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RESTORING HARMONY by Joëlle Anthony

RESTORING HARMONY

by Joëlle Anthony

Pub Date: May 1st, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-399-25281-5
Publisher: Putnam

Suspense dominates this absorbing and believable near-future dystopic novel about a girl sent to rescue her grandparents from the United States ten years after “the Collapse.” Sixteen-year-old Molly travels alone in 2041 from her comfortable Canadian farm to a formerly affluent, now desperate neighborhood near Portland, Ore., where her grandparents struggle to survive in a barter economy. Molly meets a young man who seems to want to help her, but can she trust him? He appears to be connected to the organized-crime mob that runs Portland. Yet Molly may have little choice if she wants to get back to Canada. Anthony easily builds suspense and creates both an attractive personality for Molly and interesting characters to support her. Some people act morally, some eagerly steal and others may be deadly, but Molly holds fast to her mission and thinks as quickly as she plays her beloved fiddle. The author’s vision of a future America following the failure of the oil-based economy makes realistic sense and keeps interest high. Highly readable; very well done indeed. (Science fiction. YA)