Violet Black
Published on 4. May 2021
272 pages
978-0-14-377543-0 (ISBN)
Description
Set in the near future, this first book in a fast-paced trilogy will hook you in from the first page.
Violet Black and Ethan Wright are both in a coma after contracting the lethal M-fever. They have never met:
I couldn't speak, but I was trying so hard to communicate and then . . . then . . .
I pushed. And something, someone, pushed back.
Her name is Violet. Violet, but she is sunshine-yellow, and I need to find her because I think she might be just like me.
But there is a far more serious reason for Ethan to find Violet: the sinister Foundation is trying to hunt them down.
Reviews of Eileen's previous books:
'A Trio of Sophies doesn't so much as start as launch the reader into the centre of a storm that will hold you until the very last secret is solved.' - Weekend Herald
'Merriman writes what teenagers want to read, and she certainly knows how to write it well.' - NZ Books on Invisibly Breathing
'Merriman just seems to be able to cut straight to the intensity of a relationship, or a first relationship - the anguish, drama, the second guessing and the doubt, and the pure electricity of those first physical encounters' - Radio NZ on Catch Me When You Fall
'I found it to be compelling, challenging, and heartbreaking, but very real. It handles teen issues with grace and sensitivity but doesn't shy away from honesty.' - Tots to Teens on Pieces of You
More details
Person
Eileen Merriman's first young adult novel, Pieces of You, was published in 2017, and was a finalist in the NZ Book Awards for Children and Young Adults and a Storylines Notable Book. Since then, a stream of novels for adults and young adults have followed. She has received huge critical praise, with one reviewer saying: 'Merriman is an instinctive storyteller with an innate sense of timing.' In addition to being a regular finalist in the NZ Book Awards for Children and Young Adults, Merriman was a finalist in the 2021 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel and Moonlight Sonata was longlisted for the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction 2020. Editions of some of her young adult novels have been released in Germany, Turkey and the UK and three have been optioned for film or TV, including the Black Spiral Trilogy.
In 2024, Merriman's compelling Catch a Falling Star, which depicts a 15-year-old spiralling into a mental health crisis, won both the New Zealand Book Awards Young Adult Fiction Award and NZ Booklovers' Best Young Adult Book.
Her other awards include runner-up in the 2018 Sunday Star-Times Short Story Award and third in the same award for three consecutive years previously. She works as a consultant haematologist at North Shore Hospital.
