Dreaming Death

J. Kathleen Cheney
Dreaming Death Cover

Dreaming Death

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1/18/2017
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A high-fantasy mystery novel

Synopsis: At an early age, a girl with unacknowledged royal blood living in an ordinary family develops capabilities as a "sensitive" so intense that it leaves her blind, but able to read the emotions and even thoughts of others--including those of the dead. Determined to make the best of her abilities, she works for the intelligence branch of the royal army. When a series of brutal blood magic murders shakes their city, she joins forces with one of the royal family's elite Guards, himself a sensitive who dreams real deaths as they occur, to find and stop the murderers.

What I thought: This is the first book I've read by this author. I really enjoyed it, not least because the author has done some really inventive worldbuilding, and (unlike many novels, where I've got the majority of the plot figured out around 25% in) I had no idea where the story was going. There is also some interesting investigation of the question of when a child becomes an adult; the main character is 4 months shy of 18 years old, and so is considered still a child by her own culture despite her psychological maturity. I'm definitely looking forward to the next book in the series.