I am excited for readers to meet my heroine, who believes in justice and is ready to fight for it with her wits, grit, and magic and for them to have a chance to engage in further dialogue about these important social issues. I hope to share a new perspective from my background as a Chinese immigrant living in America. Through important dialogue that occurred recently, it became clear to me that my book was being read in a different cultural context than my own, so I decided to take the time to make sure the hallmarks of human trafficking were being incisively drawn.

It is a practice that thrives on societal complicity and complacency, and it is my hope that Blood Heir will confront the silence surrounding this epidemic that continues to affect 45 million victims globally. In writing this novel, I researched extensively on the subject of modern-day human trafficking and indentured labor throughout the world and specifically from my heritage. I'm glad to announce that Blood Heir will publish on November 19, 2019. community has become too cutthroat, even intolerant, in its attacks on first-time authors who tackle challenging social issues or write outside their immediate cultural experience.Īnd here is the author's letter about her decision to publish: While some see the discussion about cultural appropriation in fiction as a necessary, if painful, step toward addressing the lack of diversity in publishing, others argue that the online Y.A. Zhao’s decision to move ahead with publication will likely reignite the fractious, ongoing debate about diversity, representation and “ cancel culture” in the young adult literary world. “ Ultimately, it’s true to my vision,” she said.

She made some revisions, and “Blood Heir” is now scheduled to be released in November. In March, Zhao called her editor at Delacorte Press and told her that she wanted to move forward with the novel after all. reread her book several times, examining the plot and characters to see if the critics were right. Ladies and gentlemen, it's been confirmed: BLOOD HEIR WILL BE PUBLISHED! This is not a drill I repeat this is not a drill Blood Heir will be out November 19th 2019!Īccording to New York Times, this is why and how Zhao finally decided to go ahead with publishing Blood Heir (if you want to know why it was cancelled, scroll down to the Jan 31 update):

The blood heir trilogy