The Last Bloodcarver

Starred review from December 18, 2023
In the dark underbelly of the fantasy city-state of Theumas, 18-year-old Nhika ekes out a living peddling homeopathic remedies to upper-class clients desperate enough to fall for her scam. After a home visit goes awry, Nhika is outed as a bloodcarver—people with the feared ability to access and manipulate biological processes with a single touch—and kidnapped and sold on the black market. Though she expects to be forced into using her abilities for nefarious deeds, Nhika is instead bought by the scions of the Congmi, one of the wealthiest industrialist families in the city, who seek her bloodcarving to heal the comatose last witness to their patriarch’s suspicious death. Reluctant to get involved in such high-stakes political drama but eager for the opportunity to use her gift to heal, Nhika steps into a world of glamour, intrigue, and hidden agendas. But her already impossible task is further complicated by Ven Kochin, a mysterious and infuriating doctor’s assistant who keeps inserting himself into her investigation. Le expertly crafts a Vietnamese-inspired dark fantasy debut via visceral and exquisitely rendered prose, intertwining a murder investigation with themes of unresolved grief, medical ethics, and lost heritage. Ages 12–up.

Starred review from January 15, 2024
Nhika has been called many terrible things throughout her short life, but she knows herself to be a heartsooth. Heartsooths can read and manipulate a person's body and blood with a mere touch of skin on skin. But in the technocratic city-state of Theumas, she's feared and reviled as a monstrous bloodcarver. After Nhika's captured by Butchers and sold to Mimi, the daughter of a wealthy industrialist, she's set a seemingly impossible task--to heal the barely surviving witness to Mimi's father's recent untimely death. Nhika finally begins to hope she might be accepted and that she can use her gift as it was intended, laying some of the ghosts of her past to rest. But a chance meeting with Kochin, a mysterious boy who knows more than he should, soon spirals into a tangled web of intrigue and evil beyond her imagining. Nhika faces an impossible choice: whether to "help the first family to trust her, or follow the last person in the city who might truly understand her." Le writes with meticulous care. The richly detailed worldbuilding is infused with Vietnamese cultural elements, and the characters, viewed through Nhika's jaded yet desperately hopeful eyes, are sympathetic and complex, expressing conflicting emotions and motivations. The story demands, in the best possible ways, that readers think, posing questions of identity, family, and trust for them to ponder. The insidiously twisty ending packs a punch, leaving an opening for a sequel. An entrancingly well-written debut. (map) (Fantasy. 12-18)

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Starred review from March 1, 2024

Gr 7 Up-As the last practitioner of the Yarongese art of heartsoothing, Nhika is an outcast because of this medicine-based magic and her Yarongese ancestry. A patient visit gone awry ends with the wealthy Congmi family buying Nhika's services on the black market, tumbling her into the secret investigation of their patriarch's recent, suspicious death. Throughout, the lies and political machinations surrounding the investigation are complex enough to be intriguing but not overwhelming. The intricate magic system is exceptional, unique, and clearly conveyed. Yet the starring plotline is Nhika's journey to reconcile her connection to her Yarongese heritage with the narrative of the Yarongese people that Theumas perpetuates-a journey subtly marked by whether the more nuanced "heartsoothing" or the semi-perjorative "bloodcarving" is used to describe Nhika's skill. This reconciliation is aided by her relationship with sometime rival, sometime ally Ven Kochin. The romance that develops between the two is underdeveloped given the role it plays in the finale; ironically, the lack of romantic focus is likely to increase the appeal for some teens. Characters are largely coded as East or Southeast Asian; significant side characters are queer. VERDICT All collections will benefit from this unequivocal first purchase that will resonate especially deeply with immigrant and diasporic teens struggling to see themselves in media.-Austin Ferraro

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Starred review from February 15, 2024
Grades 9-12 *Starred Review* Widely known as a monster called a bloodcarver, though known to herself as a heartsooth and trained by her grandmother to heal, Nhika has always been aware that using her powers comes with a great risk of discovery. When the inevitable happens and she is betrayed by someone she tries to help, Nhika is captured by the ruthless Butchers and sold to the highest bidder--a mysterious and obscenely wealthy girl intent on finding the man who killed her father. As Nhika works to bring the only witness to the murder back to consciousness while living in the luxurious Congmi estate, she must also decide whom to trust and what kind of monster she is willing to be in order to save a life--and whose life is worth saving. Medically based magic, a world full of mechanistic creations, and incredibly lovable side characters are icing on the cake of this slow burn, deeply romantic, and darkly biological fantasy with a Vietnamese foundation. An explosively surprising ending sets up the next piece of the story, and questions of heritage, justice, and value are explored in subtle, metaphoric ways in an engrossing, emotionally intense debut.

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