The Iron Will of Genie Lo by F.C. Yee

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The Iron Will of Genie Lo by F.C. Yee
The Epic Crush of Genie Lo #2
Published by Amulet Books on January 21, 2020
Age Group & Genres: Fantasy, Mythology, Young Adult
Representation: Chinese cast
Format: eBook
Source: Library

The fate of the heavens is at stake in this hilarious and highly-anticipated sequel to the The Epic Crush of Genie Lo, from the New York Times and USA Today best-selling author of Avatar: The Last Airbender: The Rise of Kyoshi

Genie Lo thought she was busy last year, juggling her academic career with protecting the Bay Area from demons. But now, as the Heaven-appointed Guardian of California, she's responsible for the well-being of all yaoguai and spirits on Earth. Even the ones who interrupt her long-weekend visit to a prestigious college, bearing terrible news about a cosmos-threatening force of destruction in a nearby alternate dimension.

The goddess Guanyin and Genie's boyfriend, Quentin Sun Wukong, do their best to help, but it's really the Jade Emperor who's supposed to handle crises of this magnitude. Unfortunately for Genie and the rest of existence, he's gone AWOL. Fed up with the Jade Emperor's negligence, Genie spots an opportunity to change the system for the better by undertaking a quest that spans multiple planes of reality along with an adventuring party of quarrelsome Chinese gods. But when faced with true danger, Genie and her friends realize that what will save the universe this time isn't strength, but sacrifice.

Honestly considering how much I enjoyed The Epic Crush of Genie Lo, you’d think I’d get around to reading The Iron Will of Genie Lo much quicker than I actually did. (I definitely took my very sweet time.)

Unfortunately unlike the first novel, I didn’t love The Iron Will of Genie Lo as much as I hoped I would. Personally I felt the pacing was a little slower, but as someone who is a mood reader who read way too many books at a time, I also think I just wasn’t in the right mood but the time I picked up the book.

While the pacing personally felt slower for me, I think a lot of it was made up through the development in the story and characters, because this is a huge step from the first novel. Genie Lo is finally a senior in high school, worrying about not only her schoolwork and making it into a good college that would make her parents proud without breaking the bank (relatable), but she’s also trying to navigate her new role as the Ruyi Jingu Bang and protecting California from demons.

But like most people, she also begins to question what she really wants to do with her life and just kind of undergoes an existential crisis, especially when she receives an offer that could solve most of her problems but ends up putting some tension between her and Quentin (the Monkey King).

There’s a lot of growth that Genie and the characters undergo in the sequel as they all work to stop a new, bigger threat to not only humans but also Heaven as well (enough a mandate is called to challenge taking over for the Jade Emperor, who has pretty much gone a little MIA). I loved seeing her relationship with Guanyin and Yunie and how each of them challenge Genie for the better (and vice versa). Guanyin tries to keep Genie from being too reckless with her anger (no matter how valid) while Genie encourages the Goddess of Mercy to challenge the mandate to rule Heaven; Genie tries to keep Yunie from being involved with the new part of her life, but somehow her best friend just ends up entangled throughout the book anyway no matter how hard Genie tries for that to not happen.

Overall, The Iron Will of Genie Lo was a solid sequel and end to the duology, and despite my one issue, I definitely didn’t dislike the sequel. In its own way, I actually enjoyed the sequel a lot and would highly recommend giving the series a try for anyone who is interested.