The Hunger Games meets Stranger Things in this Surinamese-inspired jungle adventure, where Priya, a teenager cursed by the blood moon, is torn between duty for her country and her instinct to do what's right.

What if the darkest curse was your greatest power?

Within the Heart of Wicked Creatures follows Priya Chkadhari, a child born during the blood moon and therefore 'cursed' with the ability to manipulate other people's souls. In her quiet rural village, Priya has learned to hide her true nature - blood children are killed if discovered.

When she wins the annual test to attend the country's elite military school in Kuwatta, however, everything changes. During training sessions with other blood children, her curse becomes a gift. But will she survive the guerilla war that has plagued the torn land of Awaran for centuries? And what about the strange danger that lurks in the cursed heart of the Kuwatta fortress?

With new friends - and some enemies too - by her side, Priya will soon need to make a choice between what's expected of her and what's right in her heart.

"But Awaran was all she knew. The only land whose earth she had trodden, whose air she had breathed and whose water she had tasted. Awaran was the land that had given her life, the land she fought for. She knew nothing else. Why, then, did she still feel like a traveller without a destination?"