This book is really sort of goofy. It’s The Hunger Games plus The Amazing Race plus Pokemon.
The main character, Tella, gets an invitation to participate in the Brimstone Bleed. It’s a race through four environments. All of the contestants have a loved one who is terribly sick, all of them have the same horrible illness. Whichever contestant wins gets the cure.
The competitors are aided in the race by animals that hatched from eggs, animals that have special abilities. In the first book, we see two of the environments, desert and jungle. I am interested to see what happens in the next book, and who wins the race.
You can read my full review here.