Amélie Wen Zhao Introduces Us to the World of The Scorpion and the Night Blossom

Author Amelie Wen Zhao is probably one of the most underrated writers in the fantasy space today. Known for their lush worldbuilding, lyrical prose, and complicated, frequently morally gray characters, her books are not only excellent, immersive fantasy stories but incorporate timely themes of systemic oppression, colonialism, hope, and justice. (That she also deftly works in elements of both real-world history and fascinating elements of Chinese mythology and folklore is an added—and excellent—bonus.)

The first installment of her new Three Realms dulogy, The Scorpion and the Night Blossom is set in a world at war, where the dark creatures of the Kingdom of Night have invaded the Kingdom of Rivers, leaving death, destruction, and oppression in their wake. It follows the story of Àn’yīng, a young woman whose family was devastated by an attack from one of these monsters, an event which left her father dead, her mother barely alive, and her younger sister with no one else to provide for her. Having been trained in the ancient art of practicing by their father, Àn’yīng is prepared to do whatever it takes to help her mother heal, even if it means joining a deadly competition to win the one thing that might save her—a pill of eternal life.

But the Immortality Trials hold many hidden dangers—the most unexpected of which might be the handsome practitioner Yù’chén, a young man who’s talented enough to win on his own, but who seems to be strangely invested in keeping Àn’yīng alive. Their enemies to reluctant partners to maybe something more relationship is the sizzling heart of this story, swoon-worthy, vaguely forbidden (or at the very least ill-advised), and one that ultimately challenges both their preconceptions of each other—and the world they live in. 

Author Amélie Wen Zhao’s books are known for their lush worldbuilding, lyrical prose, and complicated, frequently morally gray characters. So it shouldn’t surprise anyone that her next book The Scorpion and the Night Blossom takes all those familiar pieces of her writing and cranks them up to eleven, crafting a high-stakes fantasy involving everything from a magical tournament where the prize includes a chance to live forever to a swoon-worthy central romance that grabs readers’ attention from the characters’ first interaction. (And which you’ll be able to experience for yourself below.

We had the chance to sit down with Zhao herself ahead of one of her signings at this year’s New York Comic Con to get a preview of The Scorpion and the Night Blossom, the inspiration behind the story, the romance at its center, and lots more. 

Paste Magazine: First off, I have to tell you that I started reading Scorpion and the Night Blossom and I initially meant to just skim the beginning, you know, to get a feel for it and its characters before I talked to you. And I’m now 65% done after like a day and a half. I’m obsessed! It’s so good. But it feels like a real swerve for you, as a writer—it’s a much different story narratively and tonally than your other books. Where did this come from?

Amelie Wen Zhao: I really don’t know! [laughter] I feel like every story has its own origin story—with Song of Silver, Flame Like Night and  the start of the Song of the Last Kingdom series, it was born out of homesickness. It was born out of a time when, you know, my community was being targeted and, as a diaspora, I really wanted a way to feel powerful when I felt most powerless. So, I wrote Song of the Last Kingdom in answer to that. It’s very heavy thematically, and it’s very politically charged, and it draws from history.

Scorpion found me like a fever dream. And I think that feels like the vibe of the book, right? I was literally working on another project—I was in the middle of writing my option, it was a fairytale realm-set story, a very comfy, cozy fantasy. And I woke up in the middle of one night, I remember it was in a hotel room in Washington, D.C., and I just had this vision of a girl dressed in white with blades fighting really good-looking but wicked demons. And it was this world that was super dangerous, but very sensory and very oversaturated with magic, with flowers, and everything. And I just wrote the story that I wanted to write at the time. So I think every story is kind of a time capsule for the one I wanted to read at the moment. And in this case, I wanted a total departure from, you know, real life and more into romance and fantasy. 

Paste: It does feel really high fantasy, which I love. 

Zhao: It is! There’s a lot more…I use the world-building in a very different way from my previous series. It’s used much more to explore romance and love. And it’s less heavy thematically. 

Paste: This book also feels really timely right now, and I know authors probably hate it when they have to be like, oh, this book is like Fourth Wing, or whatever, and give people comps to what’s on shelves right now. But Scorpion does feel really in tune with what’s hitting the market right now—was that a total accident?

Zhao: I don’t think it was an accident. I’m glad…I set out to write a romance and we were discussing, you know—romantic fantasy, epic fantasy, romantasy, the terms get conflated and intertwined a lot. 

Paste: I think a lot of times it ends up being code for just “stuff women like”, unfortunately. 

Zhao: And historically that’s not very respected, right? And I started reading a lot of really good romantasy that’s always historically existed, and I was like, you know, I would like to read one that’s a dark, Chinese fantasy romance. So this is the book that I wanted to read, this is the book that I wrote at the time. 

Paste: How do you feel like this book is an evolution for you as an author?

Zhao: I wanted to experiment. I want to take what I know and what I grew up with—the myths, the magic, the world that I come from, and I want to tell it in as many genres, and as many forms of stories as I can. I want to explore all sorts of themes, ranging from, you know, heavy-hitting political to escapist fantasy for whoever wants to read across those spectrums. 

Paste: Let’s talk about the characters at the center of this book — can you give us a little preview of them and what their journeys are in this story?

Zhao: Okay, we’ll start with Àn’yīng. It literally means dark blossom, dark cherry blossom, the Chinese characters. I’ll have to do a guide, I think. And then Yù’chén. It means jade dawn. But it’s also a homonym for meeting the dawn, so I think it’s very symbolic for him. 

Àn’yīng starts out from a place where she doesn’t want to be involved in a war. She really hates this other realm, the Kingdom of Night, that’s come and waged war on her realm, the Kingdom of Rivers, and literally destroyed her family. And she has a lot of prejudice against these beings, thse demons, and rightfully so, I guess. But she starts to really depart from that when she meets  Yù’chén because he’s half in her realm, half in the enemy realm. For Àn’yīng, I think she just learns what it means to be human. Whereas Yù’chén starts from a place where he doesn’t know what it means to be human. He doesn’t know mortality. He was raised by the demons. But in falling in love with this girl, he realizes what it means to be human, and he finds himself. 

Paste: I have a real soft spot for Ana and Ramson from Blood Heir, but I think this book might have my favorite romance you’ve done yet. Because oh my god, the vibes, they are immaculate and the tropes are perfect. I’m a sucker for well done enemies to lovers.  

Zhao; I love enemies to lovers. Like if their daggers aren’t at their throats is it even a romance?

Paste: Tell me a little bit about what you wanted to do with this relationship and how you hope your readers respond to it?

Zhao: I don’t know if this is technically spoiler territory, but I wanted to showcase the different types of relationships that a young woman can choose in her life. I wanted to show that when you’re finding yourself, sometimes the love you want can take multiple forms, whether that means it’s something more peaceful or something more exciting, as I think the relationship between Àn’yīng and Yù’chén is.

 I just really wanted the tension and the romance to be there, and I wanted the conflict between them to feel real, right? He comes from a part of the world, a part of the realm that is at war with hers. And I feel like, what’s more enemies to lovers? He’s stuck in the middle of both worlds, and he so desperately wants to be human. And I feel like love is such a universal thing. It’s universal to the human experience. So I wanted to showcase that with him in particular.

Paste: One of the things I love the most about you as a writer is how open you are about the fact that you have a real day job. Like, you have to do real life from nine to five and then write all these amazing books at the same time. How do you find the time for everything?

Zhao: I feel like my answer is always, truthfully, I don’t know! But, often, they seem to almost balance each other out. Like, I get to go home after talking about interest rates for a whole day, and I get to just write about, like, romance with hot demons and dragon horses like hell, yeah! And then if I need or want a break from the writing or need to stick my head in real life, then there’s always a spreadsheet. Yay, Excel?

Paste: I really enjoy how female-focused your fiction is, in the sense that I feel like all your heroines go on really interesting personal journeys that are separate and apart from whatever the romance is that’s happening. What I loved about Blood Heir so much was, yes, the romance is so great, but it also wasn’t the point, really—the series was really about how much Ana changed during it.

Zhao: I feel like for me, I never—I love books. I’ll read books that do the opposite, but I prefer to write books where the heroine has her own goals. Where she has her own ambitions and her own mission, and she doesn’t really just become irrational or lose her head over a love interest. So that’s that’s my style. But of course, I’m head over heels with the romance of other books as well. 

Paste: What do you think it is about fantasy romance and “romantasy” that’s hitting so much right now? Because it’s really everywhere and it feels like somehow the entire world seemed to finally notice it at the same time. 

Zhao: Romantasy or fantasy romance, it’s really existed historically for such a long time. So many acclaimed writers have been writing it for so long before we had the word for it. And I think it’s a great label to really bring that subgenre out there and kind of pay homage to all these women and others who have been doing the work. They’re finally getting a lot of recognition now. And I think it’s also about letting women like what they like. Typically, you know, teenage girls, especially, anything they like is seen as less.

Paste: Are you working on anything else at the moment or just the draft for this sequel? Any stuff in the background of your mind that you’re maybe kind of thinking about, writing-wise?

Zhao: Draft two is keeping me fully occupied right now. But I did have a call with my agent about upcoming projects…multiple upcoming projects. So, stuff is in the works!

Paste: And my favorite question I always end by asking everyone: What are you reading right now? 

Zhao: Oh gosh, I’m always reading like a million things at once. I’m actually just reading Silvercloak by Laura Steven and it’s so good. The first chapter of that book just gripped me in a way that I haven’t felt in a long time so highly recommend. 

The Scorpion and the Night Blossom will be released on March 4, 2025, but you can pre-order it right now. 

Lacy Baugher Milas is the Books Editor at Paste Magazine, but loves nerding out about all sorts of pop culture. You can find her on Twitter @LacyMB