Stripped of their birthright and shunned by the people of Ashlund, Una and her family are forced to live on the fringe of society as Scavengers. There is no question that her family’s bond is strong, but the law of the Authority is stronger…and soon it will come to collect her. After all, the family is on borrowed time already. When a night of torment and truth reveals well kept secrets, Una … secrets, Una takes new freedoms – free from the Authority, her family, and possibly her fate. Pulled between the life she’s always known and a world where status and rituals are everything, Una struggles to understand a culture that has rejected all she holds dear. As Atchem comes to an end and she learns who she really is, will Una find the courage to do what it takes to ensure her family’s survival, or will she find the faith to follow her heart?
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My heart went out to this young woman.
Faced with a life determined by unjust societal restrictions. She struggles daily to understand how she must endure. Learning much is not as it has seemed her choices become even more difficult. Does love even get to factor in?
The book is really truly very good – and not just because I happen to find its author charming… Una’s tale is a rough one, but very well crafted and I did enjoy it (even the dark bits). It was a heavy read, and it took me longer than usual to finish. That is, in part, due to the severity of the world of Scavengers and Citizens. But it’s also a credit to the author, and the depth and breadth of the world she has so artfully created and the plots she has delicately intertwined within it. There were loads of things I never saw coming, which is not something that happens often. Perhaps it shouldn’t be that surprising – so much happens in this story, that encapsulating it is nearly impossible without either a twenty page precis or spoilers.
The characterization is fantastic. There are incredibly delicate emotions at play, and secrets are thick on the ground for nearly everyone. Una’s family is startlingly resourceful for a group that is supposed to be literally on the fringes of everything. Their dance to try and keep Una out of harm’s way is a tap-dance among land-mines, especially since she has rather more than a knack for trouble). This is clearly book one – there are so many future angles to tap into and directions to go, but they are open-ended without at all leaving the reader feeling lost or engaging in eye-rolling at the obvious cliff-hanger ploys to ensure purchase of the follow-up book…
It IS dystopian, in the sense that the word should mean – a future that is the opposite of utopian. Unfortunately, the term has become loaded and now seems to encompass anything that isn’t all sunshine and roses, that requires kids to fight and die even more than the current reality does, and that hates/debases women (again, more than…). It has elements of those things, but is so much more than that – that’s what I really like about it AND what makes it a difficult read at times. The book is dense – not in the thick sense, but rich and heavy, like cream sauces. I found it very enjoyable reading, but Una’s world was also a bit wearying – nothing ever goes her way for more than five pages and when things are bad they’re B-A-D bad. Honestly, I occasionally had to put it down for something a little lighter/more upbeat – the writing was so immersive that I occasionally found myself emotionally exhausted from Una’s life. That is not at all intended as criticism – it’s a credit to an author to pull the reader in so thoroughly that the world of the book begins to affect the *real* world, I think.
Scavenger Girl – Season of Atchem releases October 21, 2017. If you’d like a sneak peek, my blog has a link to an excerpt (www.Jill-Elizabeth.com). And if you go to Amazon on release day, you can download the Kindle version for FREE!
My review copy was graciously provided by the author.