I thought this was very good and I will have to add this to the shop shelves. Thank you for the chance for us to review.

A missing God.
A spell gone wrong.
And the consequences of each, that are catching up to everyone in this world... and the next.

The fact that we had 3 povs actually worked so well for this book. It added just the right away of momentum to the flow of the story and pacing.
The chemistry between Rui and honestly a few characters but mostly Yiran & Zizi was very interesting. Both have adepts of romance & platonic vibes that I am here for.

My mind totally thought the Fourth King was going to be hidden in someone else so the plot twist was a surprise to me. The magic system and mythology was like fresh air. socially when it's only ever been western myths. Also the Kings being morally questionable yet dramatic was fun to me.

This story is very promising and I will be reaching for book 2.

i really enjoyed this! such a good read. I’m interested in reading more by this author. Great writing.

This has such a fun vibe. I enjoyed the writing and the story. The characters relatable
are and the setting is one I want to stay in.

The first two thirds of this book are wonderful. I love the characters and the world that Tan has created and I believe that we all need a person like Zizi in our lives.

The reason I’m giving this a four star review is because of the last third of the book. It had its moments but there were a few things that came out of nowhere which really took me out of the story. And the ending felt a little anticlimactic.

But despite that I am very much looking forward to book 2!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book.

my gosh this book was GOOD. i had a fantastic time reading this and thought the writing style was so immersive and unique. It feels like a mix of anime and folklore and i am obsessed with that! Asian inspired stories are some of my favorites. 4.5 stars. Thank you for the opportunity!

I finished this book two days ago and can't stop thinking about it. I didn't expect it to love it as much as I did and I didn't realize how much I was craving a new urban fantasy read until I read Darker by Four. I found all the characters very likeable and I especially loved Rui. She's hard headed but not to the point where I was rolling my eyes for her to just stop. I enjoyed the friendships she made and the slow burn love is heart eyes!

Rui was never meant to live, but her mother survived a terrible car accident when she was pregnant. A sign from fate cause the Gods of Hell to intervene and ensure Rui's survival. However, when she was older, her mother was attacked by a revenant and was killed. All Rui can think about is seeking revenge for her mother. She attends an academy to train as an Exorcist and becomes a prodigy in her school.

One night, an accident causes Rui to transfer her powers to a stranger, Yiran and everything Rui has worked for to seek her revenge begins to crumble. Yiran is the black sheep of his family of Exorcists. The only one who does not hold any magic to become an exorcist. So when Rui's magic gets transferred to him, he is elated and finally feels like he can gain his grandfather's approval. However, everything may go back to the way it used to be when Rui strikes a deal with a God to find another God who went missing 18 years ago.

A brilliantly creative story that features some very interesting (and loveable - Zizi!) characters that are perfect for a YA audience! Highly recommend this urban fantasy for anyone who enjoys a bit of contemporary mythology and a faster paced story!

Perfect book for anime lovers! A complete page-turner of a fantasy! Full of reapers and exorcists, family legacies and life-long grudges, readers will find it hard to decide who to root for. The full cast of beautifully dynamic characters with hidden pasts and dangerous secrets will keep you guessing until the end. Thrilling and Riveting!

"Darker by Four" by June CL Tan is a gripping and atmospheric thriller that expertly blends suspense with rich character development. Its intense narrative and layered storytelling keep readers hooked from start to finish.

I read Jade Fire Gold by the same author and really enjoyed it. To say the least, I was not disappointed when I read Darker by Four! I'm extremely happy to be able to read books from a fellow Singaporean, and I enjoyed this book a lot. The characters and storyline was written in depth, and I could relate to the main characters very well. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone that wants a good fantasy read.

The Shadowhunter Chronicles meets Chinese diaspora folklore in Darker by Four, the first in an epic contemporary fantasy duology from Jade Fire Gold author June Tan.

An absolute stunner and one of my favourites of the year - I am now a certified ride or die for June CL Tan and anything else she wishes to write. Having to wait until the sequel comes out will be torture, but god is that simply more praise for how fantastic this first novel in the series was.

June CL Tan is maybe not the best author for me. The story and premise is intriguing and refreshing, and the characters are fun and endearing, but her writing does not work for me. There is a cadence to her writing that reads very disjointed and borderline juvenile, even for a YA novel. I'm sure there are others who will not mind her writing and love this book.

I was not disappointed by June CL Tan once again! She has a way of crafting her stories that makes you feel like you are part of the adventure. I love Rui and how strong she is and how ready she is to fight.

I'm going to be honest, I had a soft DNF at around 15%. I liked the idea and the concept and I might come back at some point, I thought about the line "the face card does not decline" before I fell asleep and was still thinking about it when I woke up.

I've been the biggest fan of Tan's writing and stories since before her debut "Darker by Four" came out and I loved it even more when the book was published and I got to read this.
I am so excited to be able to say that I got an e-ARC of this (altho I did read it after the pub date so I read a finished copy) but this was I think even better than Tan's debut. A lush world with great world-building skills and I loved the whole exorcist and 10 kings of Hell bit - she took this concept and ran with it and it was amazing. The characters are all so loveable and I just want to give them all a hug and make them all take a nap and go to therapy. I love the found family vibes of it all and the plot twists! Insane!
Love this book SO much and I am so glad I read it.

Darker by Four features an even more modern feeling secondary world, where agents of death send emails to their supervisors, and modern students at an elite exorcist academy keep people safe from undead called Revenants. Rui is a student determined to excel so that she can get revenge on the hybrid Revenant who killed her mother. The problem is, no one admits that hybrids exist. She turns to her friends in the magical community that isn’t supposed to exist, particularly Zizi, who not only provides her with leads on her quest, but also gives her side jobs, testing spells.


When one of Zizi’s spells goes awry in the middle of a Revenant attack, Rui’s spiritual energy ends up getting transferred into Yiran, the un-magical child of a prominent family. Yiran views this as his one chance to change his future, embracing Rui’s magic as his own. Rui has to keep Yiran alive in order to have the hope of getting her magic back. And meanwhile, Nikai, a Reaper, searches the mortal world for the missing Fourth King of Hell, in whose absence, Revenants have become an even greater danger to the human world.

Although some of the marketing for this has pegged it as a dark academia (and it does have some of those vibes), this is definitely more of a magic school novel in the style of books where the schools themselves are dangerous, and only the best survive their chosen careers. The world is at war, and these teenage characters are on the front lines. But they can’t see the real problem—the missing King of Hell—because mortals can’t see Reapers. The result is an action-packed set up leading the characters deeper and deeper into events they can’t control, where fate will determine who survives. Readers who loved Neal Shusterman’s Scythe or Tamsyn Muir’s Gideon the Ninth will find that Tan’s new series opener makes excellent company.

Darker By Four is one of my most anticipated reads of 2024 and it delivered! It's so fun! I loved the mixture of an urban fantasy world that feels detailed and immersive with character dynamics that had me chuckling. It's a world that feels similar, but a shade different. One where you could turn any wrong corner and fall through a hole into this world. At the same time, my favorite element has to be the characters. There were so many times I smiled and laughed at their antics.