The faith is fervent, but the story is just a mess.
The final installment in the evangelical-dystopian Anomaly trilogy keeps the tension cranked up to 11.
Thalli finds herself transported back to the State, still under control of the evil Scientist Dr. Loudin. Thalli will discover numerous, ever changing evil schemes that Loudin advances and abandons as she constantly seeks escape and alternates between despair at her abandonment by the Designer (her usual name for God) and heartfelt belief that the Designer will conquer all. She still loves longtime heartthrob Berk, but she also feels friendship and loyalty to Alex. Even as she struggles with these conflicting feelings, Thalli and her friends try to battle the cartoonishly evil Loudin. The representation of faith comes across as completely sincere and believable. However, McGee appears not to have planned out her plotline, leaving it with a moment-by-moment feel. Loudin needs Alex’s abilities, but later, it turns out that he really doesn’t. He wants to control all the surviving cities in the world but later decides to nuke them. Thalli fights off “weak” Loudin “as easily as if he were a child,” but two pages later, Loudin overcomes a strong young man. The impression left is that the point is simply to pitch Thalli against Loudin in numerous different scenarios until it’s time to end the book.
The faith is fervent, but the story is just a mess. (Dystopian romance. 12-18)Pub Date: July 15, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4016-8876-9
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Review Posted Online: May 13, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2014
Both entertaining and well-written; demands and holds readers’ attention.
A duology opener that revisits the world of Divergent (2011).
Beatrice “Tris” Prior is Divergent. But before she can select Dauntless, her Choosing Ceremony is interrupted by a group of factionless rebels, and her good friend is killed. Amid the chaos, Tris sees Evelyn, the wife of Abnegation leader Marcus Eaton—but Evelyn supposedly died years ago. And, shockingly, she’s an Amity woman who’s holding a gun. Tris doesn’t tell anyone, even her father, when he later questions her. Her brother, Caleb, chooses Erudite—the faction that’s most critical toward the Abnegation and their practices—and Tris feels pressured to stay in Abnegation. But when her father tries to erase her memories, she knows she’s unsafe. Tris’ mother helps her escape to the factionless, where Tris meets Four, a Dauntless boy. Their relationship shows her that she was right to leave Abnegation—and that maybe the rebels are correct to want the death of the faction system. As Tris becomes friends with the other “faction failures,” she realizes that no faction is as it seems, and that power is a corrupting influence they can’t escape. This exciting work revisits beloved characters, offering a new understanding of them and of what happens when we stand up and ask questions. Returning fans and those new to this world will appreciate the witty banter, slow-burn romance, and heartache stemming from betrayal and complicated familial love. The leads are cued white.
Both entertaining and well-written; demands and holds readers’ attention. (Dystopian. 13-18)Pub Date: Oct. 6, 2026
ISBN: 9780063462595
Page Count: 528
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Oct. 1, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2026
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
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