Wasteland

June 1, 2013

Gr 10 Up-In the bleak, desolate town of Prin, you get partnered at 14, are considered an elder at 17, and die at 19. Resources are scarce, and disease, especially from rainwater, is rampant. Esther, 15, doesn't fit in, and doesn't care; she hasn't partnered and consistently avoids doing the menial jobs that everyone is assigned, such as digging or searching for gasoline in abandoned cars. Her older sister, Sarah, provides for them by earning the meager food rations that her childhood friend (and now powerful leader) Levi gives people for completing their jobs. Meanwhile, the variants, tattoo and scar-covered, hermaphroditic misfits who live outside of town, are staging increasingly violent assaults against the townspeople. When newcomer Caleb, 16, appears and is able to thwart one of the attacks, the inhabitants of Prin believe he may be the key to stopping the violence. But Caleb himself is not sure, and has his own agenda. There is no subtlety here; the authors make clues about what is to come next all too obvious, and the omniscient point of view leaves nothing to the imagination. Repeated violence, death, and a single (if clinical) sex scene limit this selection to older teens, while the lack of foreshadowing and suspense will not satisfy those same readers. The ending leaves some questions, which may be explored in the next two books of the trilogy.-Kelly Jo Lasher, Middle Township High School, Cape May Court House, NJ

Copyright 2013 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2013
This trilogy opener imagines a post-apocalyptic, adult-free world in which the life expectancy is 19, due to desertification and disease. Irresponsible, flighty Esther doesn't fit in with the rest of Prin, her town of adult-acting teenagers. She skips out on assigned duties to play games with her best friend, a member of the hermaphroditic "variant" tribe that suddenly attacks Prin. Inexplicably, Esther fails to question why her best friend's people are attacking and is instead furious at the townspeople's desire to retaliate with war. To fight, Prin needs two things: weapons and instruction. Caleb, a mysterious newcomer whose wife is dead and baby has been kidnapped, arrives just in time to take the role of hero and to teach others. Esther and Caleb's romance is inevitable. But for Prin to obtain weapons, the town must make a deal with Levi, a teenager who sits with a personal army on a large cache of supplies. A conspiracy renders the variants the least of Prin's worries. While the ruined buildings and desert climate make an imaginative setting, and the idea of a population without adults in such a ravaged world poses intriguing questions, incomplete worldbuilding keeps readers from entering it. While Esther grows as a character and the story comes to an actual conclusion, the narrative shortcuts spoil the impact; whether readers stick around for the next two books is an open question. (Post-apocalyptic romance. 14-17)

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April 15, 2013
Grades 9-12 Esther doesn't fit in with the people of Prin, a desolate, arid town stricken by poisoned water, whose residents never live past 19. She dresses differently, defiantly shirks her responsibilities, and isn't afraid of the Variants, a tribe of hermaphroditic, tattooed outcasts who live in the forests and forage for food. The townspeople spend their time working for diabolical Levi, who controls the only stronghold of supplies in Prin and stingily exchanges them for hard labor. Everything changes when Caleb, a particularly skilled fighter, comes to town, just in time for a spate of Variant-led attacks on the city. Kim and Klavan's world building enticingly trickles through the brutal, fast-paced, multilayered plot, which is fueled by a sweet romance between brooding Caleb and spunky Esther and plenty of mysteries. Who's orchestrating the attacks on Prin? What is Levi digging for, and why is he so hell-bent on killing Caleb? Who, or what, are the Variants? The first in a planned trilogy, Wasteland raises plenty of captivating questions and doesn't shortchange readers on satisfying answers.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2013
Prin's citizens die by age nineteen, so they marry at fifteen and reproduce at seventeen. But fifteen-year-old Esther doesn't want to waste the years she has left working on her assignments or marrying out of obligation. The brutal conditions of this dystopia don't leave room for the characters to contemplate much (or develop); despite good pacing, readers will be left with unanswered questions.

(Copyright 2013 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)