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Dec. 9th, 2014 08:32 pmI read an early draft of Stranger, by Rachel Manija Brown and Sherwood Smith, but that was long enough ago that by the time it came out for real I had forgotten how much I liked it!
Stranger is sent in a post-apocalyptic southern California, but the kind of post-apocalyptic where everyone's had a few generations to get used to the changes and build new towns and economic systems and pay high prices for pre-apocalyptic artifacts that provide fascinating scraps of information on that strange historical era. Also the kind of post-apocalyptic where some people have mutant powers!
The story takes place in the relatively stable town of Las Anclas and focuses on a set of teenagers:
ROSS, a solitary teenaged wanderer with a tragic backstory and severe PTSD, who is found mostly-dead by the (semi)-friendly inhabitants of Las Anclas
MIA, a socially awkward mechanical genius whose father is the town doctor and therefore is the one who is like 'PLEASE DAD can we keep him? :D' when Ross ends up in their spare room
JENNIE, Mia's best friend who has pulled slightly away from her due to being a rising star in the local militia and very competent at everything; also, telekinetic!
YUKI, who was adopted into the town when he was a kid after his own tragic backstory, and is desperate to learn enough skills to GO EXPLORING and GET AWAY
FELICITE, the mayor's pretty daughter, all sweetness and light on the outside and private schemes and jealousy on the inside; the actual worst and also the most interesting to me!
The first half of the book is a bit slow to start, mostly focusing on setting up the town and the dynamics and the tensions that exist between people who have mutant superpowers and people that don't; eventually there's an external enemy and a climactic battle and some very effective set pieces involving murderous singing mutant crystal trees, but it's the long-term throughlines that are most interesting to me -- that, and the feeling of community, and a lot of interconnected people who know each other very well and are important to each other.
My favorite plotline is Felicité's, because at first Felicité looks like the same Pretty Mean Girl who shows up in a lot of Sherwood Smith's books, but there's layers to her that that girl doesn't usually get. The exploration of her inherited prejudice and how that affects her is INCREDIBLY interesting. Felicité's whole family is set up as antagonists and for good reasons, but they're also real-feeling people who care about each other, and about the town, which is one of the things I like best about the book.
I also love that sympathetic characters often dislike each other or misjudge each other; Yuki's simmering irritation with Ross is ... kind of delightful to me? And all the different kinds of shapes the families and relationships take (not to mention all the people of different races and cultures and sexualities both foregrounded and backgrounded; I don't think any of the protagonists is white.) Although given the fact that the Ross/Jennie/Mia triangle involves ( mild relationship spoilers? )
And now I get to settle in and wait for the next book like everyone else.
Stranger is sent in a post-apocalyptic southern California, but the kind of post-apocalyptic where everyone's had a few generations to get used to the changes and build new towns and economic systems and pay high prices for pre-apocalyptic artifacts that provide fascinating scraps of information on that strange historical era. Also the kind of post-apocalyptic where some people have mutant powers!
The story takes place in the relatively stable town of Las Anclas and focuses on a set of teenagers:
ROSS, a solitary teenaged wanderer with a tragic backstory and severe PTSD, who is found mostly-dead by the (semi)-friendly inhabitants of Las Anclas
MIA, a socially awkward mechanical genius whose father is the town doctor and therefore is the one who is like 'PLEASE DAD can we keep him? :D' when Ross ends up in their spare room
JENNIE, Mia's best friend who has pulled slightly away from her due to being a rising star in the local militia and very competent at everything; also, telekinetic!
YUKI, who was adopted into the town when he was a kid after his own tragic backstory, and is desperate to learn enough skills to GO EXPLORING and GET AWAY
FELICITE, the mayor's pretty daughter, all sweetness and light on the outside and private schemes and jealousy on the inside; the actual worst and also the most interesting to me!
The first half of the book is a bit slow to start, mostly focusing on setting up the town and the dynamics and the tensions that exist between people who have mutant superpowers and people that don't; eventually there's an external enemy and a climactic battle and some very effective set pieces involving murderous singing mutant crystal trees, but it's the long-term throughlines that are most interesting to me -- that, and the feeling of community, and a lot of interconnected people who know each other very well and are important to each other.
My favorite plotline is Felicité's, because at first Felicité looks like the same Pretty Mean Girl who shows up in a lot of Sherwood Smith's books, but there's layers to her that that girl doesn't usually get. The exploration of her inherited prejudice and how that affects her is INCREDIBLY interesting. Felicité's whole family is set up as antagonists and for good reasons, but they're also real-feeling people who care about each other, and about the town, which is one of the things I like best about the book.
I also love that sympathetic characters often dislike each other or misjudge each other; Yuki's simmering irritation with Ross is ... kind of delightful to me? And all the different kinds of shapes the families and relationships take (not to mention all the people of different races and cultures and sexualities both foregrounded and backgrounded; I don't think any of the protagonists is white.) Although given the fact that the Ross/Jennie/Mia triangle involves ( mild relationship spoilers? )
And now I get to settle in and wait for the next book like everyone else.
