Blood Heir is worth the wait, and one of the best YA fantasy novels of 2019

Amélie Wen Zhao’s controversial debut Blood Heir is not just good enough to silence its critics, it’s one of the best YA fantasies you’ll read in 2019.

Amélie Wen Zhao’s debut novel Blood Heir has certainly faced more than its share of controversy on the road to release. The novel, the first in a trilogy, was originally supposed to hit shelves earlier this year. But after an online dustup in which the series was accused of racial insensitivity by a group of Twitter users, its release date was put on what was, at the time, an indefinite hold. (Slate has a couple good explainers on everything that happened and how the novel found its way back to publication for those who are interested in the extended saga.)

Months later, Blood Heir has finally arrived. And the novel is more than worth the wait. With a fierce, complicated heroine, a fantastic enemies-to-maybe-something-more-eventually relationship at its center and a world full of dark, complicated politics, it’s basically everything you could want in a story like this.

(Beware, though: That “blood” in the title is no joke. The Game of Thrones-esque vibe to this story extends to more than just its complex politics, as plenty of characters, both secondary and not, meet fairly grisly ends over the course of the book.)

Blood Heir follows the story of Ana, otherwise known as the Princess Anastacya Mikhailov. Though she is technically Crown Princess of the Cyrillian Empire, she’s spent the past year on the run after being falsely accused of murdering her father. Her problems are made worse by the fact that Ana is also an Affinite, a group of people whose special gifts to control various elements and physical traits have marked them out for public fear and condemnation. Ana’s affinity allows her to control human blood, and as a result everyone around her basically views her as a monster. (In fact, Blood Affinites are so rare and terrifying that most people don’t even believe they exist.)

As Ana works to clear herself of her father’s murder and bring his killer to justice, she must partner with known criminal underworld leader Ramson Quicktonque, a bounty hunter whose talents extend to many other, let’s just say, illicit activities. The two discover they have a common enemy, and begrudgingly make a deal to work together, though neither of them seems to like each other very much.

At the start, at least. Y’all know where this is going eventually. But the thing is? These characters are so well and fully drawn, that it makes perfect and necessary sense, and for once I’m actually looking forward to the inevitable day when these two crazy kids just admit that they’re both in love with and totally willing to commit murder for one another. (I ship it, what can I say?)

Blood Heir is a pretty long novel – clocking in at nearly 500 pages – that doesn’t at all feel like one. Its story is full of twists and surprises, as well as surprisingly rich character journeys for both Ana and Ramson throughout, along with a handful of intriguing secondary characters. Much of the story focuses on the politics of Cyrillia, including growing conflict between the ideal kingdom Ana believes her father left behind, and the unjust, dark truth of the real world she was largely kept from as a child.

As her journey back toward her throne continues, Ana must confront both her inner demons and the beliefs she’s simply accepted as truth her whole life, for lack of exposure to anything other than the gilded walls of the palace. As she herself witnesses more of the horrors Affinites face in her kingdom – many of whom are basically victims of human trafficking where their powers are sold to rich Cyrillians as “contracts” from which they can never escape – she vows to help remake her country.

Whether Ana will succeed or not – and who she will become along with way – will doubtless be the focus of the rest of this trilogy, and it’s already a story I can’t wait to continue. Long live the Princess!

Blood Heir is available now.