Petition
Book 1, Resonance Crystal Legacy
Jade City meets The Hunger Games in an immigrant story of love, debt, and sacrifice. Rahelu must beat her wealthy, privileged rivals in a ruthless job hunt tournament in order to save her destitute family.
Where to find the book
Read for FREE with a subscription to Kobo Plus or Everand, or with library lending apps such as OverDrive (Libby) or Hoopla. Paperback and hardcover copies can also be requested through your local library.
Now a 2023 Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off Semi-finalist and 2023 Indie Ink Awards Finalist!
“…the kind of story I just got lost in from the very beginning.”
—Blaise Ancona, Under the Radar SFF Books
“For readers who enjoy coming of age, a developed and systemized style of magic and augury, competition between peers sharpened by wit and by weaponry…”
—Janny Wurts, author of The Wars of Light and Shadow via Goodreads
“…as a daughter of immigrant parents, it was so relatable it stung.”
—Kerstin Espinosa Rosero, SPFBO finalist and author of Burn Red Skies via Goodreads
Publication Date
30 May 2022.
Length
~115,000 words, or approximately 428 pages in 5″ x 8″ paperback or 372 pages in 6″ x 9″ hardcover.
Available formats:
- Ebook (ISBN 978-0-6455100-0-3)
- Paperback (ISBN 978-0-6455100-1-0)
- Hardcover (ISBN 978-0-6455100-2-7)
In the Dominion of Aleznuaweite, anyone can rise to the greatest heights—if they are willing to pay the price.
Failure is a luxury Rahelu can’t afford. Her family sold everything, left their ancestral home, and became destitute foreigners for the sake of her resonance skills. Now she can manipulate emotional echoes to discern truth from lies, conjure the past, and even foretell the future.
But an act of petty revenge by her rival destroys her chance at joining one of the great Houses. Desperate to prove her family’s sacrifices were not in vain, Rahelu calls upon the most dangerous magic of all—altering fortune.
A slight twist of fate is enough to restore her way forward…with deadly consequences she never bargained for. The Houses make a pawn of her in their bitter struggle for control of the Dominion. A shadowy cult grows ever closer to completing an ancient ritual.
And Rahelu discovers that fulfilling her oath to her family might come at the cost of her mother’s life.
Read a sample from Petition
Propping open her ink-splattered parchment with her elbows, Rahelu regarded her only means of getting her family out of their miserable existence in the Lowdocks and wished she could start over. Her cramped letters were barely visible—she had diluted her squid ink with so much water it left her brush pen as a faint gray trail.
PETITION, CHAPTER 1, PAYMENT → (CONTINUE READING)
If only she could afford proper resonance ink! Then she could attach her memories as proof of her abilities instead of relying on mere words.
It doesn’t matter, she told herself as the dim light from the lamp flickered. By some miracle, the meager amount of fish oil had lasted all night. The Houses will read every word of every Petition, no matter how unpolished, as long as I submit it on time.
What readers are saying
“Petition sticks to familiar tropes but twists them here and there and introduces a layer of the unexpected.”
—Lukasz Przywoski, Fantasy Book Critic
“…a solid debut novel, which kept me hooked from the start to the end, and twisted some of the tropes of high fantasy in a way that hit directly in the feelings.”
—Jamedi via Jamreads.com
“Waan’s prose is a balance of pain and wit, offering hilarious highs and heart-wrenching lows…I could go on forever and ever about how much I love this book…”
—Krystle Matar, SPFBO finalist and author of Legacy of the Brightwash, SPFBO9 judge for Before We Go Blog
“This is one that I think I’m going to go back to many times throughout the coming years…”
—Dominish Books
Content Advisory
Petition is a work of fiction intended for a new adult/adult audience. Reader discretion is advised.
Abuse (emotional, physical, verbal), bodies/corpses, classism, death (including murder), mature language (including profanity), mental intrusion/emotional assault, self-harm (cutting), sex (masturbation), sexual assault (attempted), slavery, and violence (including blood/gore/sex).
The following definitions have been used for intensity ratings:
Implied: Not directly mentioned in the text but is clear from the subtext.
Mentioned: Text makes direction reference to the content but does not dwell on the content. Usually no more than 1-2 lines.
Discussed: Content is the subject of direct discussion in the text but the content is not dramatized in the scene. E.g. corpses and manner of death discussed in dialogue between characters undertaking a murder investigation.
Depicted: Content is dramatized in the scene with some descriptive detail. Usually at least several paragraphs.
Explicit: Content is dramatized with graphic/extensive detail in the scene.
| Chapter | Content (type, intensity) |
| Prologue | Gore (mild, depicted), bodies/corpses (depicted), ritualistic self-harm (cutting, depicted) |
| 1 | Blood (minor) |
| 2 | Bullying (depicted), physical violence (depicted), sexual assault (attempted, depicted). |
| 3 | Blood (gore) |
| 4 | |
| 5 | Ritualistic self-harm (cutting, mentioned) |
| 6 | |
| 7 | |
| 8 | Physical violence (depicted), mental intrusion (depicted) |
| 9 | Physical violence (depicted) |
| 10 | |
| 11 | Sex slavery (depicted), sex (masturbation, depicted) |
| 12 | |
| 13 | Self-harm (cutting, depicted), physical violence (depicted), slavery (depicted) |
| 14 | Physical violence (depicted), mental intrusion (depicted), blood (minor), |
| Interlude | Murder (depicted), bodies/corpses (depicted), blood (minor, depicted), gore (mild), physical violence (depicted), mental intrusion (depicted) |
| 15 | |
| 16 | Bodies/corpses (mentioned), murder (mentioned) |
| 17 | |
| 18 | Murder (discussed), bodies/corpses (discussed), blood (discussed), physical violence (discussed) |
| 19 | |
| 20 | Murder (depicted), bodies/corpses (depicted), physical violence (depicted) |
| 21 | Bodies/corpses (depicted), death (depicted), drug use (implied), physical violence (depicted), blood/gore (graphic, depicted), |
| 22 | Sex (masturbation, depicted), bodies/corpses (depicted), blood (depicted), murder (depicted) |
| 23 | Blood (depicted), gore (mild, depicted) |
| 24 | Gore (gutting a fish, depicted) |
| 25 | |
| 26 | Physical violence (threatened, implied) |
| 27 | Self-harm (cutting, implied) |
| Epilogue | Attempted suicide (suffocation, depicted) |