But she learns throughout the book that this otherness, this thing that makes her so unique, is a strength of hers, and that's how she chooses to use it. So for Ana - she's always feared and been taught to fear her blood affinity. And it's just this feeling of always being kind of on the outside and kind of wanting to brush away that part of you that's so foreign to what society seems to present to you. So there were peers from many different backgrounds, and I was actually the only Chinese citizen to be in this environment.

Throughout my background, I've lived in many different countries, and I grew up in an international community in Beijing. ZHAO: I mean, it is all based on my own experience and my own feelings. How did you draw from your own experience in writing 'Blood Heir?' I really wrote her to be powerful and to be an angry girl, to really be a champion of justice and what she thinks is right. And that's what she fights against in the book. What's so threatening about these is that they continue to thrive because they've found a way to go in between the laws and to avert them and take advantage of vulnerable populations in the world, such as immigrants and refugees.Īnd the main character, Ana - she is one of these vulnerable populations, and she's in danger of being trafficked and exploited. So these are forms of modern slavery that continue to impact 20 to 40 million victims around the world in countries such as North Korea, India, Thailand, Russia, Eastern Europe. You've said that one of the ways that you were looking at this was through the lens of human trafficking, specifically because, obviously, you're Asian, and that is a huge issue there. GARCIA-NAVARRO: People with affinities in the book are treated very, very badly. So that makes her so immensely powerful, but also such a terrifying protagonist.

So she has an affinity to blood, which means that she has a connection to people's blood, and she's able to wield it.

So it's people with an affinity to certain elements, whether physical or metaphysical. In this fantasy world you've created, Ana is an Affinite. It's the story of an exiled princess named Ana with dangerous powers and an underworld rogue who join forces to save the kingdom from an evil system of corruption. It was written about in The New York Times, Slate, New York Magazine and The New Yorker.

A Twitter storm ensues.Īmelie Wen Zhao is the author of 'Blood Heir.' After the online criticism of advance copies of her book, Zhao decided to hold off publishing her young adult fantasy epic. It gets snapped up for big bucks, but then there are some objections to how race is represented in your novel. Your wildest dreams come true, and there's a bidding war over your first book.

Blood heir series in order