Reading Diary: Zachary Ying and the Dragon Emperor by Xiran Jay Zhao

Here is a synopsis from the author's website:

12-year-old Zack never had many opportunities to learn about his Chinese heritage. His single mom was busy enough making sure they got by, and his schools never taught anything except Western history and myths. So Zack is woefully unprepared when he discovers he was born to host the spirit of the First Emperor of China for a vital mission: sealing the leaking portal to the Chinese underworld before the upcoming Ghost Month blows it wide open.

The mission takes an immediate wrong turn when the First Emperor botches his attempt to possess Zack’s body and binds to Zack’s AR gaming headset instead, leading to a battle where Zack’s mom’s soul gets taken by demons. Now, with one of history’s most infamous tyrants yapping in his headset, Zack must journey across China to heist magical artifacts and defeat figures from history and myth, all while learning to wield the emperor’s incredible water dragon powers.

And if Zack can’t finish the mission in time, the spirits of the underworld will flood into the mortal realm, and he could lose his mom forever.

I really enjoyed this book. The author's website calls it a "middle grade series in the vein of Yu-Gi-Oh! meets Percy Jackson." I don't know anything about Yu-Gi-Oh, but that and the VR/AR gaming parts of the story did not get in the way of my enjoyment or understanding. Zhao blended all that very well so that as a non-gamer, I didn't feel lost or bored. Another aspect of the narrative that I enjoyed was how they managed to infodump a lot of cultural information about China and its history, myths, and legends without making it feel like an infodump. It was so smart to have Zack not be familiar with the culture so readers could discover it. It also added a bit of heartbreak that readers who might be immigrants or children of diaspora could relate to. Zhao blended the adventure and the emotions really well. I'm looking forward to the next installment in the series.