Book overview
800 years ago, the Blight Plague almost wiped out the male population. Now they must rely on young girls to survive.
Beyond the iron bars of Ink's only window, grows a mass murderer of little girls in the form of a lush, golden tree. Eight hundred years ago, the Blight Plague almost wiped out the male population. Only the hallucinogen culled from the Sonagachi tree can slow the progression of the incurable disease. If not for the drug administered and catalyzed by imprisoned House Girls around the world, men would die young and by the thousands.
Each night, fifteen-year-old Ink and her friends at The Nectar House use the powerful hallucinogen to curate a bespoke trance-like experience which prolongs the life of their sick Blight customers by replenishing their health while simultaneously depleting their own. Years of captivity and the betrayal that got her sold have toughened Ink's heart while her body weakens every day. Ink has no power, no freedom, and little sympathy.
Armed only with her wits and locked in her one room library, she tries to improve the brief and brutal life of the other House Girls, but only the girls Ink deems special and worthy of her altruism. When a beloved friend goes missing, Ink knows her efforts are not enough to bring her back or keep her other friends from being sold to other houses. One night, a Blight arrives with a magical item that grants Ink an unprecedented ability and the possibility of escape. Ink must decide whether to stay and help those she can in the time she has left or lead a handful of friends to freedom. If either course fails, if she's caught or outsmarted, she and everyone she's trying to save will be buried along with the other dead House Girls who feed the vile Sonagachi tree.
For readers of Margaret Atwood and Octavia E. Butler.