Survival in a fallen America

Review from Bookwyrm at https://books.theunseen.city/user/4thace/review/203951#anchor-203951

This is a near-future dystopic YA novel set in a North America where all the institutions underpinning American society have collapsed. The mid-Atlantic coastal cities have succumbed to climate crises and the foreign peace-keeping forces have all withdrawn. There are armed paramilitary groups at war and genetically engineered half-human hybrids stand at the top of the heap. One of these, a creature named Tool, is one main character, the other is a teen whose hand was cut off by one of the warring factions but who nonetheless found a job as physician's aide. The inciting event is the accidental release of Tool who then happens to encounter the girl and start to put together an uneasy alliance to further both their aims.

There is a lot of death and bodily harm depicted in graphic terms. No details of sexual activity are described. It is the kind of story for more mature teens and young adults. In the tradition of other near-future military literature, secondary characters are introduced to the reader to elicit negative or positive feelings so that the reader will have emotional stakes when circumstances begin to focus on them specifically. It isn't a surprise when the two main characters work through their conflicts to have a sudden reconciliation against common foes.

In the climactic showdown the reader knows all the players and has a sense of their motivations, but I would not call the outcome of this entirely predictable. I might have been expecting something along the lines of this author's other stories written for adults so this did feel less nuanced, a little more sensationalist. I was able to tell early on what the ending would be delivering.

I know there is a book in this series which focuses on one of these main characters. I probably won't be reading that one soon because there is little incentive for me to experience such a grim future America right now.