_______________ 'A fiercely compelling, ferocious story' Kiran Millwood Hargrave 'Furious, beautiful, and impossible to put down' - Katherine Webber _______________ An epic South African fantasy from award-winning author Mary Watson, for fans of Children of Blood and Bone and The Gilded Ones. Seventeen-year-old Savannah is cursed. It's a sinister family heirloom; passed down through the bloodline for hundreds of years, with one woman in every generation destined to die young. The family call them Hellas girls, named for their ancestor Hella; the enslaved woman with whom it all began. Hellas girls are always angry, especially in the months before they die. The anger is bursting from Savannah at the men who cat-call her in the street, at her mothers disingenuous fianc, even at her own loving family. Each fit of rage is bringing her closer to the edge and now Savannah has to act to save herself. Or die trying. Because the key to survival lies in the underbelly of Cape Town, where the sinister veilwitches are waiting for just such a girl. Blood to Poison is a furious and mesmerising story about discovering magic, historical rage and love in all its guises.

 

 

This book has been graded for interest at 12 years.

There are 384 pages in this book.

It is aimed at Young Adult readers. The term Young Adult (YA) is used for books which have the following characteristics: (1) aimed at ages 12-18 years, US grades 7-12, UK school years 8-15, (2) around 50-75k words long, (3) main character is aged 12-18 years, (4) topics include self-reflection, internal conflict vs external, analyzing life and its meaning, (5) point of view is often in the first person, and (6) swearing, violence, romance and sexuality are allowed.

This book was published in 2022 by Bloomsbury Publishing PLC .

Mary Watson is from Cape Town and now lives on the West Coast of Ireland with her husband and three young children. Highlights of her adult writing career include being awarded the Caine Prize for African Writing in Oxford in 2006, and being included on the Hay Festival's 2014 Africa39 list of influential writers from sub-Saharan Africa. marywatsonbooks. com