The
Legend series by Marie Lu is set on the flooded coast of former Los Angeles and is told from the perspective of two 15-year-old characters on either side of a civil war. Los Angeles is now the Republic, a nation at war with its neighbors and riddled with a plague. Born of the slums, a boy named Day steals to keep his family alive and rebels against the state police, and June, a military prodigy from an elite family, hunts him down. The two seem to be from different worlds until June's brother is murdered and they discover the sinister truth behind the plague that's killing the nations' poor people. The second book,
Patriot, comes out this fall. Penguin, $17.99, ages 12 and up, 336 pages.
The
Chaos Walking series by Patrick Ness is about 13-year-old Todd, the only boy in a town of men where everyone's thoughts can be heard. The town is run by a corrupt mayor who wants to vest control of the planet and wipe out its indigenous alien race and Todd, an orphan, is determined to stop him with the help of Viola Eade, a girl who crash lands on his planet. The first book
The Knife of Never Letting Go came out in 2008, followed by
The Ask and The Answer in 2009 and
Monsters of Men in 2010. Candlewick, $18.99 per hardback, $ 9.99 per softcover, ages 14 and up, 496-608 pages.
Chaos Walking: The Complete Trilogy is now available as an ebook for $29.97.
Lissa Price's Starters dropped on my doorstep yesterday. I disappeared. Maybe you saw me yesterday afternoon, but really? I was in a future version of southern California. I followed Callie Woodhill as she tried to "sell" her body to an elderly renter in the hopes of raising enough money to get medicine for her dangerously ill 7-year-old brother.
In this future world, many people between the ages of 25 and 75-ish were killed during the Spore Wars. Children and the elderly had been vaccinated and they survived. But lifespans have increased to upwards of 200 years so employing the young is against the law to insure that the Enders - as older people are called - can continue working. Children and teens, (Starters), who do not have older relatives to claim them become slaves to the state until they reach 19.
The chasm between the rich and employed and the unclaimed and poor is vast and ugly. Enter Prime Destinations, a company that exists under the law. Rich Enders, the really old ones, can rent the bodies of teens while the teens' brains are put to sleep. The Enders' bodies stay behind in a coma state. Callie takes a chance that Prime Destinations will keep their promises and agrees to three rentals, each one longer than the last.
So if I could give some advice here? RUN! Away! FAST! But then the story would be about surviving and possibly her brother's death and squalor, etc., etc. So Callie doesn't run. When she wakes up in her renter's clothes, she starts getting telepathic messages from her renter - who has dire plans for Callie's youthful body. Dire, dreadful, dangerous, desperate plans. The plans depend on Callie's extraordinary talents as a markswoman. Not good.
Another piece of advice for Callie - stay away from rich handsome Starters. I don't think she takes that advice either. Sigh.
Expensive cars and fashions, clubs, VIPS, lifestyles of the Rich and Ender-ly, cat and mouse chases, and nasty villains combine with the mystery of just who is behind Prime Destinations to create a page turner.
This is the first in a proposed series. I have some awful suspicions about who The Old Man - Prime Destinations' founder - is. Awful, cringe-making suspicions. So I am anxious for the next installment. Go, Callie, go. And stay away from that rich Starter! (Oh, I so hope I'm wrong.)
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0 Comments on A Craving for Dystopia as of 1/1/1900
Even my 8th grade Picky Reader liked this one. I was super bummed that this book didn't come in the last order of the year! It will be wildly popular next year. Great book!