Amara is never alone. Not when she’s protecting the cursed princess she unwillingly serves. Not when they’re fleeing across dunes and islands and seas to stay alive. Not when she’s punished, ordered around, or neglected.
She can’t be alone, because a boy from another world experiences all that alongside her, looking through her eyes.
Nolan longs for a life uninterrupted. Every time he blinks, he’s yanked from his Arizona town into Amara’s mind, a world away, which makes even simple things like hobbies and homework impossible. He’s spent years as a powerless observer of Amara’s life. Amara has no idea … until he learns to control her, and they communicate for the first time. Amara is terrified. Then, she’s furious.
All Amara and Nolan want is to be free of each other. But Nolan’s breakthrough has dangerous consequences. Now, they’ll have to work together to survive — and discover the truth about their connection.
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- a lot of violence and abuse, described in more detail below; there is no sexual abuse or any threats of that nature
- alcohol use leading to physical abuse
- violent on-page death, not described graphically
- graphic descriptions of instantly healed physical abuse and injuries — including being burned, drowned, and cut
- brief flashbacks to abuse of young children
- threat of physical violence against a young teenager
- a lot of blood, and occasional brief gore
- medication overdose, self-harm, and attempted suicide (all for supernatural plot reasons rather than mental health reasons)
- protagonist restrained with rope
- fade-to-black consensual sex between minors
- supernatural bodily possession and resulting lack of bodily autonomy and unwilling voyeurism
- slavery (unrelated to ethnicity) and resulting significant power imbalance
- food descriptions
- mentions of insects and spiders
- mentions of natural disasters; one scene takes place on a boat during a heavy storm
Practical information
Publisher: ABRAMS (Amulet Books)
Publication year: 2014
ISBN: 9781419709289
Age category: young adult
Disabilities portrayed: amputation, muteness
Genre: fantasy
Author
Corinne Duyvis is the critically acclaimed author of the YA sci-fi/fantasy novels Otherbound, which Kirkus called “a stunning debut;” On the Edge of Gone, which Publishers Weekly called “a riveting apocalyptic thriller with substantial depth;” and The Art of Saving the World, which Kirkus called “impossible to put down.” She is also the author of the original Marvel prose novel Guardians of the Galaxy: Collect Them All. Corinne hails from the Netherlands. She’s a co-founder and editor of Disability in Kidlit as well as the originator of the #ownvoices hashtag.
The disabilities portrayed in Otherbound are not my own. Nolan’s foot amputation is very different from my autism. Amara’s muteness is nothing like my ADD. Still, it means a lot to me that I get to write about disabled characters having the same adventures as any other fantasy protagonist — running for their lives, encountering dangerous magic, dealing with family and relationship issues — and their disabilities simply being a part of them.(Bisexual Books, June 2014)
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Review: Otherbound by Corinne Duyvis
