That Dark Infinity: review

Kate Pentecost was born and raised on the Texas/Louisiana border, where ghosts and rural legends lurk in the pines and nothing is completely as it seems.

She holds an MFA in Writing for Children & Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts. She was recently nominated for a Rhysling award for her poem "Small Town Witches."

Her debut novel, Elysium Girls, is forthcoming from Disney Hyperion in 2020 in print and audio formats.

She is obsessed with the Romantic Poets and can be identified by the enormous tattoo of Percy Bysshe Shelley on her arm. She lives in Houston.

TITLE: That Dark Infinity

AUTHOR: Kate Pentecost

PUBLISHER: Little Brown for Young Readers

RELEASE DATE: October 19, 2021

GENRE: YA dark fantasy

PAGES: 384 pages

GOODREADS / AMAZON / B&N / BD / INDIGO

By night, the Ankou is a legendary, permanently young mercenary. By day, a witch's curse leaves him no more than bones. Caught in an unending cycle of death and resurrection, the Ankou wants only to find the death that has been prophesied for him, especially once he begins to rot while he's still alive....

After the kingdom of Kaer-Ise is sacked, Flora, loyal handmaiden to the princess, is assaulted and left for dead. As the sole survivor of the massacre, Flora wants desperately to find the princess she served. When the Ankou agrees to help her find the princess, and to train her in exchange for her help in breaking his curse, she accepts. But how can she kill an immortal? Especially one whom she is slowly growing to understand—and maybe even to love?

Together, they will solve mysteries, battle monsters, break curses, and race not only against time, but against fate itself.

Huge thanks to NOVL for the review copy!

Phew.

I devoured this book in less than two days and for good reason; it took me completely bur surprise. So rarely do we get a story that reflects the beauty and tragedy of its cover. This fast-paced story is going to take the YA world by storm. Give it all the attention, all the bookstagram features. THIS BOOK!

We have two povs, one from the Ankou, a cursed boy doomed to spend his days as a skeleton in the day and hunting supernatural creatures at night. He hasn't seen a flower bloom or bedded a woman in three hundred years. A severe dry spell if I have to say so myself. The other is, Flora, the handmaiden to a princess whose kingdom is savagely attacked. Raped and left for dead, she's rescued by the Ankou and taken into his creepy caravan. After a moment of horror reminiscent of The Phantom of the Opera, Flora realizes she needs the Ankou to help to find out if the princess is still alive and also try to break the Ankou's curse. Their feelings bloom into love (SQUEEE) but there's danger around every freakin' corner, so it's not going to all be honky dory. Plus, the Ankou (renamed Lazarus) is slowly rotting away.

I felt like this was more Lazarus's story rather than Flora's. I found myself deeply caring for my bone-boy. He's kind, caring (even when Flora gets her period and they have to race through a forest where blood attracts monsters). I love when he goes shopping for her (isn't that what we want, ladies? I mean, not clothes, but books, always books).

Flora takes the aftermath of her brutal rape and channels it into learning to fight. She holds out hope that the princess survived the attack on her home and uses all her skills to not only further their quest through treacherous territory but also to fall in love with Lazarus. It's a testament to overcoming your past and learning that you are more than the worst thing that has happened to you.

The story is fast-paced with little time to take a breath. What I can't get over is how well the world-building is written. I'm a monster girl. I love monsters of all kinds. We get a lot of those in this book from giant serpents to ghuls and strigas; it reminded me so much of Castlevania the Netflix show. There's an endless source of magic and intrigue on every page.

Final thoughts: I am thoroughly obsessed with this book. If I could own a hundred copies, I would.