The Keepers
-
- $7.99
-
- $7.99
Publisher Description
Sixteen-year-old Isra Kalb has grown up starving in the slums of Islamabad. But hunger is only the beginning. When her father is mysteriously murdered and madness corrupts her mother's mind, she's left alone to fend for herself and her sister. Homeless and destitute, the only thing she has to remember her loving family by is a commonplace necklace--an amulet barely worth keeping.
Or so she thinks.
Swept into a web of lies, deceit and turmoil, Isra struggles to find a place for herself and Zaffirah, wondering if the strange creatures and visions she's seeing are indications of the madness that took her mother. But when Snatchers capture Zaffirah, Isra learns her amulet isn't so useless after all. Transported to Zarcane--the beastly garden where Adam and Eve were born--Isra comes face to face with her destiny. She's a Keeper, charged with protecting the borders of Zarcane and keeping the demon hordes lurking in the shadows from taking realms that are not their own. And she's not the only one; there's a second Keeper, a boy whose identity hasn't been revealed.
Now, in order to save her sister and fulfill her family's legacy as Keeper of the Amulet, she has to find the second Keeper and close the borders. Surrounded by betrayal, trapped between warring factions of angels, and desperate to save the only family she has left, Isra must decide:
Who can she trust when nothing is what it seems?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Sixteen-year-old Isra and her younger sister, Zaffirah, face homelessness and kidnapping in Islamabad, Pakistan, after their parents' deaths. Farid and his adopted sister, Maya, also in Islamabad, contend with adult brutality as they beg on the streets. Told in the alternating voices of Isra and Farid, first-time author Lalani's disjointed narrative chronicles the discovery that both teenagers are keepers of amulets that unlock the paradise of Adam and Eve, known as Zarcane and ruled by Abaddon, Queen of the Red Court. Keepers come with their own angels as protectors, and while Isra's is determined to help her choose between Earth and Zarcane, Farid and his angel, in league with Abaddon, seek destruction. Overcoming complete ruin takes a legion of otherworldly creatures, including an Angel Queen and a company of centaurs. With Zaffirah in a coma and Isra falling for her protector, her plight often overshadows Farid's, creating unbalanced character development in places. Violent and squeamish scenes abound, including a lecherous kidnapper and flesh-eating bugs, adding grit to a crowded but intriguing tale. Ages 12 up. (BookLife)
