BLOOD MOON BRIDE

An intriguing and compelling fantasy featuring a courageous young woman fighting for justice, from the acclaimed and award- winning author of Living on Hope Street.

"Ma's tears wet my neck as I backed into our hut. I lay her down on the mattress and slumped into Pa's chair. His tobacco smell curled around me. I breathed him in as my tears fell and anger bubbled under my skin. I was to be a Blood Moon Bride." Magic has long been outlawed in Mennama Valley, its practice punishable by death. Dozens of village boys are recruited to defend the valley's borders. And every winter, on the night of the Blood Moon, young women enter forced marriages to breed children for the Valley's advancement and prosperity. But when the enemy grows stronger and more village boys are lost each winter, Governor Kyra foresees a decline in population, so he decrees that girls of just fifteen must become Blood Moon Brides, too. Rehya, a hunter, has uncanny senses she must hide in this patriarchal world where freedom of thought is punishable with rehabilitation at the Nest. She does not want to be a bride, but when her Pa dies, shattering her plans of escape, she is paraded in front of suitors on Show Day. Rehya is appalled by the ritual and when she is chosen to be a wife, she lashes out. In punishment, she is sent to the Nest to be rehabilitated. There Rehya must decide: should she avoid torture and submit to a life of oppression, or rebel and risk everything to fight for her freedom and restore justice to the world. Demet Divaroren is the author of Living on Hope Street, which won the 2018 Victorian Premier's Literary Awards Prize for Writing for Young Adults and was shortlisted for a 2018 Prime Minister's Literary Awards. She is the co-editor of the Growing Up Muslim in Australia anthology which was shortlisted for the Children's Book Council's Book of the Year awards. Her writing has appeared in Griffith REVIEW, New Australian Stories, Island magazine, The Age Epicure, The Big Issue, From the Outer and Best Summer Stories. Demet appears as a panellist, guest speaker and workshop leader at literary festivals, universities and schools across Melbourne and teaches creative writing at Victoria Polytechnic.