Author: Reid, Ava
Reading age: from c 14 years (Young Adult)
Published on 24 September 2026 by HarperCollins Publishers (Electric Monkey) in the United Kingdom.
Hardback | 592 pages
224 x 147 x 50 | 694g
The Secret History
meets
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
in #1 bestselling author Ava Reid’s brand new, epic, dystopian YA novel.
There is no application process for Valeran Academy, but it boasts the brightest – and precociously criminal – students in the nation.
A disgraced politician from a powerful American dynasty.
A coldly brilliant strategist who will sacrifice anything to win.
A former pageant queen with a talent that could change the world.
A prodigious female soldier with an enigmatic past – and a dangerous secret.
With eerie war simulations, cutthroat competitions and foreboding new technology, Valeran trains its students to be elite assets in a Cold War that has dragged on for nearly a century. But as a sinister conspiracy takes shape and these four are drawn together for a mysterious mission, their loyalties are tested, their convictions shaken and they all begin to wonder: are they ushering in a new era of freedom, or tyranny?