Alyzon Whitestarr

A tidal wave of muddled smells flooded towards me, forced its way down my throat, up my nose, through my eyes, my fingertips, choking me, blinding me, suffocating me. My stomach revolted. It punched the world out of me in a great vomiting gout, and I fell back, empty, into the silent darkness.

Alyzon Whitestarr thinks of herself as more white mouse than star, until something happens that heightens her senses, enabling her to smell people's feelings, perceive their essences, and see flashes of their lives.

She is shaken to discover that some people's spirits are afflicted by a strange and ravenous disease which is both sentient and hungry for new hosts. Seeking to learn how the disease is transmitted, Alyzon's investigations lead her to a mysterious entrepreneur, a secretive group of young people with a habit of violence, and ultimately back to her own beloved family, where she will learn a shattering truth about the world . . .

Then Alyzon realises that, just as she can perceive the sickness, so the sickness can perceive her . . .

About the Author

Isobelle Carmody is Australia's most highly acclaimed author of fantasy titles for older readers. She began her first book, Obernewtyn, when she was fourteen and since then she has written some of our greatest works of fantasy. She is perhaps best known for her Obernewtyn Chronicles and for her novel The Gathering (joint winner of the 1993 Children's Literature Peace Prize and the 1994 CBC Book of the Year Award). Another of her novels, Greylands, was joint winner of the 1997 Aurealis Award for Excellence in Speculative Fiction - Young Adult Division, and was named a White Raven at the 1998 Bologna Children's Book Fair. She has also written many short stories for both children and adults.

Isobelle divides her time between Prague in the Czech Republic and her home on the Great Ocean Road in Australia.

Isobelle's final book in the award-winning Obernewtyn series – The Sending – will be published in May 2011. Her first book in a new series for younger readers – The Red Wind – will be published in 2010.