Girl with the Gifts - Paperback

by Joanna St Amour (Author), Mario Nevado (Illustrator)

Transformation has a cost, and the price is everything she loves.

Aviana "Avi", a perfume chemist, is about to earn the promotion she's dreamed of. But when Pacific Perfume's prized lavender oil is sabotaged, Avi becomes the convenient scapegoat.

Determined to clear her name, Avi plunges into a hidden world, forging unlikely alliances and drawing the attention of an enemy whose reach is ruthless and resolve relentless.

When her plan goes horribly wrong, she's forced to partner with the last man she wants in her life: her ex-fiancé, Fritz.

Fritz can no longer keep his secret locked away: he isn't human. She isn't human.

They're Grounders. And with each passing day, Avi's dormant power, Slyfen, tests the limits of her control. Grounders possess a unique genetic connection with planets, allowing them to harness abilities derived from the planet's elemental constituents. These abilities are called evobilities. Grounder DNA mutated with Cynder's chemical periodic elements, producing adaptations that enable survival on the planet's harsh and arid environment. Children inherit one or two evobilities from their parents, and each evobility is assigned a distinct name. Evobilities are charged through physical contact with their home planet or Earth, such as walking barefoot on grass or sand. This connection synchronizes the body with the planet's natural electrical charge. If a Grounder does not regularly charge their evobility, it will gradually fade, and they will eventually become fully human. Evobilities are categorized by how frequently they occur and the degree to which they influence the individual or their environment. Austere: weak and appearing in a quarter of the population. Baseline: functional and commonly observed among Grounders. Convergent: formative, uncommon, and shaped by evolutionary pressures and environmental forces.Dominion: rare and grant significant control over objects or life. Eternal: mythical, defying known limits and seldom, if ever, witnessed.

Fritz vies to stand by her side, but Avi must rise alone to become who she was never meant to be, for some truths burn hotter than fire.