Wasteland Trilogy
Susan Kim & Laurence Klavan
March 26, 2013
HarperTeen
Esther thinks there's more to life than toiling at the assignments - harvesting, gleaning, excavating - day after day under the relentless sun, just hoping to make it to the next day.
She doesn't care that her best friend, a variant, is considered "the enemy". She doesn't care that Levi, who controls the Source, is the real enemy and might send his Taser boys after her if she makes one wrong move.
Then Caleb shows up. Could there be another way to fight for survival?
This week I listened to Wasteland and the best thing I can say about it is meh. It wasn't a bad book, but it was just ok. The book had great premise but I felt like it was lacking. Don't get me wrong, I didn't feel like I wasted my time either. It was just another average run of the mill post-apocalyptic dystopian story.
In this post-apocalyptic "wasteland" the people get partnered at 14 or 15, have babies not long after and most don't live past 19. This book felt like Lord of the Flies meets The Enemy by Charlie Higson. I don't know, it lacked something those books had.
The story wasn't really new, there was one boy in town behind the scenes and everyone looked to him because he controlled the supplies. This boy was manipulative and of course, gets his in the end. There was insta-love between the new boy and the misunderstood girl who doesn't want to follow the rules and be like others. There are mutants, a new race called variants that are hated and mistrusted because they are because they are different. All of it was very interesting, but that I have multiple times.
I like the world building and the idea that alludes to a planet that has been ravaged by nuclear war. These kids really are growing up and trying to survive in a wasteland. I liked the feeling of hope at the end of the book and that the variants and the norms realize they need each other if they are both going to survive in this new world that is not kind to the weak. I likes that Ester, the main girl, matures and grows into a capable woman. I liked the narrator Laura Knight Keating. Since Wasteland was a decent, not great, read I give it three very solid laser pistols.
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