Nona The Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

 

Nona lives with her family, Camilla, Palamedes and Pyrrha.  Of course, Camilla and Palamedes share a body but that's okay.  Both love Nona.  Pyrrha is a woman who shaves everyday.  Nona thinks all this is normal as she is only six months old and the body she lives in wasn't hers until then.  It belonged to someone else before, someone strong.  Nona also has a job.  She is a teacher's assistant and loves the teacher called the Angel as do all the kids.  She has also been allowed to join the student gang and that makes her happy.

But things are not good on the planet.  A blue entity hangs over the planet, foretelling disaster.  Nona is supposed to save the planet somehow but she only wants a birthday party and time to snuggle the Angel's dog.  Caught between two raging military forces, can Nona and her family survive?

This is the third book in the Locked Tomb series and was a finalist for both the Hugo and Locus awards.  Tamsyn Muir is a fantasy author from New Zealand who burst upon the fantasy scene with this series.  Readers could read this as a stand alone but in order to get the full effect and understand the story line, would do best to read the preceding two.  Nona is the most approachable of Muir's heroines, a terrifying force in a little girl's body who only wants to be loved.  This book is recommended for fantasy readers.