DYSTPOPIA!

A young warrior struggling to forge her own destiny seizes the narrative reins from the author of her story in Horn’s YA fantasy novel.

Murray makes his living writing technical manuals for products like the Toasterette XL 6000. He’s got a YA dystopian novel in mind, but his agent insists he stick with what he knows. But Murray can’t just scrap his idea—the 17-year-old “badass” character he’s dreamed up is already a voice in his head. She’s more than that, really; she’s a character who knows Murray’s partially written story better than he does. She names herself Hero. Hero is determined to save her kingdom of Dystpopia (immortalizing Murray’s typo) from the tyranny of the evil Queen of Fant. This determination leads to seemingly endless arguments between Hero and the writer, or “weaver,” as the character calls him. Murray’s ideas regarding romantic entanglements or turning the story into a musical distract from Hero’s goal of defeating Fant and her minions. When Hero unexpectedly discovers a way to control the storytelling, a tug-of-war ensues over which direction the narrative should go. Along the way, she gains allies in saloon owner Rodolfo and his little brother Toaster, and she comes across flying zombies, talking horses, and various mechanical things. As the weaver-protagonist clash turns everything “haywire,” neither of the two can predict the new characters (or an entirely new genre) entering the picture. Murray complicates matters even further when he brings someone else in to maybe help with the story, as the ending is coming up and he wants it to be unforgettable.

Horn takes an unabashedly tongue-in-cheek approach to the project. Hero complains about nearly everything Murray contributes, which largely consists of such YA tropes as a male character trying to woo the female lead. This approach unfortunately saddles readers with a Hero who’s perpetually irate (“anger, the only familiar feeling she knows, comforting her like a blanket”). Still, Murray’s first foray into fiction yields comedic results: He pushes the boundaries of fantasy with modern touches (two guys fighting over Hero in a steel cage match) and sneaks in more than one musical number. Hero’s occasional misinterpretations and mispronunciations are funny as well, from malapropisms like artifcats and misogymnast (both of which she unquestionably understands) to her belief, based on a coin she sees, that Abraham Lincoln was a wizard. While the jokes keep coming, the story shows a lot of heart, too; initially, Toaster has little to do as the brother of Hero’s potential romantic interest (Murray initially calls him “Little Rodolfo”), but he’s a delightful character in his own right and one of the few people whom Hero actually likes. Despite their frequent disputes, Murray and Hero have much in common; they’re both loners who may be using this quest to make some friends. A host of surprises pop up as the story unfolds, including additions to the cast both within and outside Murray’s novel. Hoover’s black-and-white illustrations preface each chapter and feature landscapes, notably a desert scene that intermittently changes.

An amusing otherworldly adventure that revels in flippancy and meta-ness.