Cirrus@Austlit

'I'm not dead.

'My first thought when I opened my eyes to the brilliant white room at Zepail and the felling like life has been dragged from my bones. It probably has, because the last thing I remember is black-fire and pain and Zanar's healing strands fragmenting as Dad shot death from his hands. 'I'm not dead, ' I say, to the boy collapsed beside me on the floor.

'Early days yet.' Zanar lifts his head to survey the door-less room. 'That's part one of our plan achieved.'

'Locked in a room sealed with magic and on trial for murder, Uriel is hoping for justice but when the Lighspeakers of Meldin name her Abomination she's forced to run, blinking through space to the forest. With Zanar, disowned Heir to the World; the dragons who are her relatives; and the newly made Lord of Deep Forest she might be safe.

'But Uriel's father is the Death lord and when he threaens her friends, she comes out of hiding. With a psychotic pet dragon, a half-broken healer, and an ability to move through death, Uriel's about to face down her dad, and the winged monsters who stand behind him. The odds aren't good.'

Source : publication summary

'Still a loser, Pig,' Stormin says. 'Guess you haven't learnt much over summer.'
'Oh, I don't know,' I reply, bloody, bowed and hating his guts. 'I can read.'
Which is when he kicks me. I really should learn to keep my stupid mouth shut.
Seeing Stormin thoroughly occupied, the rest of Year 9 drift back, although they do wait till he's left before resuming their commentary.
'Loser.'
'Coward.'
'Hopeless.'
'Pussy.'
'Pig.'
That's me: Morgan Patrick Lohdi - otherwise known as Pig.

'Life sucks for Morgan Patrick Lohdi. Used as the school punching bag, he's constantly bruised and harassed, and doesn't have anything even resembling a friend. Maybe it would be okay if he could keep his mouth shut, but Morgan has a sarcastic tongue that no amount of bullying is going to keep quiet.

'And then there's Lissa, the girl he thought was his friend. Who might even have been something more - if the bullies hadn't made her turn her back.

'When the art room burns down and Morgan's one safe haven disappears, things get much worse and he's determined to finally make it stop. But will learning to fight back work? Or is it possible to turn the other cheek? Or, just maybe, will help come from the unlikeliest source?

'Otherwise Known as Pig is a book about bullying, the planet-sized blind spots of adults, and learning to accept help.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

“There’s a dragon watching me when I wake up.”

'As the Death Lord’s daughter, seventeen-year old Uriel is comfortable walking the lavender-scented tunnels of death. She’s not pleased to be dragged back to the living realm of Meldin. It’s a world of laser-edged swords and shape-changing dragons, where the Lord of the World has sworn to kill her father.' (Publication Summary)