Hey this is my first post on tumblr but I need some help finding a book. I’ve looked everywhere and I can’t find It, and I unfortunately do not remember the name of it.
I’ll try and add as much information about it as I can remember.
I read this book when I was in 5th-6th grade, it had an abstract kind of cover that was full of golds and reds, and the main character was a young girl who could talk to animals through her mind (a kind of telepathy).
It took place in an apocalyptic type world, and the girl lived on a rocky island (I believe), and the society was a bit devolved technologically and politically. This took place on Earth, and the reason for this devolution was due to a virus from Europe (specifically England). This virus was caused by the King of England creating a shadow like monster that was sealed in his daughter’s necklace. It was created to protect her I, but it killed everyone else who did not have her DNA or anyone she ordered it to kill.
The shadow got loose and it ended up killing everyone who didn’t have her DNA, which was most of the world, fortunately it couldn’t cross over water and it only inhabited places without light. Nevertheless most of civilization was dead and the people who were alive had to flee to islands and other lands, and the time in which the book took place was way after the shadow broke loose.
The main character (the girl) had very bad anger issues, and after she apparently messed up one time when defending the island by misfiring the arrow she was setting up (which the people used to defend themselves), she was put with a kind of therapist? What I remember about how the arrow worked was that it was much like a crossbow, and they put (tied?) a sock around the arrow to then set it on fire (fire arrows). Anyway though, later in the story she tries to leave the island, and I can’t remember if it was someone else or her but someone was put into an arranged marriage and during the marriage instead of kissing they (the people who were marrying) both ate a (human?) heart. Anyways though the main character and the other girl and guy (all involved are kids btw) who were getting married escaped onto a boat after the marriage and fled the island to the mainland.
My memory gets choppy from here (even though it’s already choppy), but the boy finds out he has the royal families DNA and the shadows don’t attack him. The kids find a tribe(?) of some kind and it gets attacked by a pack of wolves I believe, where the main character stands on a tree and attempts to persuade the wolves into leaving. That doesn’t work so she screams in her head (remember telepathic powers) and the wolves end up leaving.
Also the kids find the castle the princess (the daughter to the king who created the shadows) living in the castle even though she should be long dead (it’s a few hundred years after the shadows were let loose?) but she was able to survive because of the shadows I think. Anyway the castle is in ruins the princess looks like she’s about to turn into dust and she has the mentality of a little girl still.
The kids later steal a boat and leave the mainland for somewhere else I can’t remember, the princess is traveling with them, and they bring this man who was from a barbarous type place overseas and they steal a ship from his kin to get across the ocean. They make it across to the man’s home country and they find out that the man was actually cast out for some reason, after the kids try and use him as leverage to get something from the king of the barbarous kingdom. The king throws an axe at the man and kills him on the spot, and the king tells his guards to attack the kids. The princess lets the shadows go and it kills everybody (Also I think the girl who was engaged died along the way somehow, but the boy and the main character are still alive.)
Also the main character had a salamander and lived in a cave when she was still on the island.
Anyway that’s all I can remember, hope this reaches somebody who knows wth I’m talking about 🙏