I haven’t been the biggest fan of afterlife books recently, there seems to have been quite a few published recently and I didn’t enjoy them so it had me worried going into this. However, I did enjoy this one!

The plot feels unique and intriguing. Everything felt thought out and explained well. The execution was incredible. The pacing felt consistent and engaging throughout and there is a great atmosphere present.

I enjoyed all of the characters, our mc was complex and I liked her, but loved our prince, he was so sweet!

I truly love this book and the characters -- flawed, messy, and relatable as they are -- so, so very much.

Perfect for October and all things that go bump in the night! Jia has the power to resurrect herself. She also can travel between the living and the dead. An emotional story with an excellent story plot. Well crafted characters. This book is great for young and old. Excellence!! Thanks#Netgalley and #RandomHouseChildrensBooks for the eARC in exchange for a honest review. All opinions are mine.

This book follows Jia who finds out she has the power to resurrect herself as well as going between the living realm and the afterlife. This is quite emotional and dark, with about half of the story taking place in a very atmospheric afterlife realm with multiple levels.

You will fall in LOVE with Prince Essien who recruits Jia to help him find a missing weapon in the deepest layer of the afterlife. Jia agrees as she is also on her own quest to save her grandmother. While there she also encounters her former first love and best friend Lin who betrayed her and her family.

This took me a little while to get into it, but I loved the strong familial ties and how close Jia was with her grandmother and that she would do whatever was needed to keep her safe.

You will enjoy this story if you like

✨ Unique afterlife-multiple layers/levels
✨ Emotional stories with strong family ties
✨ Ghosts
✨ Forbidden romance
✨ Slow burn/no spice
✨ Two possible love interests
✨ Childhood/family best friend
✨ Kind price with secrets of his own
✨ Creepy and dark atmospheres
✨ A twist at the end that will leave you ready for book 2.
✨Triggers- Grief/losing a loved one

Thank you to Random House Children’s Books through NetGalley for this eARC. All opinions are my own.

An intriguing Asian inspired story that transversed the realm of life and death. I loved the concept it was interesting and pulled me in from the start. The story was full of suspense and high danger around every corner it made for a thrilling read that was hard to put down. I never knew who to trust!

Jia was a determined character. She was loyal to her family and wanted nothing more than to heal her grandmother. I enjoyed her determination and love she had for her family.

While there was romance in the story, it was more secondary to the overall story. Without giving away anything, I would only say that it was a unique love triangle-ish situation.

If you enjoy high stakes, Asian inspired fantasies, love triangle vibes, prophecies, ghost/afterlife realms, resurrection magic, enemies to allies…, complicated feelings, betrayals, secrets, action-packed, quest driven, for the good of the realm, and so much more then be sure to check this one out!

thank you to netgalley and the author for this ARC!

omg!! this book was sooo freaking good. I loved Jia and the lore. I loved the world building and the characters. The Romance aspect of everything was also really nice as well.

2.5⭐

LIKED:
- The concept of being able to traverse between different levels of the afterlife and then resurrect yourself through the levels above is incredibly intriguing. I think that that aspect of the story was the most effective, which is so disappointing that the rest of the book couldn’t live up to that aspect’s potential.
- In addition to the overall mechanic of traversing through the afterlife, having Jia’s living body be affected by all of the deaths she receives is really unique and adds stakes to the story. Balancing that with Essien’s abilities was also really clever and I wish that Essien mattered more to story besides just being a superfluous love triangle.
- The Bone Smith is cool. I like the idea of the weapons themselves, but then the character of the Bone Smith was just really interesting. I wish he had been in it more.
- This cover is stunning. It is so eye-catching in it’s style and composition and then the colors and gorgeous. I don’t really know what that serpent is supposed to be but it’s fine. There are monsters in the story, kind of.

LAMENTED:
- Woof. This book was frustrating. The concept was just so cool and then just didn’t not get the justice it deserved in execution. The through-line of the plot is just a mess and felt like the author was trying to cram way too much in one book.
- ‘Wuthering Heights’ whomst. If you’re looking for a fix of ‘Wuthering Heights’ and fantasy, this will leave you sorely disappointed.
- The amount of cyclical, repeated conversations made me want to tear my hair out. It got especially egregious between Lin and Jia starting in the second act. And also just in Jia’s own thoughts from her POV.There was also a point where Jia just sits at a table and talks to another character for like a whole chapter when they’re in the middle of being chased. Just an exposition dump. It was like we weren’t trusted, as a reader, to follow the plot and reach our own conclusions. Honestly, it made me feel like the author thought I was an idiot.
- The love triangle is bogus. There’s an interesting dichotomy between a living and dead choice but that’s not…really invested in enough. And Lin starts off as kind of a loveable pain, but as we learn more about him and his relationship with Jia he turns into a bit of a chav. And Essien gets so little development and we’re just supposed to trust that they like each other to the point of love. Especially since Essien is in the living world and Jia is in the afterlife for like, 75% of the book and they can’t interact. It’s so unbalanced.
- The last act is, frankly, bad. There’s the culmination of the MacGuffin, Deus Ex Machina weapon hunt (ugh) and then there’s the act end of the book. Both are incredibly aggravating in their own rights and just end. Actually, I wouldn’t even call the ending an end. It’s not even a cliffhanger. It’s just a whiff.
- I kept thinking that the title of this book was ‘For No Mere Mortal’ and honestly, I wish it had just been that. There aren’t really enough creatures in this book (relatively to their mortality) for this title to be as effective as I would hope. Maybe it’s a quote from ‘Wuthering Heights’ or something, I dunno.

LONGED FOR:
- Characters and plotting that supported such interesting world-building and concepting.
- Less repetitive conversations.
- A love triangle that felt balanced.


WILL I READ THE NEXT ONE? : I don’t think so. I’ve seen similar critiques about Chow struggling with execution for the alluring concepts, and I have other things I want to read.


Books with Similar Vibes :
- ‘The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea’ by Axie Oh (seriously, just read this one instead)
- ‘Six Crimson Cranes’ by Elizabeth Lim
- ‘Where the Dark Stands Still’ by A.B. Poranek

The whole book felt like a dark fairytale with a gothic edge. This book had me at “necromancer girl ventures into the death realm to save her grandmother” and it absolutely delivered on the dark, magical, emotional ride I was hoping for.

Jia the main character is driven by grief, and while she doesn’t always make the smartest choices, I found her anger, desperation, confusion—it all made sense given what she’s going through. I liked that she wasn’t some perfectly composed YA heroine. She’s messy, grieving, and trying to survive in a world where everyone keeps lying to her.

The love triangle actually worked for me. Lin is that brooding childhood friend with secrets (so many secrets), and Prince Essien is the idealistic royal with forbidden magic of his own. I get that not everyone will vibe with the romance, especially since there’s more emotional tension than swoon, but I liked how complicated and layered it all felt. Jia being torn between two people—both tied to different versions of herself.

The worldbuilding is lush and creepy in the best way.

The flashbacks added depth to Jia’s backstory and helped explain why things were so strained between her and Lin.
Overall, this hit the spot for me.

If you like your Asian-inspired fantasy with haunting vibes, a strong dose of the supernatural, resurrection magic, family secrets, emotional damage, a death realm and of course Necromancy, then definitely read this one!


I will be posting reviews on BookTok and Instagram next as well as leaving a review on Amazon once the book is released on Oct 7 2025. Thank you Netgalley for allowing me to be an ARC reader for this amazing story. If this author writes it, I am going to read it. 5 stars

This is the perfect romantic fantasy read in time for Halloween! Keshe Chow has such a unique way of story telling and I love it!

I have absolutely adored the author's previous work The Girl With No Reflection, so this was an auto-request for me.

I'm not gonna lie: this book is prone to confuse the reader. Like blink and you'll be in a very different realm. Which is what makes it interesting - you never know what will happen next. But which also makes you go 'huh?' a couple of times.

Jia discovers that she can cross the realms between life and death. Which makes her valuable to Prince Essien (wants to be dark and broody but really is a puppy) to retrieve an artefact from the underworld. There's also her former (?) lover Lin, who is a bit annoying to me. And it's not really a love triangle, because I can't feel any love between Jia and Lin.
And we have Jia's grandmother who we will meet later in ways I did not expect.

There is constant danger in the air, and we travel through different levels of the underworld realm.
Add to this flashbacks to the past that get reflected in the present and you might understand where my confusion comes from.

However, the Whens and Wheres of the plot are not what matters in the end. Like in her first book - it's the theme of reflections, of what is true and false, of perception (or may I say Inception) and finding your true self in all of this. It's Jia's journey, and we're just along for the ride.

4/5 stars

Thank you @netgalley and @randomhousekids for the eARC!

#ForNoMortalCreature # Netgalley #Bookstagram

Thank you Delacorte Press and Keshe Chow's street team for allowing me to read and review For No Mortal Creature. All thoughts and opinions are my own. The quotes used may or may not be edited for the final version.

There may be spoilers ahead.

A glimpse inside:
Love triangle
Revenge on ex-childhood friend & lover
Ghostly realms & resurrection powers
Frienemies
'I want you, but we can't...'

"What is dead can die again.
But what is dead can live again."

When Jia Liu is stabbed while trying to find a cure for her grandmother Wai Po illness, she is surprised to find herself alive again, but in the enemy kingdom Yske. She had thought she did not have powers like her family members, but it turns out she can resurrect herself from the dead, travel through afterworld, and see ghosts. Unfortunately, she sees her ex-best friend Lin, who disappeared a year ago. With the unwanted help of Lin, she tries to escape the clutches of Prince Essien Lancaster. Prince Essien wants to find an unconquerable sword called the Sword of Rechenblod. A sword that can give someone the master ability/power of life and death and resurrect from the dead. Essien confides in Jia and asks her to traverse the levels of the ghost realm to find the sword, so he can prove to his parents that those with magical abilities are useful and to not go to war with them.

"After all, every good lie begins with a half-truth.
And every good betrayal begins with a lie."

For No Mortal Creature is Keshe Chow's sophomore YA Fantasy novel with ghosts, a love triangle, and a determined female protagonist. I enjoyed following along Jia's journey through the layered planes of death and discovering how to use her resurrection abilities. Her complicated friendship and romance with Lin is well-developed. I wish there was not a love triangle. With FNMC being a stand-alone, we are not given enough time to want to root for another person. Sometimes love triangles can be pulled off in one book, depending on the direction the story goes, but in this case, I don't think Jia and Essien made a lot of sense. I liked their friendship and the growing bond / camaraderie between them, but the romance and attraction felt forced in order to have a happy ending for Jia. Jia spends a long time in the death realm along side Lin, searching for the sword and Wai Po, fighting off ghosts, and figuring out their dynamics and loose ends. Essien came across as a placeholder to help steer Jia from actually dying after resurrecting herself back into her body.

"Jia Yi, death clings to you like a mantle."

Besides the love triangle, the execution of this awesome premise left me disappointed. There is a lot of repetitive conversations between Jia and Lin and Jia's inner monologue would go back and forth on how much she either hates or cares about him, too. I was getting tired of the constant reminder of Lin's betrayal, the secrets he withheld until the plot called for them to finally be revealed, and the over-protectiveness Lin had towards Jia made me feel like she couldn't be trusted to make decisions. She was treated like a toddler because no one wanted to tell her anything for her own good or to let her decide for herself how she wanted to move forward. The miscommunication and everything leading up to the reveals dragged for a good portion of the book which slowed the pacing considerably.

"Yes, death. It shrouds your past. It stalks your present. It clouds your future. You will die before your grandmother. And the two of you will meet again in the after life.

I know I said a few negatives, but I do think there are readers who will enjoy this more. For No Mortal Creature is a good read for the spooky season. I enjoyed the mythology, the death realms, and how Keshe Chow tied up the loose ends between Jia and Lin. I really liked their dynamic throughout the story even if Lin sometimes annoyed me with how he handled giving Jia information... which is not much lol.

3.5

I really enjoyed the plot concept and world-building of this story! The ghost realm was really cool. I loved the way the scenery was described. The characters were super interesting, especially the prince. I thought the author did a great job showing complicated familial and romantic relationships.

Most of the book moved very slowly and I struggled to progress, but the second half moved much quicker and easily kept my interest.

Some of the characters were very difficult to understand, particularly their motivations and the why behind them. The main relationship also felt a bit too insta-love for the length of this book.

I really, really detest the ending. I would have appreciated a lot more clarity, especially after a book that was purposefully confusing and deceptive throughout.

I started this book with so many high hopes, especially seeing it marketed as a spin on Wuthering Heights but I just felt like it fell a little short. I enjoyed the concept of the characters but I struggled to finish this book. I paused reading this a couple times thinking maybe I just was not in the right mindset for it, but maybe the author may just not be for me. I have all of the respect for the author because by their writing I can tell they were very passionate about this book I just couldn't connect with the story as much as i wanted to.

This was one of my most anticipated reads of the year not only because of the enthralling premise, but also the inspiration behind the story derived from Wuthering Heights. The author did a wonderful job of crafting such a unique and terrifying world that left me in awe across every page. The only part of the book that I could not connect with was, unfortunately, the characters. Right from the first page the plot begins progressing pretty quickly, which made it harder for me to build a connection with the main character. Though we did get some chapters that delved into the character's past, I still did not feel the deep rooted care that I wanted to have. The romance was okay too. Not what I was expecting, but sweet nonetheless. I would still recommend this read for anyone who loves fantastic, magical worlds steeped in ancient folklore. Alas, this book was just not for me.

Keshe Chow how dare you😭😭😭After finishing For No Mortal Creature, I was basically just picking up my jaw from the floor. Because oh my god, this book! After starting this, I quickly realised that I didn't want to stop. From the first chapter to the very last line of the book, I was hooked all the way through.

With hauntingly beautiful world-building, a magic system steeped in stories and myth, as well as some amazing characters, this was a blast from start to finish. Like I mentioned, this grabs your attention from the get-go. Keshe Chow's writing creates stunning and evocative imagery of the setting, and her conceptualisation of hell and its multiple layers was so interesting. I could see why Wuthering Heights was a comp title because the gothic vibes were flowing off the page. I feel like this book could become a potential future gothic classic, especially because of the way it's structured.

Jia Yi, as the main character, was a fascinating protagonist. For starters, she dies right at the start of the book. She does end up coming back to life, and that's when we learn she can traverse between the realms of the living and the dead. Reluctant to even use this power, she is forced to change that when her grandmother passes. If I had to describe her character arc in one word, I would choose 'intense'. She goes through a lot throughout the book, and honestly, she deserves a massive hug. But at the same time, she adapts and overcomes and becomes a fierce warrior. Jia makes quite a few choices in the book, and I think she always made the right one. Her character arc was stunning and wrapped up perfectly by the end.

As for the romance, while it's not a huge part of the book, it is very much intrinsic to the plot. Both Lin and Essien have a certain charm to them, but about fifty per cent of the way in, you will develop an immediate preference in this love triangle. No spoilers from me, but let's just say, I am personally very happy with how it turns out. Lin, as the former best friend (who is dead btw), and Essien, the youngest prince of the Lancaster royal family; both have their secrets and it was quite entertaining to see Jia unravelling them.

As for the ending...well, the opening lines of my review should tell you how I feel. The ending was truly mindblowing. It was heartwarming and heartwrenching at the same time, and what Keshe Chow has done with it left me with my mouth hanging open and left me wanting more. At the same time, the way it ended was perfect and I wouldn't change anything. Only thing I would ask for is maybe a POV chapter each from Lin and Essien's perspectives would be fun.

If you want a Wuthering Heights adaptation (retelling in this context) that honours its source material, unlike a certain upcoming film, then make sure you pick up For No Mortal Creature when it releases.

Sweet, creepy, romantic, exciting - I really enjoyed following Jia's journey even if I wanted to smack a few of the characters around a bit (which I think was intentional), and Chow's take on the afterlife was very cool. I loved her descriptions of the different levels, and I thought the twist at the ending worked well. This has excellent gothic vibes for spooky season!

I really enjoyed the story, the first half was a bit slow compared to the second half but I was invested the whole time. The ending felt like a perfect comclusion. Some of the characters came across as unlikeable but eventually the reader was able to understand some of their reasoning. The main character did stomp her foot and whine a bit too much in my opinion. Thank you to the author for providing me with a copy of this book.

When Jia Yi is captured by enemy soldiers trying to pick plants that will help her save her grandmother’s life, she couldn’t have known it would result in her death and unlock her own magical power: the ability to resurrect from death. In order to reunite with her grandmother, Jia teams up with the enemy prince to search for a famous magical sword lost in the underworld. But there’s only one thing standing in her way, her former lover Lin, who also happens to be dead.

Honestly the pacing in this one was pretty slow for me. I found myself putting it down several times over several days until I finally forced myself to push on, hoping it would improve. The dangerous situations Jia and Lin find themselves in don’t really add to the urgency or give any emotional impact to the plot because they have to die to descend into the next realm of the underworld. And honestly it felt rather repetitive after the first time—Jia and Lin argue, she gets captured and killed, they have an emotional scene which is broken by her remembering he lied to her over and over again and won’t tell her why, and repeat.

I think Jia was a pretty boring protagonist too. Her character development didn’t even begin to pick up for me until the book was 75% over. I was annoyed with her tantrums over Lin, despite which she kept returning to him and still loving him, and her sudden feelings for Essien—who had been her enemy her entire life and treated her terribly (even though he was conveniently secretly in love with her to).

The only twist that actually got me was her sister being a spy and actually on their side the whole time.

The ending was pretty abrupt and confusing since they aren’t sure if they were alive or dead and they had suddenly decided to be together even though a day earlier Jia was crying over Lin wanting to reincarnate and forget her.

I think the book needed some work. It’s probably not something I would read again.

Inception is one of my all-time favorite movies, so of course this story caught my eye! Chow’s writing is incredibly immersive and I was immediately pulled into her world of forbidden magic and ghosts.

For No Mortal Creature has such a creative spin on the afterlife, with its layers where ghosts and other beings can transcend to different levels of existence. I loved the uniqueness of Jia’s resurrection powers and the role they played in the overall plot. This story was engaging from start to finish, and I loved the ending, with its plausible deniability perfect for Inception fans.

The romance(s) for me were the weakest part of the plot, but I appreciated the bonds of friendship and even stronger familial bonds the characters conveyed. This story questions how far you would be willing to go for love and family, and what you’d be willing to sacrifice in return. It’s atmospheric, mysterious, and wholly original.

Thank you to NetGalley, Delacorte Press, and Random House for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

Life and death are two sides of the same blade, and no one knows this better than Jia, who is killed while foraging for medicine for her grandmother, then meets her ex-crush in the afterworld, before accidentally resurrecting, only to be thrown in front of the royal representation of her people's enemy, the unfairly attractive Prince Essien. However, he hides secrets of his own. While Jia escapes his hold, her grandmother doesn't escape death. Now that Jia is able to access the afterlife, though, she can't resist going after her beloved role model, only to find there is more at stake than her death. Her grandmother is on a mission to find a legendary sword, but she's not the only one. Jia needs help from the two most irritating, yet attractive, men to save those she loves, but she might lose herself in the process, when she had just found the magic that made her whole.
I'm not one for love triangles, but I couldn't resist this book. Asian characters in a fantasy novel? Sign me up. Jia is one of the most resilient characters I have ever read, fierce and protective even when she doesn't know the whole picture. I found this world so fascinating. The world building was exquisite. In the afterlife, there are realms of death, and you can haunt the realm above you, but you can only see the ghosts below you if you've had a near-death experience. To move down a realm, you must die. Thankfully for Jia, she can move up or down realms due to her power of resurrection. I love her power. The author really explored it well, leaving readers with material to continue thinking about.
I also liked how this love triangle wrapped up, which is high praise considering I'm a certified love-triangle-hater. Honestly, writing love triangles must be hard, especially when you're making the reader question who the main character will end up with at the end. I really liked how this ended.