Summary:
Death is her destiny.
Half British Reaper, half Japanese Shinigami, Ren Scarborough has been collecting souls in the London streets for centuries. Expected to obey the harsh hierarchy of the Reapers who despise her, Ren conceals her emotions and avoids her tormentors as best she can.
When her failure to control her Shinigami abilities drives Ren out of London, she flees to Japan to seek the acceptance she’s never gotten from her fellow Reapers. Accompanied by her younger brother, the only being on earth to care for her, Ren enters the Japanese underworld to serve the Goddess of Death… only to learn that here, too, she must prove herself worthy. Determined to earn respect, Ren accepts an impossible task—find and eliminate three dangerous Yokai demons—and learns how far she’ll go to claim her place at Death’s side.
My Rating:
~Thank you NetGalley and Inkyard Press for sending me the ARC in exchange for an honest review!~
*This is a spoiler-free review, so you can read it even if you haven’t read the book yet!*
"Just like every human life, souls were unique and beautiful for a single moment, and then they were nothing but dust."
My Rating: 4.5 stars rounded up
【Trigger Warnings: violence, death】
I went into this with little to no expectations and wow this book just blew me away! It's so stunning and dark and filled with stories and magic.
Characters
Ren
Ren is definitely a complicated character, not just because she’s morally gray, but also because she felt like she didn’t fit in either world. While she’s in London people see her Shingaimi and when she goes to Japan and she's still seen as a foreigner. She tried to learn Japanese but she struggles with it, and so many other customs are new to her. Ren’s emotions about longing to see Japan, and wanting answers as well as how she felt like no one wanted were so real. She wanted to keep her brother Neven safe, and she wanted a new life for herself in Japan.
"I’d read so many of the human’s novels about children with dead parents, loving moths lost of childbirth or plagues. But I was not a hero with a tragic backstory, I was just a girl nobody wanted."
Neven
Oh Neven! Sometimes I wanted to protect him at all costs and other times I kinda wanted to strangle him. It was so brave of him to leave behind London to go with Ren and he’s so very kind and good, but ughh the way he acts later annoys me just like it annoyed Ren.
Plot
The plot kept me hooked the whole time and it was unpredictable too. Especially with that ending, but I shall say no more on that.
Worldbuilding
The worldbuilding is so well done!! The Japanese Folklore in it was truly interesting to read about and kept me wanting more and it was kind of terrifying, which I loved!
Yomi and all the other places they visited were well described and I liked how it's easy to differentiate between Shinigami and Reapers.
I also just loved how each of the Yokai had her own story and how they were all different from each other.
The descriptions of the Reaper’s ways in London were so interesting too! We didn’t get to see too much since most of the book is in the new worlds, but whatever I read of it was vivid and intriguing. I especially liked the descriptions of souls and how they’re each different.
Writing
The writing is immersive and the writing style is unique and fits the rest of the novel perfectly.
This was such a great book and I can’t wait for the sequel!
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