This is a debut novel and an extremely worthy effort.  The author incorporates elements from Ghanian folklore and Arabian myths. A heady combination in this novel.

In this world, people come in three flavors: those with red blood (ruling class) are known as Embers, blue blood (working class) are known as Dusters, and transparent blood are known as Ghostings. Those with transparent blood are the lowest of the low and deliberately mutilated at birth by removing their hands and their tongue so they can be used as servants, very quiet servants.  The mutilation is a punishment for a distant past crime of revolt against the red-blooded class.  All the people are governed by Wardens. This story is an inadvertent coming together of three women, each with a different blood.  Magic is wrought using blood; but only red blood can perform the magic.

When Sylah was born, the blue-bloods staged a sort of coup with the goal of overthrowing the red-blood rule.  On one night, they took twelve of their own newborns and went to the red-bloods’ homes; replacing their own newborns.  Once the red-bloods discovered the deception, those blue-blood babies were murdered; all but one: Anoor.  Anoor’s new mother was one of the ruling Wardens and determined that admitting her own child was replaced would jeopardize her authority.  As Anoor grew up, she found ways to hide her low-born origins but always with the hate and disapproval of her mother.  Anoor grew up in luxury and schemed to be more than her mother expected of her; but her expectations were formed by the prejudices of the higher class.

Sylah was one of the red-blooded babies, raised in the working class of blue bloods.  She and the eleven others like her were trained from a young age to be as good as the red bloods; the expectation was that they would be prepared to challenge the red bloods for a seat in the government in a grand competition to be a Warden.  The competition only occurred every ten years; designed to replace the existing Wardens with new, young people.  One of the biggest challenges Sylah and her friends faced was learning how to use blood magic; there was no one who would teach blue bloods.

Hassa is a Ghosting and friend to Sylah.  But Hassa had secrets she kept even from her friend; secrets that could change the entire social structure.  Everyone considered Ghostings to be mute and stupid, unable to understand, unable to learn. Sylah was one of the few to realize Ghostings had created a sign language so they communicated amongst themselves.  Sylah knew they were far from stupid and far from uneducated.  The fact that everyone overlooked them gave them the freedom to plan for their future.

Sylah had a problem, the kind from drinking too much and doing too many drugs.  It was a way to escape the dreary wearying life she had.  Despite the training she had received, she didn’t really believe she could win the competition.  So, the drugs.  One night, higher than she should be to make a sober decision, she fixated on meeting the girl who supplanted her.  To know the life and mother that had been denied her. So she broke into the Embers compound and hid in the girl’s room.

Anoor was enamored with a published zine about an Ember detective who had all kinds of cool tricks to ferret out the guilty – using bloodwerk.  With blue blood, Anoor was unable to do what came naturally to all Embers.  But with her mother’s help to disguise her origins, she kept vials of blood from her nurse/companion in order to do bloodwerk. With the zines to inspire her, she experimented with traps within her own rooms.  One such trap was in place when Sylah arrived.  Convinced that Sylah was an assassin sent to kill her, Anoor triggered the trap and knocked Sylah out.  She then proceeded to bind and gag her and hid her in her wardrobe. On examining Sylah’s possessions, she came upon an old torn map.  Sylah had found the map in an abandoned house and was astonished at what it implied. Anoor was similarly astonished at the implication that the world was bigger than the Wardens allowed.

Sylah had still planned to enter the competition.  When Anoor questioned her motives for breaking into her rooms, their discussion happened to mention Sylah’s aspirations.  Anoor, having been put down her whole life by her mother, had never thought she could or should ever compete.  But somehow Sylah inspired her, so she put her name down.  But because Sylah was still imprisoned in the wardrobe, she missed the signup period.

Not having been trained for the competition, Anoor recognized Sylah as a possible tutor.  Sylah, knowing her chance had gone, saw the possibilities if Anoor actually qualified; there would be a blue-blood as a Warden.  So, in exchange for training Anoor, she demanded that Anoor would teach her how to bloodwerk. She intended to share that knowledge with her closest friend and the only other survivor of the other eleven Stolen, Jond.

Being in Anoor’s custody, Sylah didn’t have access to her drugs and the withdrawal symptoms were hideous and life-threatening.  Anoor barely left her side, nursing her through the process.  Slowly, slowly, Sylah’s hatred of Anoor dissipated and even more slowly, it was replaced with tolerance for her childish behavior, then mild affection, and then much more than Sylah would admit to herself.

Meanwhile, Anoor’s curiosity about the map in Sylah’s bag wouldn’t leave her mind. She decided that since she had access to the Embers’ library, it wouldn’t hurt to do a little research.  Not much was known or remembered about the first Wardens or how the people came to this land. Astonishingly, she found nothing in the library to explain the map.  The possibilities still preyed on her mind.  But there is another resource; the Wardens have their own library, inaccessible to everyone but them.  Maybe the information could be there.

Once Sylah was somewhat recovered from her withdrawal symptoms, Anoor allowed her freedom to leave the Embers compound.  Her first intent was to find her friend, Hassa, and get word to her mother that she was alive and well.  The next was to find Jond and tell him of her plan to provide him with the training to do the bloodwerk he’d need to win the competition. 

When the blue-bloods staged the coup, the stolen children were segregated and taught the skills they’d need as adults.  But after most of them were found and killed, Sylah felt adrift without guidance.  Jond assured her that the guiding council was still functioning and they needed Sylah to do something for them.  They needed her to access the Wardens’ library and bring them journals written by older or dead Wardens.  But Jond either didn’t know or wouldn’t tell why they wanted the journals.  At one time, Sylah was an integral part of the council and now their secrecy and refusal to deal directly with her was both insulting and disappointing.

The other critical element in the story is the nightly sandstorms which are so heinous that anyone caught outside would be ripped to shreds of meat.  The sandstorms keep the people in place; no one travels farther than they can and return the same day.  But the storms are getting worse; longer and more ferocious.  Some wonder what will happen if the storms start lasting all the time.  The Ghostings use the sandstorms for their own purpose; a cover to explain the dwindling population of Ghostings.  Even Hassa doesn’t know exactly where all the Ghostings go but she knows she has a part to play and Sylah might be part of it.

As the story started coming to the end, many things happened.  The mysterious map turned out to be only a small part of the original map, putting a lie to the Wardens’ tales of their origins.  During the last trial of the competition, Anoor nearly died and in so doing used a long hidden truth; one that would change the entire power structure. And the most shocking secret of all:  that the council Sylah depended on to guide the Dusters out of their bondage was being controlled by someone who didn’t have red blood, or blue blood or even transparent blood.

This was really an amazing story; complex and convoluted but not so much a reader would get lost.  The plotting is impressive.  The characters were a lot of fun; well-designed and choreographed.  It’s hard to credit this as a debut novel; makes me wonder just how the author honed her skill.  I am very interested in seeing where this story goes.   ~~  Catherine Book