Deathly Fates

DEATHLY FATES is a consuming YA fantasy about family, love, and duty. Kang Siying is a ganshi priestess who helps bring dead bodies home to allow their souls to find peace with burial rites. This is something both respected and feared as death is never fully welcome. She has been hired at a high rate of pay to go find a Sian soldier's body in Wen, a region at conflict with Sian over the control and misuse of the territory. She needs the money to obtain a better healer for her father, who is deathly ill.

When she finds the soldier, she is surprised that he can speak to her, and she soon learns that her animation charms to move the body have allowed his spirit to reattach. Additionally, she learns that he is Meng Renshu (Ren), the second son/prince of Sian. In order to full bring him back, they will need to collect qi for him, the most ethical method for which is to purifying the spirits that have stayed and whose anger/guilt/grief has transformed them into something dangerous. This allows them to move on and the qi, once purified, can be used to replenish the missing qi from Ren.

As they travel and collect this qi, they also encounter much about the kingdom that Ren had previously been turning an eye to and gain better understanding of the politics at play.

What I loved: This was an engaging read with a lot of adventure as they travel and seek out the dangerous spirits. This gave the journey an edge of danger and kept the readers on their toes throughout. Each of the spirits had their own background/story that we learn alongside Siying. These played into the larger issues of the kingdom/politics as well with messages of kindness, dissent, and what makes a good ruler. Ren has always stayed out of things, assuming his brother would be the heir (in their kingdom, either could be chosen), and his disinterest made him feel unqualified. As he begins to hear and learn more, his feelings change.

Both he and Siying are compelling characters. The story is told from Siying's perspective, and she is driven by a desire to take care of her family, particularly her father. She wants to do the right thing, but sometimes that is the harder thing. As they travel together, she also begins to develop feelings for Ren. In many ways, they both influence the other and their characters begin to change/grow through the experience. It was easy to understand the way that their feelings change and also grow.

Beyond the political themes, other themes of family, guilt, loss, revenge, and understanding were also strong throughout. Through the spirits and later events, revenge becomes a thread weaving through the story, especially in its danger and the damage that it does. With the themes of death, there is, of course, themes of grief/loss, the pain of losing a loved one and the weight it carries.

The world-building was likewise strong and lush as they journey through. The mythology woven throughout was intriguing and built a foundation for the story. They experience politics and the locations of the characters as they find the spirits, and it added up into something that was not bogged down by too much detail but felt full and complete.

The ending was ultimately satisfying, with the main plots concluded and the characters ending up in a space that felt right with potential futures ahead of them.

Final verdict: DEATHLY FATES is an engaging YA fantasy with strong themes of family, politics, and revenge. Highly recommend for readers who enjoy strong world-building/mythology, a touch of romance, and lots of action/adventure.