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Author: Preto, Nicki Pau

Adventure stories (Children’s/YA)

Published on 16 July 2024 by Hodder & Stoughton (Hodderscape) in the United Kingdom as part of ‘The House of the Dead Duology’ series.

Paperback | 464 pages
129 x 198 x 31 | 322g

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERReady your blade. Defeat the undead.

Gideon the Ninth meets the Game of Thrones White Walkers in this dark young adult fantasy about a disgraced ghost-fighting warrior who must journey into a haunted wasteland to rescue a kidnapped prince.

In the Dominions, the dead linger, violent and unpredictable, unless a bonesmith severs the ghost from its earthly remains. For bonesmith Wren, becoming a valkyr – a ghost-fighting warrior – is a chance to solidify her place in the noble House of Bone and impress her frequently absent father. But when sabotage causes Wren to fail her qualifying trial, she is banished to the Border Wall, the last line of defence against a wasteland called the Breach where the vicious dead roam unchecked.

Determined to reclaim her family’s respect, Wren gets her chance when a House of Gold prince is kidnapped and taken beyond the Wall. To prove she has what it takes to be a valkyr, Wren vows to cross the Breach and rescue the prince. But to do so, she’s forced into an uneasy alliance with one of the kidnappers – a fierce ironsmith called Julian from the exiled House of Iron, the very people who caused the Breach in the first place…and the House of Bone’s sworn enemy.

As they travel, Wren and Julian spend as much time fighting each other as they do the undead, but when they discover there’s more behind the kidnapping than either of them knew, they’ll need to work together to combat the real danger: a dark alliance that is brewing between the living and the undead.

‘Filled with magic, betrayal, and undead horrors’ Jodi Meadows’I’ve been dying for a YA novel with unique magic, and Bonesmith delivered it on a ghostly-green platter’ Tricia Levenseller’Packed with action and betrayal’ Rebecca Schaeffer’A dark fantasy thrillride’ Amélie Wen Zhao