A gripping but uneven dystopian tale with fantastical elements.
In a village ruled by masked elders, a young woman must uncover forbidden knowledge in a hidden library before a sacred ritual seals her fate.
In this novel set in an unnamed, isolated village, nine mysterious elders enforce strict traditions to preserve social order. Life is governed by nature rather than clocks, knowledge is tightly controlled, and women’s roles are predetermined. Sylvie is a free-spirited young woman raised by her grandfather, who secretly taught her to read and question their controlled existences. On his deathbed, he reveals that there’s more to the story she’s been told about her mother’s death and her outsider father’s absence. Sylvie possesses fragments of truth, an inherited ring with an endless knot design, and questions about her origins. Sadly, her search for answers is about to end prematurely. Sylvie has managed to avoid “the ritual”—a compulsory ceremony for all women of a certain age carried out by an elder—longer than most, but the pressure keeps mounting. She’s given the choice to have her bodily autonomy stripped in front of the entire village or inside her home by an unwanted new husband. Determined to uncover the truth, Sylvie explores the forbidden library, a repository of hidden knowledge (“It was the only building still standing from a bygone era and the only place where I might find answers”). What she uncovers inside propels her on a journey through time and space, sometimes guided by a raven, leading her to a legendary tree. Finding this tree is part of her destiny and a larger cycle that must be completed. Broadwell’s captivating novel excels in building atmosphere and tension, using the insular, timeless village as both a physical and psychological cage. The author vividly renders Sylvie’s internal struggle—her desire for knowledge, autonomy, and truth—and makes her both relatable and inspiring as a protagonist. Broadwell also skillfully weaves together eco-fiction, feminist dystopia, and mythic fantasy, exploring how environmental devastation, patriarchal control, and the suppression of knowledge are deeply interconnected. But the pacing falters at times, with extended exposition and detailed descriptions slowing the momentum. And, while Sylvie is a compelling hero, secondary characters receive less attention, which can make parts of the village and its inhabitants feel underexplored.
A gripping but uneven dystopian tale with fantastical elements.Pub Date: Feb. 22, 2023
ISBN: 9798378492626
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Dec. 29, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A fine novel for those who like to immerse themselves in alternative worlds.
Set in the future and reminiscent of The Hunger Games and Game of Thrones, this novel dramatizes a story of vengeance, warfare and the quest for power.
In the beginning, Darrow, the narrator, works in the mines on Mars, a life of drudgery and subservience. He’s a member of the Reds, an “inferior” class, though he’s happily married to Eo, an incipient rebel who wants to overthrow the existing social order, especially the Golds, who treat the lower-ranking orders cruelly. When Eo leads him to a mildly rebellious act, she’s caught and executed, and Darrow decides to exact vengeance on the perpetrators of this outrage. He’s recruited by a rebel cell and “becomes” a Gold by having painful surgery—he has golden wings grafted on his back—and taking an exam to launch himself into the academy that educates the ruling elite. Although he successfully infiltrates the Golds, he finds the social order is a cruel and confusing mash-up of deception and intrigue. Eventually, he leads one of the “houses” in war games that are all too real and becomes a guerrilla warrior leading a ragtag band of rebelliously minded men and women. Although it takes a while, the reader eventually gets used to the specialized vocabulary of this world, where warriors shoot “pulseFists” and are protected by “recoilArmor.” As with many similar worlds, the warrior culture depicted here has a primitive, even classical, feel to it, especially since the warriors sport names such as Augustus, Cassius, Apollo and Mercury.
A fine novel for those who like to immerse themselves in alternative worlds.Pub Date: Jan. 28, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-345-53978-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2013
An unrelentingly dark and disquieting look at the way societies conform to committing atrocities.
A processing plant manager struggles with the grim realities of a society where cannibalism is the new normal.
Marcos Tejo is the boss’s son. Once, that meant taking over his father’s meat plant when the older man began to suffer from dementia and require nursing home care. But ever since the Transition, when animals became infected with a virus fatal to humans and had to be destroyed, society has been clamoring for a new source of meat, laboring under the belief, reinforced by media and government messaging, that plant proteins would result in malnutrition and ill effects. Now, as is true across the country, Marcos’ slaughterhouse deals in “special meat”—human beings. Though Marcos understands the moral horror of his job supervising the workers who stun, kill, flay, and butcher other humans, he doesn’t feel much since the crib death of his infant son. “One can get used to almost anything,” he muses, “except for the death of a child.” One day, the head of a breeding center sends Marcos a gift: an adult female FGP, a “First Generation Pure,” born and bred in captivity. As Marcos lives with his product, he gradually begins to awaken to the trauma of his past and the nightmare of his present. This is Bazterrica’s first novel to appear in America, though she is widely published in her native Argentina, and it could have been inelegant, using shock value to get across ideas about the inherent brutality of factory farming and the cruelty of governments and societies willing to sacrifice their citizenry for power and money. It is a testament to Bazterrica’s skill that such a bleak book can also be a page-turner.
An unrelentingly dark and disquieting look at the way societies conform to committing atrocities.Pub Date: Aug. 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-982150-92-1
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
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