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378 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1996
I honestly wasn't sure I'd be able to get into this story. Post-disaster worlds were kind of ruined for me by Jeanne DuPrau (The City of Ember was great, the rest of her books...), which make any books of the genre have to work extra hard just to get my attention not to mention keeping my interest! However, Whitley gives this world a unique feel, and though there are hints of things beyond the borders of our characters' knowledge, they aren't able to obsess about it and their discoveries happen over large periods of time. That has always seemed weird to me for most similar stories; the main character who has been struggling to survive suddenly has heaps of time to focus on all the behind the scenes weirdness and suddenly, TA DA! mystery solved? A bit sketchy; but as I said Mr. Whitley does not fall into that trap. His characters are very much involved in their world (hence them being who they are) and though they do have some dramatic changes on-going, their decisions aren't consequence free and take several years to happen.
Also, this book is part of a projected trilogy, so don't expect all of your questions to be answered, the world to be fully developed or even to know what to expect from the next books as things could easily dramatically change. Just that kind of a story!
Before I forget, the real reason, for me, that this book gets four stars is because of how much it values life. Slight spoilers in this so..
Content notes: No language issues. No sensuality issues. There is a murder and some perilous times, however, the murder happens off page and the peril is generally resolved with only a few cuts and bruises. In this world, the most drastic violence is done to a person's name rather than their person, with mistakes and slight failures often leading to becoming pariahs that no one will sign a contract with (effectively excluding them from all legal commerce or jobs). There is also an ongoing plague, especially amongst the slum portion of the city, that causes off page deaths, but after the first section of the book, it seems to reduce in importance and the described effects are mostly the skin color changing to grey and the person dying.