Purchase to Support Our Program

“A crown jewel.”

—Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review

“A breathtaking story celebrating familial bonds. Ancestral tales overlace events and provide a satisfyingly rich tapestry of heritage. Sam and Rima are both strong female leads… [A] stunning, vivid YA fantasy.”

—Shelf Awareness, Starred Review

“Bishara’s narrative blends Lebanese history and Phoenician mythology to reflect the complications of familial love and the boundaries of life, death, fate, and choice. Through intricate world-building and storytelling, she brings forth a tale from an underexplored mythical foundation.”

—The Horn Book

Vial of Tears

Written by Cristin Bishara
Published by Holiday House

Teenage sisters Samira and Rima aren’t exactly living the dream. Instead, they live with their maddeningly unreliable mother in a rundown trailer in Michigan. Dad’s dead, money’s tight, and Mom disappears to gamble for days at a time. So when Sam’s grandfather wills her the family valuables—a cache of Lebanese antiquities—she’s desperate enough to try pawning them before Mom can.

But she shouldn’t. Because one is cursed, forbidden, the burial coin of a forgotten god. Disturbing it condemns her and Rima to the Phoenician underworld, a place of wicked cities, burning forests, poisoned feasts of milk and lemons, and an endless, windless ocean.

Nothing is what it seems. No one is who they say. And down here, the night never ends.

To get home—and to keep her sister safe—Sam will have to outwit beautiful shapeshifters, pose as a royal bride, sail the darkest sea… and maybe kill the god of death himself.

A lush and intensely imaginative novel in which fierce women protect each other from rapacious gods and hungering demons, and in which two tenacious sisters come into their power, Vial of Tears introduces readers to the rich and brilliant mythology of ancient Lebanon.

Primary ISBN: 9780823446414
Publication Date: October 2021
Available As: Hardcover, Paperback, Audiobook
Young Adult, Age 14 or older

Community Represented:

Themes: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Setting: United States (Michigan)

Character's Place in the Immigration Journey: 1st Generation

Book Creator(s) Connection to the Community Represented: Own Voices/Lived Experience

Click here for details about how we define our titles.

Engagement Projects & Resources:

Share your favorite resources for this book with info@imyourneighborbooks.org.