Postponed novel ‘Blood Heir’ coming out in November

NEW YORK – A revised edition of Amélie Wen Zhao’s “Blood Heir,” a young adult novel postposed earlier this year amid criticism on social media, will be coming out in November.

On Monday, Delacorte Press announced a Nov. 19 release date. It had been scheduled for June, but Zhao withdrew it after online commentators who had seen advance copies said the book was racially insensitive.

“Blood Heir,” which centres on human trafficking, was promoted as showing a world in which “oppression is blind to skin colour.” Fantasy author L.L. McKinney had scorned the idea that oppression could be colorblind.

“Blood Heir” is the first of a planned trilogy. Zhao said in a statement that she hoped that the themes in the new edition were “incisively drawn” and would inspire “meaningful conversations.”