Unfortunately for Ana, being found covered in blood at the Emperor's deathbed does make it tricky to argue against a murder charge - but in her defence, Ana is a Blood affinite, born with the rare and extremely creepy ability to manipulate the blood within people's bodies.

I hope and suspect the book is stronger for it.Īnyway, onto the actual review! Blood Heir is the story of Anastacya Mikaylov, Crown princess of Cyrilla, now on the run after being accused of the murder of her father. Zhao was right to listen and use those concerns to revisit her intended, ownvoices, message.

However, from where I stand it feels like Blood Heir's delayed, revised publication is an example of sensitivity reading going right, albeit late in the process and therefore more loudly and messily than might have occurred if concerns had been raised earlier. Having never read the original ARC, I don't know how much changed before publication, and I should be clear that I'm white and, as a non-American, less likely to pick up cues that would read 'chattel slavery' to US audiences - so I'm not going make claims about whether Blood Heir is now 'fixed', other than to note I didn't pick up anything other than the author's intended parallels in my own reading. In response, author Amélie Wen Zhao delayed the book, revisited in the context of her original intent - to explore concepts of indenture with real-world parallels in Asian countries - and has now released the book, as of late November, satisfied that it did so. In original ARCs, the story's depictions of race provoked strong concerns about how the story came across in the context of historic Black slavery in the USA. Blood Heir deals in some depth with the concept of indenture, with marginalised characters in the place where the book is set at high risk of being forced to sign work contracts which leave them effectively in slavery. Originally scheduled for release the beginning of 2019, the book was delayed after numerous ARC readers identified significant sensitivity issues with an aspect of the plot and characters. I don't want to talk about Blood Heir without acknowledging the route this book took to publication.

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