Good Lord. Uh, when I was fifteen, I once had an idea for a novel where two kids fell into an alternate universe where the racial hierarchy was flipped, but nothing on this level. I abandoned the idea because I realized it would be super-offensive, so I can't believe someone actually wrote this, and with such insensitivity.

Maybe I shouldn't be making light of this, but if darker people are "Coals" shouldn't the lighter people be "Diamonds", not "Pearls"? Otherwise she just sounds like Effie in The Hunger Games.