Fawkes by Nadine Brandes

Stand alone novel

Summary:

Guy Fawkes’s son must join his father’s plot to kill the king if he’s to survive the plague overtaking his body in this reimagined fantastical history of the Gunpowder Plot. Remember, remember the fifth of November.

In 17th-century London, two forces rule the people: the color powers and the Stone Plague. Brown masks can manipulate wood. Black masks control the night. And red masks . . . well, red is the color of blood.

Thomas Fawkes needs a gray mask so he can remove the stone that has invaded his body and will ultimately take his life. But when he fails his color test, his only hope is to track down his father, the infamous Guy Fawkes, and demand his color mask.

But his father has other plans: to kill the king.

Thomas must join forces with his father if he wants to save his own life. When his errands for the cause bring him time and again to Emma Areben, a former classmate, he is exposed to a whole new brand of magic.

Emma doesn’t control just one color—she controls them all.
And she wants to show Thomas the full power of color magic, but it goes against everything his father is fighting for.

If Thomas sides with his father, he could save his own life. But it would destroy Emma and her family. To save one, he must sacrifice the other

No matter Thomas’s choice, one thing is clear: once the decision is made and the color masks have been put on, there’s no turning back.

Opening Lines:

I wasn't ready to turn to stone.

I leaned so close to the small wall mirror that my nose left a grease spot on the glass, but I held still. Or tried to. I couldn't control the trembling. The grease spot smeared.

My right eye reflected a bright-blue iris, but it was the left side of my face that held me a whisper away from the mirror. Cracked stone blossomed from the chiseled marble that should have been an eye. The ball didn't move; the lid didn't blink. I lifted shaking fingers to my face. Petrification tickled the hairline of my eyebrow. A single infected hair protruded like a stone needle.

The plague was spreading.