*Book provided via NetGalley for an honest review.
Summary:
It's been many years since the resources wars. It's also been many years since anyone has seen the sun. The Tathadann Party runs the show with an iron fist, even adjusting it's people's memories so they forget what life was like. As a result, memories have become their own form of currency but are also more addictive and destructive than heroin. The only attempt at a rebellion failed and this book goes back and forth between the two former leaders of that rebellion, Henraek and Walleus, and their lives as workers for the Tathadann.
Review:
I'll be honest, I've got some mixed feelings about this book. It had a lot of interesting story elements and characters. The world was a little difficult to process, but that could be because I'm not used to the egregious dichotomy between the rich and the poor in post-apocalyptic worlds (you'd think I would be by now). Overall this really felt like a thriller or mystery book way more than it was a post-apocalyptic sci-fi.
I appreciate that we're given the viewpoints of Walleus, the willing traitor to the cause, and Henraek, the man who had to be broken first. From this we get the viewpoint of the backstabbing and politics going on within the Tathadann Party and the struggle to hold onto anything worthwhile in the slums. We get to see one man continue on with what family he has while the other has nothing left of his family but memories he's harvested from others who used to know him. One person only has "friends" that will take any opportunity to throw him under the bus while the other has a single friend who is trying to get him to move on. It's quite an interesting way to give the reader different clues about what happened in the rebellion and what is happening now.
The ending was what really gave me pause. In a way it really felt like the main characters got what they deserved, but it wasn't very satisfying. And maybe that's the point. The notion that revenge, social upheaval and justice have repercussions and innocent people lose out. There is, certainly, a lot of that in this book. Parents losing their children. Husbands and wives losing each other. People even losing their sense of self because they either lose their memories or get addicted to the memories of others.
I did enjoy the book. I'm not usually one for mystery/thrillers but this was, overall, a good read. If you like thirllers or dystopian settings this is a good book for you. As for me, I give it 3.5 hoots.
Hoot!
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