TOP SHELF Review (Original published in The Monitor on May 3, 2012 in a slightly different form.

Brutal Dystopia for Teens

Paolo Bacigalupi has carved a niche in the dystopian sub-genre, writing about a future in which ecological disasters have caused economic and social collapse, paring existence down to mere survival. His novel The Windup Girl, his first YA book Ship Breaker, and much of his collection Pump Six and Other Stories share a common world, devastated by global warming and genetic tampering. His newest Young Adult title, The Drowned Cities, is set in that same compelling fictional universe.

The novel centers around two orphans living in the jungles near what is left of Washington, DC, now called the Drowned Cities. Mahlia is a cast-off daughter of one of the Chinese peacekeepers, who tried to end the civil war that has ripped the former US apart, but finally abandoned it. She was captured by the Army of God, whose teen soldiers cut her right hand off, and rescued by Mouse, a boy whose parents were also victims of the war. The two have been living in a small refugee community, assisting a humanitarian doctor. Their precarious existence is forever altered, however, when the soldiers of the United Patriot Front arrive, chasing down Tool, a genetically enhanced human into whom vicious animal traits have been woven to make the perfect fighting machine.

Though Tool slaughters the underage soldiers, he is badly wounded. Mahlia and Mouse are compelled to help him, bringing the wrath of the UPF upon their community. Soon the children must flee through the jungle with Tool, who agrees to help them escape the Drowned Cities in exchange for vital medicines. Unfortunately, Mouse gets lost, falling into the hands of the UPF. Mahlia knows she has little time to free her friend: the decimated armies recruit boys to fight their battles, and it won’t take long to transform Mouse into the same sort of hollow killing machine that robbed Mahlia of her hand. Tool urges Mahlia to abandon Mouse, but she refuses. Seeing the two children are part of a single pack, Tool agrees to accompany her into the very heart of the Drowned Cities to attempt a daring rescue.

As might be expected, The Drowned Cities contains the DNA of many previous YA dystopias, and fans of books like The Lord of the Flies, Ender’s Game, The Hunger Games, The Long Walk, and Battle Royale will find much to love. This novel is very dark, however, so I recommend it for mature or older teens: the setting is bleak, the characters largely amoral; there is some profanity, drug use and a pair of sexually suggestive scenes/phrases. But despite the brutal vision of the future it depicts, The Drowned Cities is ultimately concerned with the ability of human beings to find redemption and hope in even the bleakest of conditions, and it is a worthwhile read. Beyond its uplifting ending, the book could potentially open the minds of readers who realize similar scenarios are taking place at this moment across the globe.