Descendants of the Zodiac Books in Order

Descendants of the Zodiac is Katie Zhao's darker YA fantasy lane, and it leans hard into secret school energy. The series is set at a hidden boarding school in Manhattan where the descendants of the Chinese zodiac have been living in the shadows. Long ago, the twelve zodiac statues that powered their magic were vandalized and lost. Since then, the Descendants have been cursed, transformed into creatures of darkness, and cut off from the future they thought was theirs.

The story follows a group rather than one single lead, though Evangeline Long is a major center of gravity. She is a vampire with every reason to be angry and every reason to fight. Around her are Nicholas, a shapeshifter carrying old pain, Alice, the mortal outsider trying to understand her place in this world, and Tristan, a werewolf who would do almost anything to outrun the monster inside him. Together they give the series a strong team dynamic from the start.

In Zodiac Rising, a powerful student is killed just as the lost statues resurface, and that turns the book into both a murder mystery and a heist. The crew has to steal back what belongs to their people, survive the threat of the fae, and figure out whom they can trust inside a school built on secrets, hierarchy, and old wounds. The dark academia label fits, but this is not a quiet campus novel. It moves with the speed of an ensemble fantasy thriller.

Then Zodiac Legacy deals with the aftermath instead of pressing reset. The heist leaves the crew scattered, the curse unbroken, and loyalties under strain. Evangeline and the others are forced to keep running, rescue a captured ally, and push the mission beyond New York and into London, all while factions within the Descendants start pulling against one another. That gives the duology a larger political shape, not just an external enemy but a community deciding what it wants to become.

It is a school story, but the homework is the least of anyone's problems.

What makes the series stand out is the combination of mood and momentum. You get gothic corridors, secret histories, rival groups, and supernatural identities, but you also get questions about legacy, assimilation, monstrosity, and whether power can ever be reclaimed cleanly. If you like multi-POV fantasy with curses, crew chemistry, and a city setting that feels hidden in plain sight, Descendants of the Zodiac is built to scratch that itch.