I received this book as an ARC.

I really enjoyed this story. It follows a young woman desperate to better the lives of her best friend and herself. The relationship between the FMC and MMC is very realistic as they love each other (platonically) so much and yet struggle to share their deepest shames to protect each other. I will admit that I struggled to like the FMC for the middle portion of the book as I found her to be self-serving. However, her character arc and redemption were very rewarding.

I found the side characters to be fun and enjoyed the silliness they brought to the story. I would enjoy to learn more about them and their journey as they went through their challenges.

I would definitely read another book by the author and enjoy to learn more about this world!

This was a good book and it was not even my typical genre read! It was so cool to read about the mythology and cultures from China and Malaysia. It definitely did have SQUID games vibes, it was an arena based fight between different monsters, it was good, the pacing was good, and the writing style kept me entertained
Thank you to NetGalley, the publishers, and especially the author for this ARC in exchange for my honest review of the book!!

The cover and description is what drew me in and I was so glad I was able to read this. I loved the use of Malaysian-Chinese mythology worked overall. I thought it was a great idea for a monster-fighting arena. It had that plot that I wanted and it was so well written that I was hooked from the first page. The characters had that feel that I wanted and glad they worked so well in this world. I enjoyed how strong Roanne Lau’s writing was and that the characters worked overall.