Review: For No Mortal Creature

For No Mortal Creature by Keshe Chow
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Obsessed ghosts traveling through ghostly realms looking for a sword is definitely my jam.

Jia Yi discovers she has resurrection magic, which throws her life into turmoil for several reasons: firstly, she is now being asked to carry out a mission for a prince; second, she still needs to save her dying grandma; and third, the boy who once betrayed her has been haunting her since his untimely death a year earlier.

It was a really interesting setup to me, as I'm a big fan of thinking about ghosts and the afterlife. This explores an afterlife made up of levels - ghosts can still die, and lower through the levels as they do.

I've never read Wuthering Heights, but I presume Lin's unhelathy obsession with Jia Yi is very much why the author compares the two. I didn't like him at all, and that obsession was all red flags to me.

Essien, on the other hand, was warm and safe and absolutely stole my heart to the point that I was very mad any time Lin got in Jia's face.

Definitely some interesting relationship dynamics here.

There's also the thread of family - Jia's grandma is a huge part of the motivation for this story, and her sisters play roles as well.

There's plenty of action, and some rather interesting beasties on the other side to up the stakes. There's drama and a bit of a mystery, though at times it did feel like the story was being put to the side in favour of the spice between Lin and Jia.

It was quite a simple plot, so I would have liked a little more padding in this area, but the ghostly world was enough to keep me interested. I didn't totally buy the obsessive relationship between Lin and Jia - I saw it from his side but hers left me unconvinced. It felt like maybe it was pushing the Wuthering Heights angle a little too hard; I think perhaps maybe less might have been more in this case. However I 100% believed the thaw between Jia and Essien, and enjoyed reading their interactions immensely.

To be fair, I do feel like the Brooding, Over-Protective Bad-Boy type is done to death, so that's just another reason I prefer Essien to Lin. When will people stop romanticising the RED FLAGS? Please, ladies - get yourself an Essien.

This was a quick read that I quite enjoyed, with an entertaining take on death and the world beyond. Characters to love and loathe, an easy plot to follow, and plenty of action.

Highly recommend for fantasy fans.

With thanks to the author, Penguin Teen Australia and NetGalley for an ARC

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