Curse of the Zodiac by Ashley Kaplan: A Book Review
Genre: Fantasy
Set in the far future, Ashley Kaplan starts a captivating series with its first book, Curse of the Zodiac. Surrounding the story of Arianna, Kaplan spins a story intertwining both western Zodiac mythology and eastern Zodiac mythology throughout, detailing a world abandoned by their gods. As all good stories with gods entail, Arianna is thus shoved into the war between good and evil. With a couple good twists and a lot of coming-of-age, Kaplan takes her readers on a rollarcoaster of events – each leaving just the perfect amount of exhilaration behind.
Reminding me of Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson series, I can see Kaplan becoming a household name with “Astro Warrior” stickers on everything and “Astro City Resident” shirts on everyone. Copyright may be an issue, but I would love just once to put Percy’s pen/sword into Abner’s just once! That being said, it was a neat idea to take the idea of the Zodiacs and make them into gods. I never really thought of the Zodiacs in like a god sense, but how it was portrayed in the story made so much sense. Kaplan did everything so well that I had to even look more into things to see if what she was giving was true. Girl definitely did her research!
I did have one issue with Curse of the Zodiac and that issue was Arianna. For some reason, I was not her biggest fan. She seemed very stiff – plus it was obvious that she was the archetype of the hero which did not add to her cause. By relying so much on the hero archetype, I feel that Arianna didn’t have the same pull the other characters had. This would go towards Abner too for the beginning of the piece, but Kaplan makes up for his character in the end. Out of all the characters I would have to say either Calypse and Damien are my favorite.
Which brings me to my next question: are Calypse and Orion actually named that or is there some kind of code going on to do with constellations, stars, and/or moons?
Who would most enjoy the work and who should stay clear (if necessary):
Fans of the Percy Jackson series and Avatar: The Last Airbender will want to read this one.
Other books like the one reviewed:
The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
| Plot: | 9 / 10 |
| Characters: | 9 / 10 |
| Writing: | 10 / 10 |
| Editor: | 9 / 10 |
| Total | 37 / 40 |
Title: Curse of the Zodiac
Author: Ashley Kaplan
Edition: ARC eBook
Published: August 21, 2022
Publisher: Library and Archives Canada
ISBN: 9781777721527
If you want to get it: Amazon; Barnes&Noble
Rosey Reviews 