Book Review | That Dark Infinity

The Ankou is a legendary monster hunter who’s cursed by a witch’s love with immortality. He’s alive during the night, but every dawn, he returns to a lifeless skeleton.

However, he’s grown tired of living unchanged for centuries and never being able to see the sun again, so when he finds a royal handmaiden named Flora half-dead on a beach, he’s convinced that she may be the key to breaking his curse. In exchange for teaching her how to fight monsters, she agrees to help him.

That Dark Infinity by Kate Pentecost is dark but charming YA fantasy standalone. It’s gruesome and macabre in parts, and yet, there's a whole lot of heart to this story as well. I especially loved Flora’s stubbornness and the old-married-couple type relationship dynamic she had with Ankou. In fact, their romance reminds me a little of Howl's Moving Castle in the best possible way.

Also, I would say this book feels like a classical fantasy—for better or worse. The author uses the whole traveling on a quest trope, making for a more meandering storyline where the characters travel around to various kingdoms and enchanted locations. The story particularly loses its focus and tension around the halfway point, until it picks up back up and redeems itself in the end.

Flaws aside though, I still devoured and absolutely adored this book.

Thank you, NetGalley and Little, Brown Books for Young Readers for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Book Details:

Publication Date : October 19, 2021

Publisher : Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

IBSN : 0316320773

Pages : 384

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