The Scorpion and the Night Blossom by Amelie Wen Zhao Series: The Three Realms Duology #1
Published by Penguin (3.4.2025)
Genres: High Fantasy, Young Adult
Format: Audiobook, 400 pages
Length: 12 hours, 52 minutes
Narrator: Annie Q
Source: Library
Nine years ago, the war between the Kingdom of Night and the Kingdom of Rivers tore Àn’yīng’s family apart, leaving her mother barely alive and a baby sister to fend for. Now the mortal realm is falling into eternal night, and mó—beautiful, ravenous demons—roam the land, feasting on the flesh of humans and drinking their souls.
Àn’yīng is no longer a helpless child, though. Armed with her crescent blades and trained in the ancient art of practitioning, she has decided to enter the Immortality Trials, which are open to any mortal who can survive the journey to the immortal realm. Those who complete the Trials are granted a pill of eternal life—the one thing Àn’yīng knows can heal her dying mother. But to attain the prize, she must survive the competition.
Death is common in the Trials. Yet oddly, Àn’yīng finds that someone is helping her stay alive. A rival contestant. Powerful and handsome, Yù’chén is as secretive about his past as he is about his motives for protecting Àn’yīng.
The longer she survives the Trials, the clearer it becomes that all is not right in the immortal realm. To save her mother and herself, Àn’yīng will need to figure out whether she can truly trust the stranger she’s falling for or if he’s the most dangerous player of all . . . for herself and for all the realms.
My thoughts
This book is rather hard for me to review, because my feelings about it are so hot and cold that I have trouble pinning down exactly how I felt about it. In the first half, I was hooked. I absolutely LOVED the world and mythology! It had strong Inuyasha vibes, and I was intrigued. I also really loved the idea of the immortality trial.
However, right around the halfway mark, it started losing me. I began to get frustrated and annoyed with Àn’yīng’s constant contempt for Yù’chén, despite the fact that he did SO much for her. No matter what he did or how many times he helped her, she was utterly AWFUL to him. It was unfair the way she treated him, and it actually started to piss me off. It was exhausting, to be honest. He would do something nice for her – View Spoiler » WHICH SHE DID NOT DESERVE AT ALL – and then she would just spew vitriol at him and remind him how much she hated him. It made me hate her. Listen, I get that his kind killed your father and left your mother a zombie, but damn. He couldn’t help what he was, or that he was born. Thankfully she did come around, eventually. View Spoiler »
It was pretty rough for a little while because of that. There was also the introduction of a possible love triangle that pissed me off; then the characters saying each others’ names CONSTANTLY started grating on my nerves and making my eye twitch (I was in negative emotion override, okay), and I actually considered DNFing for a hot minute there. Thankfully, shit hit the fan in the last quarter and made up for it.
Another complaint was that I didn’t connect to the characters like I’d hoped I would. I didn’t care about any of the relationships, either. The sister relationship should have been a driving point of this book, and ultimately I didn’t care about her sister or what happened to her at all. View Spoiler »
It also didn’t help that there were no stakes whatsoever. Character is in grave danger? MAGIC! Character is grievously injured? MAGIC! I hate hate HATE when magic solves every problem with little to no effort or cost, removing the stakes and entirely robbing me of emotional investment. It also didn’t help that Àn’yīng was constantly a damsel in distress. She kept being saved instead of saving herself. Any time she got in a tough situation I knew it would be fine, because either a) one of the guys would step in, or b) she would be magically healed in an instant. *sigh*
The lack of stakes made the trials a bit underwhelming. I was expecting a lot more from them. Sure, a couple of characters died, but it was people we didn’t even know (and that literally didn’t even have a name, just a number). I expected a lot more from this book overall, honestly – it was one of my most anticipated 2025 releases. Color me disappointed.
I will say, though: The last 25% BROUGHT it!! Crazy ass revelations left and right (some I saw coming, some I did not)…so much happened that my mind was reeling! I loved getting the backstory of her father and finally learning all of the secrets he was keeping. View Spoiler » I’m honestly not sure I want to read the second book, knowing that.
First half: 3.5-4/5
50-75%: 2/5
Last quarter: 3.5-4/5
Overall Assessment
Plot: 3.5/5
Premise: 4/5
Writing style: 3.5/5
Originality: 4/5
Characters: 2/5
World-building: 4/5
Pace: 3/5
Feels: 1/5
Narration: 3.5/5
Cover: 4.5/5
Overall rating: 3/5
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