Rosemarked

September 18, 2017
Seventeen-year-old Zivah, a Daran high healer, contracts the rose plague from an Amparan battalion that’s occupying her village. Zivah survives the initial infection but is left rosemarked—splotched with red, highly contagious, and likely to succumb to her disease within a decade. Dineas, 18, is a Shidadi warrior who catches the plague while shackled in an Amparan dungeon. His captors dump him in a ditch, but Dineas pulls through and returns to his people umbertouched—spotted with brown, no longer infectious, and forever immune. The Daran and Shidadi people suffer mightily under Ampara’s rule, so when their leaders hatch a plan that involves sending Zivah and Dineas to Sehmar City to gather intel about the empire’s plans and weaknesses, the teenagers sign on, despite the dangers. This character-driven fantasy from Blackburne (the Midnight Thief books) is slow to start, but patient readers will be rewarded with an intricately choreographed conclusion and a high-stakes cliffhanger that sets up a sequel. Arguments against prejudice share the page with questions of faith in the face of tragedy. Ages 12–up. Agent: Jim McCarthy, Dystel, Goderich & Bourret.

October 1, 2017

Gr 9 Up-When early symptoms of the dreaded Rose plague are discovered among the Amparan soldiers occupying her small village, Zivah volunteers to help. Despite having just finished her apprenticeship, Zivah is a gifted and compassionate healer. Sadly, her contact with the infected troops doesn't leave her unscathed. She contracts the disease and remains alive but Rosemarked, a sign that she is a carrier and will not live more than a few more years. No longer able to perform her duties as a healer, Zivah goes into seclusion until the commander of the soldiers she aided sends word that her services are needed at the Capitol, where many people have contracted the same illness. Meanwhile Dineas, a Shidadi tribesman whose people have spent years in prolonged combat with Capitol troops, has been given a mission-infiltrate the Amparan troops and pass vital information to his clan. After a chance and near-deadly encounter, Zivah and Dineas reluctantly join forces and travel together to the Capitol. Though they couldn't be more different, Zivah and Dineas gradually overcome their mutual distrust and find common ground in their desire to protect their people. This is a fast-paced, well-written, can't-put-down fantasy that will appeal to a wide audience. A sequel will be in high demand. VERDICT Fans of Sabaa Tahir's An Ember in Ashes will be clamoring for more adventures with Zivah and Dineas.-Jane Henriksen Baird, Anchorage Public Library, AK

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2017
Two young people fight oppression against the backdrop of plague. During the celebration of Zivah's initiation as healer, the occupying Amparan soldiers fall ill with the rose plague, forcing Zivah and the other Dara healers to treat them. After days of exposure, Zivah too contracts the disease, but instead of dying, she is rosemarked: contagious, her body marked with rose-colored patches that signal a very short life span likely lived in isolation. Because she saved the life of the Amparan commander, he invites her to Sehmar City to use her healing skills to care for plague-stricken Amparans. Meanwhile, the Dara have allied with the Shidadi, once rivals but now also under the yoke of empire. The leadership decides to use co-narrators Zivah and Dineas, an umbertouched Shidadi warrior who has survived the plague and is now immune, as spies, sending them into the Amparan capital together to find a weakness the oppressed peoples might exploit. Though the author doesn't quite establish the worldbuilding and time period effectively (is this some far-future Earth or another world entirely?), racial differences exist. Blackburne doles out this information unevenly, causing some confusion for readers, who will not know what the main characters look like until well into the story. (Zivah has light skin and dark hair, while Dineas has brown skin and light hair.) Nevertheless, readers will find the characters engaging, and they will have a sense of the intriguing tribal histories behind them. A dark tale filled with tension and secrets and lightened by two brave companions. (Fantasy. 12-18)

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November 1, 2017
Grades 7-12 A simple potion that makes the difference between remembering and forgetting is vital to healer Zivah's efforts to help Dineas, a rebel trying to infiltrate the Amparan military in order to learn the empire's plans for dealing with the rebels and outlying villages. Both are rose plague survivors, although Zivah is rosemarked, meaning she has limited time before the disease reoccurs, while Dineas is umbertouched, immune and able to have a normal life. Their limitations are no match for their determination to prevent the Amparans from doing further harm to the people they love, even if it means sacrificing themselves. Zivah and Dineas share storytelling duties via alternating chapters, and the book is a way into discussions about difference, segregation, and even the ethics of medicine. Along with the rebel danger, there's a gentle romance complicated by Dineas' split personality (with and without memories), and Blackburne's characters get at the complexity of being humannot always completely good or bad, but always interesting. An unresolved ending foreshadows more adventures to come.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)