Katie Zhao Books In Order

Publication Order of Descendants of the Zodiac Books

Publication Order of The Dragon Warrior Books

Publication Order of How We Fall Apart Books

Publication Order of Winnie Zeng Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Katie Zhao
Katie Zhao is a graduate of the University of Michigan with a BA in English with a minor in Political Science, and a Masters of Accounting at the same university. During her sophomore year, a story that she posted on an online platform won a Watty Award and was read by almost a million people.

She grew up in Michigan where there wasn’t much for her to do besides just bury her nose into a writing journal or a good book.

During her spare time she enjoys dancing (badly), singing, reading, and checking out some new Instagram-worthy restaurants.

“How We Fall Apart” started in Katie’s mind with the theme of examining toxic competitive academia, and was always meant to explore the ways families and schools push their students toward a breaking point. The people and events in the novel might be fictional but the emotions she poured into it are very real.

When Katie was just seventeen years old, Nancy’s age, she came up with the idea for a murder mystery that involved high-achieving Asian Americans. It was probably during the same time that she herself was stressing out over her AP exams and finals. Katie knew that she wanted to write the story of Asian students killing one another so they could get to the top of their class, because she’s always been drawn to dark academia or other such school-related murder mysteries. But she never saw any that reflected Asian characters, which is silly given just how intense so many of them are about grades.

Back in the year 2018, she sat down at last to begin writing “How We Fall Apart” once her agent approved the pitch, which is now a finished novel.

Writing middle grade is quite different from writing young adult, in terms of length, voice, and themes, etc. and couldn’t be more different. When she switches from one age group to another, she spends at least a full day reading a book from that genre to switch gears and allow herself into the headspace. She feels that her style and voice works better for middle grade overall, since she likes writing humor.

Katie’s debut novel, called “The Dragon Warior”, was released in the year 2019. She writes children’s and young adult fiction.

“The Dragon Warrior” is the first novel in the “Dragon Warrior” series and was released in the year 2019. This middle-grade fantasy follows an outcast while she heads off on a quest to save the world from demons.

Faryn Liu, twelve years old, is a member of the Jade Society and dreams about honoring her family and the gods by becoming a warrior someday. However the Society has shunned both her and Alex, her brother, ever since their dad vanished many years ago, forcing them to train in secret.

Then, while doing an errand in San Francisco, she stumbles upon a battle with a demon, and helps in defeating it. She may possibly be the fabled Heaven Breaker, a powerful warrior meant to work for the all-mighty deity, the Jade Emperor, by commanding an army of dragons to beat all the demons. That is, if she’s able to prove her worth and locate the island of the immortals before the Lunar New Year.

With Alex and some other unlikely allies by her side, she sets off on quite a daring quest across Chinatowns. However becoming the Heaven Breaker is going to require a lot more sacrifices than she first realized. What is she going to be willing to give up in order to claim her destiny?

“The Fallen Hero” is the second novel in the “Dragon Warrior” series and was released in the year 2020. Faryn Liu believed she was the Heaven Breaker, a warrior that is destined to wield Fenghuang (the all-powerful shield), defeat demons, and command dragons. However the conniving goddess had been manipulating her the whole time, and her little brother has betrayed her and taken over the role of Heaven Breaker instead of her. Alex never forgave the people that treated both him and Faryn like they were outcasts, and now he wants to wipe out both the demons as well as much of humanity.

Faryn and her half dragon buddy Ren, determined to prevent a war and get Alex back on her side, join the New Order, which is a group of warriors that is based just out of Manhattan’s Chinatown. She discovers that a single weapon could stand up against Fenghuang, the Ruyi Jingu Bang. The only problem is that it belongs to the Monkey King, the infamous trickster.

Faryn goes off on a daring quest in order to convince the Monkey King to join up with her, one that’s going to take her to some new places, including off to Diyu, which is otherwise known as the underworld, where she’s going to run into some new dangers and more than just one familiar face. Will she be able to accomplish her mission and save the brother that she loves no matter the cost will be?

“How We Fall Apart” is the first novel in the “How We Fall Apart” series and was released in the year 2021. Students at the elite prep school are forced to confront their secrets once their best friend ends up dead.

Nancy Luo is stunned with Jamie Ruan (her former best friend and a top ranked junior at Sinclair Prep) disappears then is discovered dead. Nancy’s even more stunned when word begins spreading that she and her friends: Akil, Krystal, and Alexander, are the prime suspects, thanks to somebody called “the Proctor”, somebody anonymously incriminating them through the school’s social media app.

They were all Jamie’s closest buddies, and she knew each of their darkest, deepest secrets. Now, the Proctor is somehow knows them too. The four of them have to reveal the real killer before The Proctor exposes more about them than they can bear and costs them much more than they can afford, like Nancy’s full ride. Before long, Nancy suspects that her buddies are keeping some secrets from her as well.