FEARLESS

Little Fearless and her friends are prisoners at the City Community Faith School for Retraining, Opportunity, and Hope, a juvenile detention center in the City. The prisoners have their real names taken away and are endlessly forced to do laundry for the Cityzens. Little Fearless believes that if the Cityzens were aware of this treatment they would never allow it. In a series of nightly outings, Little Fearless escapes, trying to convince adult Cityzens to investigate. Night after night, confronted with apathy and fear, she returns home to protect her friends from punishment. Little Fearless’s story begins as dystopian novel and concludes as allegory; while both are interesting, the transition is jarring. The symbolic weight in the latter half is marred by an overwhelming lack of subtlety, as when the City Boss orates upon “the bad people.” And it’s more the adults who learn and grow than the children, with Little Fearless acting as the innocent child savior. An enjoyable read, but a success at neither dystopia nor allegory. (Science fiction. 11-13)