Thank you to the publisher for sending me an advanced finished copy for review. All opinions and ratings of this book are my own.

(I am hoping that there will be a second book to this as it shows a stand-alone. I do not want another Master of One situation.)

I think the last time that I picked up a middle-grade book was way back when I read the Percy Jackson series. That has been at least 10 years or so. One of my goals this year was to read more middle-grade literature, especially middle-grade literature that contains underrepresented identities. I have heard so many things about Xiran Jay Zhao and while I have not had the chance to read Iron Widow yet, I wanted to give this book a try to see if I enjoyed her writing style.

Which I did.

Zachary Ying and the Dragon Emperor follows the story of a young boy who has ancestry to the first emperor of Qin Shi Huang. During a normal school day, Zachary is attacked by one of his schoolmates possessed by a demon. The emperor tries to save the kid's life by taking over the boy's body and instead takes over his gaming glasses. Being sent on an action-filled journey across the globe, Zach not only encounters other young pre-teens like him possessed by ancient emperors but he also starts to connect with his ancestry and what it means to accept all parts of himself.

I really enjoyed the magic system that Zhao introduces, it has a mix of airbending, YuGiOh, and cultural magic/myth all mixed into one. It was unique and really captured me at the beginning. I also love how Zhao bases power on the awareness of these ancient figures and if their story continues to be told they are stronger. Also adding in the element of there are spin-offs to these individuals' stories and they are widely known they also play a part in creating strong lasting spirits.

It was all quite unique and I enjoyed it. Along with the action. We don't wait long into the book where we get action and it is continuous throughout the book.

Where I think the book deters from its intended audience is the culture/history dump we are given quite often. Any time a new character, individual in history, myth, creature, and cultural artifact is introduced we are given an entire 1-2 page history lesson on that thing. This would slow the plot down immensely. At times I felt like I was reading more of a history book than a middle-grade contemporary/fantasy novel.

There is also a lot of commentary on politics and a lot of name dumps. It was hard to keep track of at times. Also, the villains, side-characters are brief within the story, and then we are pulled along to the next thing that we get an entire backstory on. As a 27-year-old who reads quite avidly, I felt like this book was far denser than what a middle-grade book ought to be. 

I am also curious as to if the references are understood by the younger generation. I understand a lot of the YuGiOh references as Pokemon and YuGiOh are what I grew up on; however, I am curious to know if this is something that is still popular today? I do not see YuGiOh streaming on TV like Pokemon and I don't know if a majority of the audience for this book would get these references. This is just a thought process and I am really curious as to the answer to this. Also because of these references, the setting is changing quite often and it left me baffled at where we were in both setting and plot.

All in all, I really enjoyed the bantering between the emperors, the history that the book brings in, the representation, and the action that we were given. I am hoping that there is another book to this stand-alone as there are a lot of things left open with no conclusion and character development still needed.