For a book set in a bleak dystopian future where the world has run out of oil and society has all but totally disintegrated, this is a surprisingly light-hearted, sweet little story. It has a different feel from many other YA dystopian novels, probably because it focuses more on family, the importance of compassion, and the joy of music rather than fast-paced action, violence, and dark mystery. Instead of a futuristic society where a questionable new set of mores have settled into place, we're s More...

Are you in the mood for a good YA dystopia, but need something a bit lighter? If so, then I highly recommend Restoring Harmony by Joelle Anthony, which reads like a contemporary YA novel that just happens to be set in a messed up future.

The world of Restoring Harmony is very believable and realistic, and it is easy to imagine that a global depression could occur if we had a major oil crisis. Take a lot of our current problems and make them worse, and we’d be living in this book.

Restoring Harmony More...

I LOVED this book. When I first started reading it, I couldn't get into it like other books, but if you give it a chance, you'll soon learn to love the characters and become curious about their backstories. I'll give you a basic summary of the book without any spoilers: Molly McClure lives in British Columbia on a small farm in the year 2041. (The book is a dystopian novel and takes place after the Collapse, when all the oil has run out, poverty and crime are very common, and their is little, if More...

In this futuristic adventure, sixteen-year-old Molly McClure lives with her family in a self-sufficient farming community on an island in Canada. When a truncated message comes from a hospital saying that Molly’s grandmother may have died, her family decides to try to reconcile with the estranged grandfather, a doctor, and bring him back to the island to help Molly’s mother, who is soon to give birth. But travel is extremely difficult — the government has taken control of the oil supply, and tra More...

This is an awesome book that dystopian lovers are sure to enjoy! I have yet to see any reviews or anything about this book on the blogs I frequent, which is a shame because it’s a great book that I really enjoyed. I’m excited to be writing this review and spreading the word about it! I did read this like 4 months ago so forgive me if things are a little vague.

Author Joelle Anthony did a really good job at creating and describing this world of 2041 so that it was realistic and believable.

The cha More...

In a way, it is unfortunate that this gritty YA novel was given such a bland title. Potential readers will see Harmony in the title and a peaceful shoreline in the cover art, and won't realize the extent of urban danger that a feisty, brave girl can get into in the post-apocalyptic Pacific Northwest.

In the year 2041, ten years after a great economic Collapse, 16-year-old Molly and her family live on an isolated farming island in British Columbia. They have fared better than city dwellers because More...

I found this an incredibly pleasant dystopia read. It's set in Portland, OR (mostly), which was fun just to start with. I appreciated that the author dealt with multiple facets of the reality of life in a dystopia--dystopia in the truest sense of the word, in that this is a reality taken and crumpled, leaving the fiber of the society, but not the trappings, intact. You will recognize this world, and yet...not. It is this world, but harder, which makes it incredibly relatable. The writing is not More...

I’m not going to write a synopsis of Restoring Harmony because enough other reviewers have done that, but I am going to voice my praise.

Mixing music with the dangers of a dystopian world is a stroke of genius and in writing Restoring Harmony Joëlle Anthony has created a wonderful story for middle grade students and young adults.

Her Canadian heroine, Molly McClure, is a talented musician but more importantly she is a sweet and loving person. Filled with generous gestures and kindnesses, Restoring More...

This is a great novel that takes place in 2041 after the economy collapse due to the remaining oil being seized by the government. Molly, the main character, is in charge of going back to the U.S. to bring her grandfather back home. Her mother is pregnant but things aren't going well for her since the only doctor on the island died in a freak accident. Molly's grandfather is a doctor and hopes to bring him back since her mother and the community need a doctor on the island. Molly goes through a More...

Molly's family lives on an isolated Canadian island, self-sufficiently farming their land. When a dropped phone call implies that her grandmother is dead, Molly is elected to travel down to Oregon to bring her grandfather back. It's not an easy trip: train tracks are out, border crossings have been tightened, and the governmental control over what little fuel is left makes travel slow and expensive. With the help of some kind strangers, Molly eventually navigates to her grandfather's house, wher More...

I'll admit, I can be bias to books set in the Pacific Northwest, which is one of the things that drew me to this book. This year I have read a handful of amazing dystopian books, and that's saying a lot as I'm not a huge dystopian fan. Well I should say it takes a certain style of writing for a dystopian book to really grab my attention and Restoring Harmony is one of them. Being set in the year 2041 in both British Columbia and Portland, Restoring Harmony had my attention.

What I liked about Res More...

Not bad. It's a light read, somewhat surprisingly for something of a dystopian novel. It's set in the Pacific Northwest, so I picked it up. Sixteen-year-old Molly McClure lives on a small island in BC in 2041, after the Collapse of 2031 when the oil pretty much ran out. She and her family are poor but live pretty self sufficiently, faming and whatnot, until they get word that her grandmother in Portland has either died or become ill - communication lines are poor and they are not sure. Molly is More...

Molly's traveling from British Columbia to Oregon to rescue her sick grandparents. But post-Collapse travel is hard with no gas for cars and train tracks washed out. On her last leg of the trip, when she gets caught on the local trolley without a ticket, the tall young blond guy she barely knows talks the conductor out of arresting her. The conductor looked scared when he flashed his pass and said Molly was his guest. Molly wonders about this, but rushes on to her grandparents, where she find th More...

Molly lives in a world very different from the one you and I have come to know. And that is not because she lives it Canada. It’s because she lives in 2041 and after the Collapse, which left the entire world in financial peril.

Molly and her family live on a small island, an island that was able to recover quite well after the Collapse, one that’s small and quaint; one where family is the most important thing you’ve got. When the island doctor is killed in a freak accident and Molly’s grandmother More...

A great story set in a realistic dystopian future (no more fossil fuels) where a teen - Molly - journeys to Seattle to collect her grandfater to bring him back home to her island in Canada. Since communications are almost non-existant, she leaves home believing that her grandmother has recently died. She also knows her own mother's pregnancy isn't going very well, and since Grandpa's a doctor, his skills are very needed.

The book provides an interesting mix of an almost antique feeling rural wor More...

My Thoughts: I can not stress enough how I can't seem to get the words out. I will say what I feel in 5 words. This book was freaking awesome. We are introduced to Molly who is going to Oregon to get her grandparents and bring them back with her. Her mom is pregnant, her sister is engaged, so she is in a time crunch and needs to get back as soon as possible. She starts the journey and encounters many setbacks but she never lets that influence her. She has to get them now before its too late! Tim More...

This near-future YA novel focuses on a Canadian (British Columbia) teenage girl who crosses illegally into Washington State to find her possibly ailing grandfather and take him back home with her. In this vision of the future, there has been no nuclear disaster, but society and the world are nonetheless very different from ours today. The culprits: the rapid depletion of oil (which necessitated world governments seizing the available resources and hoarding them for their own use) and the collaps More...

Considering it's been a little hard for me to read dystopian fiction these days (feels a bit too real to be fun), I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. Restoring Harmony is set in the year 2041, a post "collapse" world where there is very little oil, so people have to grow their own food, ride bikes, etc. The main character is Molly, a teenager that is sent from her family farm in British Columbia down to Portland to find her grandparents and hopefully bring them back to the farm. Par More...

2041- dystopia/post apocalyptic - set in Canada and northwestern U.S. Sixteen-year old Molly lives with her family self-sufficiently on an island in Canada, mostly protected from what has happened (due to a series of unfortunate events)in the world. She must leave, however, and journey down to WA to find her grandfather, find out what happened to her grandmother, and return in time with her doctor-grandfather to help her mother deliver a baby. After unexpected twists and turns (and the kindness More...

More YA literature – this time dystopian in nature. Molly has grown up on a rural island in Canada, the daughter of farmers who have succeeded in the world left after The Collapse. She is sent on a journey to the United States to collect her grandparents and bring them to be with the family on the farm. It is a dangerous journey and she encounters many obstacles. But she also makes new relationships and learns to trust herself and her own strength. With a fiddle as constant-companion and a healt More...

First off, I absolutely love the cover for this book. I'm not sure why -- I just do. I've always been a big fan of dystopian books; books set in a post-apocalyptic world. Naturally, the setting and premise of RESTORING HARMONY captured my interest immediately.

The year is 2031 and the global economy has collapsed after the petroleum that fuels the oil-dependent world runs out. Poverty, hunger, disease, and crime dominate the United States. RESTORING HARMONY follows Molly McClure, who leaves her s More...

This was a pretty decent book, I must say. The way it started off, I thought Molly, the 16-year-old protagonist, was going to be a really naive "save me, men" sort of girl. That could also be partly because of where I stopped reading that first couple of chapters, without seeing her get a bit more savvy. She is a smart girl, if a little naive at times, and really kind and optimistic. I think perhaps the optimism added to the sense of naivety, but it ultimately turned out to be a fairly hopeful b More...

No trip goes without a hitch, especially not in books. The state of the world was entirely plausible for only thirty years in the future, except for the Organization's guns. They were one of the very few technological advances, and they seemed too advanced to be real. I know that's an odd statement to make about a fiction book, but unless it's fantasy fiction or set in the incomprehensibly distant future, it has to be plausible on some level. The return trip was well done, but when they got to C More...

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The world has changed a great deal over the years, and now it is the year 2041. Molly McClure lives in Canada, with her family. They spend a lot of their time farming, and Molly also enjoys playing the fiddle. All is going well until they come to the realization that Molly's grandfather in the United States might be in terrible trouble. Sixteen-year old Molly is elected to go on a dangerous adventure throug More...

This felt pretty first-drafty to me--there really isn't much depth to it at all, conflicts always get resolved a little too easily, and even though the main character is sixteen, the book reads more like one aimed at kids of eleven or twelve, and Molly herself seems a lot younger than her stated age. Also there were a lot of holes in the plot, and decisions that people made that just didn't make sense. But it's a cute story--one that feels much more like a twenties-era novel (what with the organ More...

I found Restoring Harmony to be a quick and interesting read. I love dystopian novels, so I was intrigued by this 2010 novel. While I liked it, I found some aspects to be lacking and the dialogue awkward at times.

The portrayed world of 2041 is definitely a different world than that of today's 2010. I liked that Anthony focused on oil one of the main contributors to the Collapse, as that is a definite possibility. I found the story that much more believable because of that detail.

I really liked More...

Molly is a likeable character with a positive attitude and an adventuresome spirit. In this dystopian young adult novel about 2041 when the oil is used up and times are tough you see how important friends and family can be. Molly's family lives on an island and are better off than most because they can grow their own food. Molly uses her skill as a fiddler to brighten people’s spirits as she travels to Oregon to save her grandparents. I liked the book because of the music threaded throughout as More...

I'm not sure how appropriate it is to say that a post-apocalyptic book was "fun" to read, but this seemed much more "up" and "cheerful" than other post-disaster stories I've read for young adults.

I loved the continued presence of Molly's violin, and I liked the importance of gardening. It was a nice twist to have the majority of the characters trying to get out of the United States and into Canada instead of the other way around.

My biggest complaint about this book has nothing to do with Anthony More...

Wow. This book was terrible. For the sake of literary integrity I sincerely hope that this lady was just looking to make a quick buck rather than produce a well written dystopian novel, even if it is one written for teens. The characters were naive, one-dimensional and maddeningly dumb. Character backstory and development was nowhere to be found and events occurred in hap-hazard, un-suspenseful sequence. Relationships were barely developed other than one day someone doesn't like someone and the More...