the statues back they have to assemble an incredible team, like the vampire Evangeline, Nicholas the shape-shifter, the mortal Alice and the werewolf Tristan, each of them with their own goals and desires. Only they have the strength to save the descendants and fight the fae, but the road is dangerous...

Magic meets dark academia is a combination I can't resist and Zodiac Rising is a brilliant, original and very well written story about an heist, a boarding school hidden from mortals, an elite crew, a curse and the fae. I truly can't recommend this book enough. It's filled with emotional, incredible and twisty moments and I loved every single of them!
You can't miss it!

If you love the Legendborn series or Rick Riordan this book needs to be on your shelf! Magical academy and twists and turns galore! Such fun!!

Such a great start to a new series. I loved the character and world development. The pacing was fast but not so fast that you lost sight of the storyline. I enjoyed the blending of paranormal species with Chinese mythology. I had not read any of Katie Zhao’s previous writings but I will definitely check them out now.

This book was fine but nothing ground-breaking. I enjoyed it well enough, but I probably won’t go out of my way to recommend it.

I hate to rate a book by this author as less than 3 stars, but honestly, according to Goodreads, "it was okay". I received this as an ARC and started reading it, but kept losing interest, mainly because the characters just weren't compelling. I absolutely loved her first Winnie Zeng book and was captivated by the way she honestly portrayed the Asian American experience in middle school while incorporating many of the cultural traditions that Winnie's family celebrated. It was a blast from start to finish and I think I was expecting something like this. Sadly, that was not the case. For one, the "mythology" was such an amalgam of different things that I was confused by what she was going for. We had Vampires, Fae, Decendants, Shapeshifters, the 9-tailed fox (Korean mythology if I remember correctly), the Chinese Zodiac, and I don't know what else. Perhaps some might like having an author create an entire mythology from a mix of different sources, but for me, it just wasn't very solid and it made it hard for me to fully immerse myself into the story. Honestly, if it hadn't been for the fact that I eventually found the audiobook, I would have had a hard time finishing it.

The school thing was also a bit odd. The description mentioned a secret Manhattan Boarding School where the Descendants train and I was expecting something more like Harry Potter where they would learn about their arts. But the one thing that stood out for me was the advanced Mandarin they were all supposed to take. I don't understand why that would be considered a course that supports their development and why the immortals at least (okay Alice is a mortal girl so this doesn't apply to her) wouldn't be fluent in Mandarin or any other language that they would find useful to their field. And what exactly were they training for? All I could see were rivalries between the immortals, at least until the heist part. Again, I think part of my not "getting it" was that the so-called mythology was too much of a mishmash.

The other thing that bugged me was that I didn't really like any of the characters. None of them were particularly compelling or easy to cheer for. I mean, Alice, maybe, but she really needed to grow a backbone, which maybe is coming in the second book? I hope so! Some of the other characters had their moments as well, but the most amusing one was the Prince Fae. I have no idea if he will have a significant impact on the rest of the story, but he was at least amusing. Oh, actually, I did kind of like Cecil, although I hated the way Evangeline treated her, which makes her decision at the end make a kind of a sick sense. I don't want to say more because I don't want to spoil anything, but maybe you reap what you sow.

Anyway, I kind of doubt I will be continuing with this series, unless someone tells me the second book is so much better than the first. In the meantime, I might revisit her Winnie Zeng book and read that full series instead.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

The idea of a heist book is always intriguing, and the cast of characters in this book were pretty good. The pacing was perfect, but the characters started to feel a little flat after a while, like all their actions were dictated by their stereotype rather than any character development. There was a good twist at the end that was intriguing and encouraging to make me look forward to the next book.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher!
I am a sucker for dark academia, and this story of a heist attempt to get back stolen artifacts representing the Chinese zodiac is a page turner. Filled with a fantastic cast of characters, my only beef (which is actually not a beef at all) is that I didn’t realize this was the first book of a series-there are some major plot points left hanging to be finished up later on. Can’t wait to see where it goes!

I got about 20% into it, but this novel just wasn't for me. The premise is interesting, and the cover is beautiful, but the world-building didn't come together as I'd hoped. The dialogue also reads as much younger YA, which was surprising since some of these characters had lived over a hundred years. Thanks for the ARC!