Tzeyi Koay
Atria Australia
2 February 2027
426
eBook - EPUB
Romantasy
ARC via NetGalley
All Zhenya has ever wanted is to escape the monotony of her tiny village with her best friend Shuhua. But Zhenya must care for her grandmother, whose madness haunts their crumbling family bookstore – and she won’t abandon her, madness and all.
But when her grandmother dies, everything falls apart. For she was never mad – she was cursed. And with her death, the curse passes to her one remaining descendent: Zhenya. It screams to be fed, but no matter how hard Zhenya tries, she is powerless to stop it. Even when it demands that she kill Shuhua with her bare hands, trapping her soul in an eternity of torment.
As Zhenya grapples with Shuhua’s death, she’s confronted by two immortals of ancient legend: Kaijun, the broody judge of hell, and Yaori, the flirtatious goddess of death. Together, they drag Zhenya to Diyu – hell itself. To free Shuhua’s soul, Zhenya must journey through the ten layers of Diyu, undertaking trials that will test her in unimaginable ways.
It’s terrifying. And to complicate things further, Zhenya finds herself torn between Kaijun and Yaori, confronting feelings she doesn’t fully understand. But she can’t afford to be distracted, not when the only way to break the curse is to destroy it herself.
A Curse Carved in Ink was a book with a lot of positives. I loved the fact it was a standalone romantasy I could enjoy without having to wait for future volumes to complete the story, I really adored the premise and the take on Chinese myth and folklore, and Zhenya was a character I was initially keen to get behind. However, what didn't work so well for me was all the romance. To me, the romantic pairings felt forced and seemed to come out of nowhere, with everyone falling in love with one another (notably with Zhenya) almost from first meeting. The romance also detracted, I felt, from the intensity of the rest of the story, the need to stop the curse seeming just to slot in between the scenes of longing, the trials generally easily overcome. This was by no means a bad book and it was an entertaining read, but there were some aspects I wish had been handled differently. The jiangshi's rhymes, too, grated a little, especially the ones that had to be shoehorned into working. Still, it was a fresh and fun premise, offered bisexual rep, and I am sure it will be a hit with romantasy fans, so I am giving it 4 stars.
I received this book as a free eBook ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
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