This atmospheric fantasy is, from the gripping first line, a fast-paced, thought-provoking, and stirring story of sacrifice (Kirkus Reviews, starred review).Liyana has trained her entire life to be the vessel of a goddess. The goddess will inhabit Liyanas body and use magic to bring rain to the desert. But Liyanas goddess never comes. Abandoned by her angry tribe, Liyana expects to die in the desert. Until a boy walks out of the dust in search of her. Korbyn is a god inside his vessel, and a trickster god at that. He tells Liyana that five other gods are missing, and they set off across the desert in search of the other vessels. For the desert tribes cannot survive without the magic of their gods. But the journey is dangerous, even with a gods help. And not everyone is willing to believe the trickster gods tale. The closer she grows to Korbyn, the less Liyana wants to disappear to make way for her goddess. But she has no choice: She must die for her tribe to live. Unless a trickster god can help her to trick fateor a human girl can muster some magic of her own.

 

 

This book is the winner of numerous awards

This book is aimed at children at US 7th grade+.

This book has been graded for interest at 12-18 years.

There are 432 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 2013 by Simon & Schuster .

Sarah Beth Durst is the author of award-winning fantasy novels for children and adults. She lives with her family in Stony Brook, New York. www. sarahbethdurst. com