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124 pages

English

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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 bestselling 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.

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Publié par	ABRAMS BOOKS
Date de parution	14 janvier 2020
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781683353812
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	2 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0777€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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PUBLISHER S NOTE: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author s imagination or used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for and may be obtained from the Library of Congress.
ISBN 978-1-4197-3145-7
Text copyright 2020 Christian Yee Jacket illustrations copyright 2020 Studio Muti Book design by Hana Anouk Nakamura
Published in 2020 by Amulet Books, an imprint of ABRAMS. All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher.
Printed and bound in the U.S.A. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Amulet Books are available at special discounts when purchased in quantity for premiums and promotions as well as fundraising or educational use. Special editions can also be created to specification. For details, contact specialsales@abramsbooks.com or the address below.
Amulet Books is a registered trademark of Harry N. Abrams, Inc.
ABRAMS The Art of Books 195 Broadway, New York, NY 10007 abramsbooks.com
for IAN

1
Several months ago
I believe you, Yunie said.
I ground my knuckles into my eyes. This wasn t going how I d imagined.
I-I don t think you re listening, I said. I m trying to tell you that I m the reincarnation of a legendary weapon once owned by Sun Wukong, the Monkey King.
I ve heard of him, Genie. You don t have to recap Journey to the West for the umpteenth time. Not all of us suck at being Asian as much as you.
Yunie and I were having a heart-to-heart in the most secure location I could think of when it came to our friendship: the basement rec room of her house. As kids, we d ousted her father from his mahogany-walled man cave to hold countless sleepovers here, next to piles of outdated golf clubs and liquor cabinets we had no thought of pilfering. As we got older, we stopped hanging out here, preferring to meet aboveground in the light of day. But I thought I needed the emotional backdrop for a confession as weighty as this one. I wasn t prepared for her treating it like she d gotten my favorite color wrong for seven years.
Quentin is Sun Wukong! I cried. The guy in our class! He s him !
I believe you said that multiple times.
I nearly pulled my hair out with one yank. Demons, Chinese demons called yaoguai -they re real! They re wandering the Bay Area as we speak! You know the Boddhisatva Guanyin? I ve met her. We saved the lives of everyone in the city!
Yunie looked up at me with her calm doe eyes, as placid as could be. That sounds like something you would do.
I d reached my breaking point. I didn t want to have to do this.
Before I cut loose, I looked around for anything fragile nearby. Her basement was spacious and floored in fluffy, sound-muting carpet. As long as I kept away from the giant TV mounted on the wall I d be okay.
I took a deep breath, feeling oddly naked in front of my best friend. Grow , I said to myself.
I had been practicing this with Quentin and had gained some semblance of control over how big I got. So instead of shooting through every single story of Yunie s house and bursting through the roof like a xenomorph, I merely changed to about ten feet in height. Enough to make me hunch forward under the basement ceiling.
Yunie shrieked and scrambled backward until the sofa took her legs out from under her. She clambered over the cushions and fell to the floor behind the back with a bruising thud. For a moment I was scared she d knocked herself out, but then she peeked over the edge, taking cover from my massiveness.
Her eyes were so wide they were mostly whites. GENIE, WHAT THE FU-
Ha! I pointed a finger the length of a pencil at her, my voice booming an octave lower. You didn t really believe me before! You were lying!
I believed that what you were describing was real to YOU! Yunie screamed. If you told me you saw gods and demons, then of course I would believe that s what you were genuinely seeing! Genie, what the hell is this!?
I could tell that forcing her to look upon my perspective-breaking size for too long would make her panic. I was putting her through an experience like the first time I saw magical shenanigans, when I was attacked by the yaoguai named Hunshimowang.
I shrank down to normal size but did it too quickly. Dizziness like a bout of low blood pressure forced me to sit down on the floor. As soon as she saw me collapse with my head between my knees, Yunie s switch flipped into protective mode.
She leaped over the couch to my side, grabbed a nearby blanket, and wrapped my shoulders with it like she d been waiting for me at the finish line of a marathon. I breathed in and out, regaining my senses.
Don t push yourself too hard, she said, sensing how much the effort had taken out of me. She stroked my back, trying to generate as much comforting friction as possible. I believe you. I ll always believe you.
I knew she was telling the truth. Yunie would accept a new reality simply because I was the one laying down how it was. I didn t deserve a person who trusted me so thoroughly, who was so completely on my side.
It should have been me trying to steady her . I started to tear up.
I m sorry, I said. I should have told you from the beginning instead of blowing you off and being distant. I was trying to protect you. I wanted to keep you as far away from this nonsense as possible.
Yunie sniffled a bit, the closest I had ever heard her come to crying. I knew if I looked her in the eyes right now I d start to bawl uncontrollably. I kept my face pointed downward to maintain a controlled drip on the floor.
It s not your fault, she said. I m sorry.
For what ?
I don t know. Thinking that you were sick of me, maybe? Making you feel so beholden? Of course you re going to have your own important stuff going on. Your own secrets, too. I can t be part of every single aspect of your life.
I wasn t sure whether I felt absolved or heartbroken to hear her say that. But once again, Yunie was speaking the truth. In the long run, clinging too hard to each other would only end in sadness.
Right now, though, we could hug it out as much as we wanted. I squeezed her to my side, my friend s slight stature making her easy to embrace with a single, normal arm. You re okay with all the . . . you know . . . demons?
Oh hell, no. I am completely weirded out by the demons. And the gods, too; I don t even want to think about that. I mean, ew . Are they watching us? Can a god see straight down into my room? Or my brain? Are they reading my thoughts right now?
I laughed and a tear went up my nose, the salt burning. I d never grilled Guanyin over the particulars, mostly because I still needed my rational side to function. Yunie was taking the same approach-only faster and better, as I should have expected from her.
She tapped the side of her head. Your mumbo-jumbo is going straight into the vault of horrible things that don t exist, right between my stage fright and Australian spiders. Don t feel obligated to bring me into Chinese Narnia or whatever.
That was absolutely fine by me. Perfect even. My original plan of keeping Yunie safe through distance was still a go, only I didn t have to lie to her anymore.
There was one remaining problem, though, a magical, rock-hard lump that would be impossible to dislodge from our normal lives.
Quentin is going to be around for a while, I said.
Eh, he s allowed to stay. Yunie leaned against me and sighed, trying to digest what his existence meant. Sun Wukong, the Monkey King, huh? she said. You know what s funny? I originally thought the reason you didn t have time to hang out anymore was because you and he were hooking up after school. Guess I was wrong. You didn t fall for each other.
Ah, hell.
I didn t say anything fast enough. Yunie must have detected a subtle temperature change in my body, because she pushed me away so she could stare at my face.
No! she said, her grin swelling like the crest of an oncoming wave. Yes?
Each additional moment I kept silent was another rev of her engine. She brightened and brightened until finally I nodded ever so slightly.
YES! she crowed in triumph. I knew the two of you were going to become a thing! Called that from day one!
I couldn t do anything but turn into a beet.
Okay, spill. How long has it been official?
Not long, I mumbled.
I take back everything I said. I hate you, and the only way you can ever earn my forgiveness is by spilling some juicy details.
I couldn t believe that this-of all things-was what Yunie wanted to hear about. Not the magic or the size-changing or any of that. I tried to come up with a small slice of information that might appease her, but I couldn t get any words past the gate of sheer embarrassment.
Come on, out with it, she said. How far have the two of you gone?
I scratched my head. Uh, us or our clones? There was a pretty meaningful difference.
Yunie blinked slowly at the word clones and sat back down, disappointed.
Okay, now you ve made it weird, she huffed.
2
Today
No! I screamed. No! No! No! I hate you!
Genie, stop being dramatic, Jenny Rolston said from where she was sitting on my chest. Weekend morning practice had just ended, and I d been taken by surprise in the locker room. You re team captain next year, and that s final. Now quit struggling and hold still.
Despite my best efforts to thrash around on the cold, dirty floor, my volleyball team s former leader managed to pin me down long enough to clip the enamel badge in our school colors to my shirt. Jenny got off me and blew strands of surfer-blond hair out of her face. The freshmen and sophomores watching us giggled and whispered to themselves about the most undignified transfer o