A Game of Thrones meets X-Men in this 14th-century fantasy from Marie Lu (the Legend trilogy), in a world where "fear is power."
Sixteen-year-old Adelina Amouteru is a malfetto, one whose appearance is "marked" by the blood fever that crippled the country of Kenettra and claimed her mother's life. The blood fever took Adelina's left eye, turned her hair silver and gave her a power that's remained dormant--until the fateful night her merchant father agrees to trade her to a suitor in exchange for cleared debts. Adelina flees, and once her father catches up with her, she conjures phantoms that cause his death. The Inquisitors arrest Adelina and sentence her to burn at the stake for the murder of her father.
Teren Santoro, the 19-year-old Lead Inquisitor, works to cleanse the world of malfettos. When it comes time to burn Adelina in the central market square, Enzo Valenciano, a malfetto known widely as The Reaper, melts her shackles and takes her to Estenzia, the northern port capital. He introduces Adelina to the Dagger Society--a group of Young Elites with dangerous powers. It's here that she discovers that her ability to conjure illusions is rooted in darkness. When Teren Santoro takes her younger sister hostage, Adelina must choose between her sister and the Dagger Society.
Lu's compelling new novel introduces morally complex characters (the Young Elites are not fully innocent, and there are depths to Adelina's darkness and layers to the cross Teren bears). No one is safe in the book's final conflict, and the many twists, cinematic battles and the overriding epic fantasy will keep readers hooked for book two, which teases to be a game-changer. Bring it on. --Adam Silvera, children's bookseller