• Age: 12 to 18
• Grade: 7 to 12

This richly imagined alternate history will appeal to fans of Delirium, Wither, and The Forest of Hands and Teeth.

Emmeline and Matisa have arrived at the land of Matisa’s people, but the Dominion’s troops are moving in. Matisa’s people have prepared for battle, but the Dominion’s weapons are brutal. To secure their survival, they will need something so important the Dominion will have to leave them in peace. Matisa and Em think they know what they need: the remedy to the Bleed, a deadly sickness.

To find it, Em will have to go back to the stifling settlement she’d spent her whole life trying to escape. But she’s no longer the Stained girl she once was—and she’s not going down without a fight.

Kate A. Boorman is an author from Edmonton, Alberta, with roots in the small town of Rimbey. Her books have been published in four world territories and have appeared on a variety of Best Of lists, from Seventeen to O! The Oprah Magazine. The first book in her acclaimed Winterkill trilogy won the Alberta Writers' Guild Award for Children's Fiction. Her latest YA, Into the Sublime, was a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection. The Heathens and the Dragon is Kate's middle grade debut. When she is not writing, she is wrangling her family and dreaming up travel to faraway lands.

Kate A. Boorman's profile page

"Fans of the series will be happy to witness Em’s maturity from an oppressed girl living in a dystopian society to a strong leader. The theme of acceptance among different types of people in order to attain peace is strong, clear, and never more relevant."

School Library Journal