A Curse Carved in Ink

A dazzling stand-alone romantasy debut steeped in Chinese vampire folklore and a delicious queer love triangle, for fans of She Who Became the Sun and Daughter of the Moon Goddess. All Zhenya has ever wanted is to escape the monotony of her tiny village with her best friend Shuhua. But Zhenya must care for her grandmother, whose madness haunts their crumbling family bookstore—and she won't abandon her, madness and all. But when her grandmother dies, everything falls apart. For she was never mad—she was cursed. And with her death, the curse has passed on to her one remaining descendent: Zhenya. It screams to be fed, but no matter how hard Zhenya tries, she is powerless to stop it. Even when it demands that she kill Shuhua with her bare hands, trapping her soul in an eternity of torment. As Zhenya grapples with Shuhua's death, she's confronted by two immortals of ancient legend: Kaijun, the broody judge of hell, and Yaori, the flirtatious goddess of death. Together, they drag Zhenya to Diyu—hell itself. To free Shuhua's soul, Zhenya must journey through the ten layers of Diyu, undertaking trials that will test her in unimaginable ways. It's terrifying. And to complicate things further, Zhenya finds herself torn between Kaijun and Yaori, grappling with feelings she doesn't fully understand. But she can't afford to be distracted, not when the only way to break the curse is to destroy it herself.

Tzeyi Koay is a Chinese Malaysian lawyer turned fantasy writer. She studied psychology before earning her Juris Doctor at the University of Melbourne. Her stories are inspired by Chinese mythology and her family's folk traditions. Raised in a rural village in Malaysia, she moved to Melbourne for boarding school at sixteen. When she isn't writing, she can be found tending to her ever-growing collection of books and plants. You can connect with her on Instagram, Bluesky, and TikTok at @TzeyiKoay.