Give the Dark My Love by Beth Revis - ESSENTIAL

Give the Dark My Love by Beth Revis, 464 pages.  Penguin, September 2018.  $18

Language: PG (19 swears, 0 ‘f’); Mature Content: G; Violence: PG-13 (bloody zombie attacks)

BUYING ADVISORY: MS – OPTIONAL, HS – ESSENTIAL

KID APPEAL: HIGH

Nedra, her twin sister Ernesta, and their parents live a quiet life in a small village, but Nedra dreams of more.  A strange sickness, the Wasting Death, has started to spread and she wants to study to become a medicinal alchemist and return home and save those she loves. She has been admitted to the Yugen Academy on Lunar Island, but her arrival as a scholarship student is not warm. Her mentor, Professor Ostrum, however, is brilliant, and he is just as interested as tin the Wasting Sickness as she is.  She also catches the eye of Grey, who should be her rival, but is fascinated by her instead.  As Nedra and Ostrum study the disease, they realize that may actually be a curse – a necromancer’s curse.  As the disease starts to spread, and as a rebellion against the Empire starts to gain traction, Nedra may be the only one with the fire and the power to combat the disease and the hidden enemy.

Wow!  Even with the teaser at the prologue of the book, I had no idea it was going to ramp up to where it did.  There is so much more I could have told in the summary, but I want you to discover it for yourselves.  I probably should have rated it and R for the zombie action, but I was so caught up in my reading that I didn’t track it with the detail I could have. This reminds me more of Garth Nix’s finessed necromancy books rather than, say, Charlie Higson’s slasher zombie books.  PLEASE tell me there will be a sequel!

Cindy, Middle School Librarian