Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a free copy of this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I know middle grade isn’t everyone’s thing, which is fine because guess what? It’s not written to please adults! The name of the genre speaks for itself, but I for one, love a good middle grade book because they are just as entertaining, if not even more so because authors aren’t obligated to be serious or poignant or any of those things, even if some middle grades have those characteristics. My point is middle grade books are fun okay and this one was no exception. From the moment I saw the cover, I knew I had to read this book. Dragons, Chinese mythology, an #ownvoices author, kids kicking major ass???? I NEEDED IT!!

12 year old Faryn Liu and her brother Alex have been outcasts from the Jade Society forthe past few years for 2 reasons. 1) Their father disappeared on a journey a few years before in order to continue ridding the world of demons, though according to the Jade Society there were none anymore and their only responsibilities as warriors included making money and terrorizing others. By leaving, he was directly disobeying the Jade Society and saying they were wrong. Big no no. 2) Faryn and Alex are of mixed blood. While their father is full blooded Chinese, their mother was Greek, Egyptian and a few other things, making them “mutts” in the Jade Society’s eyes. Yes...yes there is some prejudice and racism going on here and several times both of them are referred to as unclean, disgraces, etc. etc. all because of their mixed blood and how different they look from everyone else. Neither are allowed to train with the other young warriors and so their grandfather trains them whenever he can, just like their father did, even though he’s sick. It turns out that this is the best thing he could have ever done. A demon attacks during the Chinese New Year celebration while Faryn is picking up her grandfather’s medicine. She manages to kill it with the help of a mysterious stranger, but it becomes clear to her that things are changing. Turns out, she’s right. The gods haven’t disappeared or abandoned them as they thought and neither had the demons. Now it’s up to the Heaven Breaker to complete the mission from the gods and make it to the Jade Emperor’s feast and become the leader of his army. Good news: Faryn is the Heaven Breaker and her father’s notebook is the key to figuring this all out. Bad news: The Jade Society is still hellbent on proving how unworthy she is and stopping her from completing the mission. Now it looks like Faryn is up against the same obstacles along with new magical ones and she’ll need her family and her friends to get through this before the end comes.

Reading this was so much fun. The mythology of the dragon warriors and how they were created to fight demons and keep people safe and yet somehow had become both greedy and lazy was a great idea. It was sort of a fallen hero trope, except everyone was the fallen hero except for our main characters. I thought that the racism was portrayed in a great way. You could feel just how hurtful it was for Faryn and her brother and see how innate it can be in a culture that is POC itself. I also thought it was great that even though the gods were upset with the Jade Society and the humans for turning against their warrior heritage and becoming corrupt, in a lot of ways, the warriors were a reflection of the gods themselves. The very things that the gods were upset about, they were doing themselves. The relationship between Faryn and Alex was great, however, after a certain point in the book it becomes clear that he resents Faryn and is changing drastically, though it’s never really clear what is causing this. Some of his outbursts and change in personality seemed out of nowhere and weren’t really explained. I had a feeling about what may have been going on and I think that’s what the author was going for in the end, however, I still don’t think it was explained completely. It’s never made clear whether the force behind the ending was doing this all along or started at the end and if Alex’s earlier outbursts were his own. Still, the ending was a great set up for a follow-up novel and I would love to continue this story. Katie Zhao did not shy away from tough subjects like death, racism, classism, or corruption, but managed to incorporate them in a way that doesn’t alienate her audience or talk down to them just because this is geared towards a younger audience. Great work honestly and if you haven’t picked up The Dragon Warrior since its release on October 15th, I highly recommend checking it out.