Publisher: Hodderscape

Part 1 of June C.L Tan’s planned urban fantasy paranormal duology, Darker by Four is pure YA anime/manghwa/donghua inspired goodness. An elite exorcist training academy, flashy magical spells and talismans, dangerous revenant spirits, plus visits with the local reapers and the Ten Gods of the underworld, this book is pure, unadulterated fantasy goodness. High on action, mysterious intrigue, and teenage/young adult angst, where this book may be a little lacking in emotional depth or nuance it more than makes up with consistent entertainment value. As a long-time anime fan, Darker by Four was right up my alley! Apart from its strong anime feel and presentation which I’ll get into shortly, Darker by Four’s most notable element is its incorporation of traditional Chinese folklore. In Tan’s world, qi serves as the base for one’s magical core, providing the ability to cast spells and wield spiritual weapons in addition to being able to see paranormal entities. Besides general Asian cultural references such as food and family traditions, the book’s story also heavily revolves around the Taoist mythology of the Ten Kings of Hell along with grim reapers who strongly resemble and follow the roles of the Heibai Wuchang. That said, this book…

A heist set for a mysterious magical book, a power struggle between state and church, a tense reunion between ex-partners, and legendary beings trapped and abandoned by the God of Thieves, Ruth Frances Long’s The Book of Gold has a lot of interesting concepts to say the least. The start of the Feral Gods trilogy, this book has a lot of narrative content fitted into a sub three-hundred-and-fifty-page book that is part fantasy, part 16th century historical fiction adventure. Though the story has a variety of plotlines that lay the groundwork for the series to expand on, at its core it’s a tense and strained second-chance romance between individuals standing on different sides of the law and state, all in pursuit of otherworldly power. Action and relationship oriented, the Book of Gold is a competently crafted book that despite a sense of mismanaged focus, is still a fun and light entertaining fantasy read. At first glance, the Book of Gold appears to be a simplistic rogue x knight trope applied to a fantasy heist storyline. The book has all the elements one would expect such as an unorthodox assembled ragtag heist team, economic disparity between the nobility and the common…