Will keep readers turning the pages.
A powerful teen grapples with love and truth in a post-apocalyptic landscape.
Seventeen-year-old Delta lives in a literal wasteland, deadly and unforgiving. But though she is surrounded by the dust, heat, and desiccated misery of the wastes, she has symbols branded onto her back that seem to show the way to the Verdant, a lush oasis that may or may not exist. She hides these markings, knowing—as her Ma has repeatedly reminded her—that her life would be at risk if the wrong people knew about them. When Delta returns from an expedition to find her desolate home settlement of Dead River has been raided and everyone killed or abducted, she suspects the information burned into her skin might be what the General, who ordered the attack, is after. Although Delta sets out in hopes of rescuing her family, what she discovers on her quest upends everything she thinks she knows about the brutal world she inhabits. The rule of the wastes is to trust no one, but in order to survive, Delta must challenge this foundational belief. She is aided by people she meets along her journey, including a long-missing childhood friend and mysterious others. Each encounter pushes Delta toward a deeper understanding of love and trust and the spaces in between in this intense, gritty, and propulsive novel. Main characters follow a White default.
Will keep readers turning the pages. (Dystopian. 13-18)Pub Date: April 20, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-358-24443-1
Page Count: 432
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 4, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2021
A thoughtful and thrilling story of life, death, and meaning.
Two teens train to be society-sanctioned killers in an otherwise immortal world.
On post-mortal Earth, humans live long (if not particularly passionate) lives without fear of disease, aging, or accidents. Operating independently of the governing AI (called the Thunderhead since it evolved from the cloud), scythes rely on 10 commandments, quotas, and their own moral codes to glean the population. After challenging Hon. Scythe Faraday, 16-year-olds Rowan Damisch and Citra Terranova reluctantly become his apprentices. Subjected to killcraft training, exposed to numerous executions, and discouraged from becoming allies or lovers, the two find themselves engaged in a fatal competition but equally determined to fight corruption and cruelty. The vivid and often violent action unfolds slowly, anchored in complex worldbuilding and propelled by political machinations and existential musings. Scythes’ journal entries accompany Rowan’s and Citra’s dual and dueling narratives, revealing both personal struggles and societal problems. The futuristic post–2042 MidMerican world is both dystopia and utopia, free of fear, unexpected death, and blatant racism—multiracial main characters discuss their diverse ethnic percentages rather than purity—but also lacking creativity, emotion, and purpose. Elegant and elegiac, brooding but imbued with gallows humor, Shusterman’s dark tale thrusts realistic, likable teens into a surreal situation and raises deep philosophic questions.
A thoughtful and thrilling story of life, death, and meaning. (Science fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: Nov. 29, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4424-7242-6
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: July 25, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2016
A brilliant character study that examines the effects of war, genocide, and misogyny.
Thousands of years after the Light People destroyed Earth, two factions are at war in a racially diverse world: the Brightlings and the Aylish.
Elsa and Rye, residents of Northaven, a pretty coastal town in Brightland, are in love. They also share a dangerous secret as Torches, those with the ability to use songlight, a form of telepathic communication. Torches are labeled unhumans; they’re either lobotomized and made to do the most unpleasant and dangerous jobs or turned into Sirens and forced to hunt others with songlight. As terrible fates loom—Elsa will be married off to a stranger, and Rye will be shipped out to fight with other cadets—the young lovers make plans to run away. But before they can escape, Rye’s abilities are discovered, and he’s outed by Piper, Elsa’s conformist brother. Rye is sentenced to be sent to the Chrysalid House for unhumans. In her anguish, Elsa goes down to the sea: “In songlight, I roar with white, inchoate pain.” This emotional release connects her with Nightingale, a powerful fellow Torch. Meanwhile, patriotic darling Sister Swan, the Flower of Brightland, is harboring a secret with serious political implications. The multiple immersive perspectives and the anticipation this narrative will create in readers make this first installment in a planned trilogy unputdownable. In her debut novel, award-winning playwright Buffini captures the human spirit and all its messy and beautifully complex emotions.
A brilliant character study that examines the effects of war, genocide, and misogyny. (Dystopian. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2024
ISBN: 9780063358218
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2024
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