For No Mortal Creature (Keshe Chow, Penguin)

For No Mortal Creature by Keshe Chow (The Girl with No Reflection) is a romantic fantasy inspired by Inception and Wuthering Heights, but the story it tells is unique and completely its own. Jia lives within a magical community but has no power of her own – something she compensates for by developing practical skills like tracking, hunting and gathering. She grows up alongside Lin, an orphan and another ‘empty’. When Jia’s grandmother Pópo falls sick and Lin disappears, Jia suddenly finds herself both capable of resurrection magic and a captive of her enemy Prince Essien Lancaster. Essien is on a quest to find a mythical sword believed to reside in the shadowy afterlife. Jia is uniquely qualified to go find it, so they strike a bargain, and she begins a dangerous journey to the very heart of the afterlife. With a plot that takes characters from life to death and back again, as well as several twists, turns, backstabs and surprises, For No Mortal Creature is a fast-paced page-turner for fans of Stacey McEwen and Vanessa Len. While the characters and their relationships are somewhat underdeveloped for the emotional through-line to truly land, the unrelenting pace of the story and the moral ambiguities at the heart of the love triangle will carry readers from the first page to the last (likely on the same day).  

Books+Publishing reviewer: Kate Cuthbert is the publishing director at Books+Publishing. Books+Publishing is Australia’s number-one source of pre-publication book reviews.

Books+Publishing pre-publication reviews are supported by the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund.

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