Give the Dark My Love by Beth Revis (review)

Finding a cure for the Wasting Death that is ravaging the poorer sects of her kingdom is seventeen-year-old Nedra's main goal when she leaves her small town to study medicinal alchemy at Yugen Academy. Grey's motives to attend the academy are different, since he's driven primarily by his desire to get away from his wealthy father and his dirty politics. When Grey meets Nedra, he is smitten, admiring both her intellect and her devotion to helping people, and soon her cause becomes his as they tend to the sick together. The illness keeps spreading, the people of the upper class don't seem to care, and, despite Grey's warnings, Nedra turns to the outlawed science of necromancy, which she believes to be both the cause of and the way to find the cure for the disease. Although narration alternates between Nedra and Grey, the drama really hangs on Nedra, especially as grief and desperation drive her to raise the dead. The science behind the alchemy is a bit fuzzy, but the horrors of the disease are vividly conveyed, and the revelation that the illness is being weaponized for a power coup among the ruling government is especially compelling. Readers will therefore wonder if they should root for or against Nedra in the final scene, as she turns fully into the darkness, leading an army of the undead and leaving Grey behind. KQG