A Captivating YA Fantasy Novel: Read an Extract from Liar’s Test by Ambelin Kwaymullina

A Captivating YA Fantasy Novel: Read an Extract from Liar’s Test by Ambelin Kwaymullina

I slammed into the altar of the sun and howled as something broke. Well, something else. The high priest had been beating on me for a while. Lots of things were already broken.

It hurt to scream. It hurt to breathe. It hurt.

Please. Stop. I tried to say the words. They wouldn’t come out. My mouth was full of something salty and hot. Blood. I spat it out. It sprayed onto the gold of the altar. Only it wasn’t so gold anymore. Everything was coated in red. Who’d have thought I had so much blood in me? And more was coming. Filling up my throat. I was choking.

I was dying.

I was dead.

Except I still hurt, and it seemed like being dead should mean no more hurting. But the pain was fading, the high priest had vanished, and everything had gone shadowy and grey.

Something soft brushed against my skin. The wind? It smelled of trees and whispered with a thousand voices. Okay, not the wind. This was the Ancestors.

Continue reading the extract here…

Buy a copy of Liar’s Test here.

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Publisher details

Liar’s Test
Author
Ambelin Kwaymullina
Publisher
Text Publishing
Genres
Children’s Fiction, Young Adult Fiction
Released
04 June, 2024
ISBN
9781922790873

Synopsis

Seven will come. Two will die. Two will sleep. Two will serve. One will rule.

I didn’t want to rule the Risen. Wreak a little havoc upon them, though? That was something else entirely.

Bell Silverleaf is a liar.

It’s how she’s survived. It’s how all Treesingers have survived since they were invaded by the Risen and their fickle gods. But now Bell is in the Queen’s Test—she’s one of seven girls competing in deadly challenges to determine who will rule for the next twenty-five years. If Bell wins, she’ll have the power to help her people and take revenge on the Risen. But first she has to make it through the challenges alive.

She doesn’t know how much she’s been lied to, or where she fits in a bigger story, a mystery stretching back generations. And she’s facing much bigger dangers than the Queen’s Test. She’s up against the gods themselves.

Liar’s Test is a fast-paced, intricately woven fantasy novel with an unforgettable heroine inspired by the strength and power of Aboriginal women.

Ambelin Kwaymullina
About the author

Ambelin Kwaymullina

Ambelin Kwaymullina loves reading sci-fi and fantasy books, and has wanted to write a novel since she was six years old. She comes from the Palyku people of the Pilbara region of Western Australia. When not writing or reading she works in cultural heritage, illustrates picture books and hangs out with her dogs. She has previously written a number of children's books, both alone and with other members of her family. Her first novel, The Tribe Book 1: The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf, was short-listed in both the Science Fiction and Young Adult Fiction categories of the 2012 Aurealis Awards.

Books by Ambelin Kwaymullina

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