About the Book
-
Author:
- Kristy Dallas Alley
- Genres:
- Dystopia
- Girl-Girl Romance
- YA Romance
Cover Story: Unbreakable
BFF Charm: Big Sister
Talky Talk: Coming Of Age
Factor: Dystopian World
Relationship Status: It’s Not You, It’s Me
Cover Story: Unbreakable
There’s something about a braid on a book cover that screams “I am likely being oppressed!” This cover is no different.
The Deal:
In the aftermath of “the Break”, a dark time in our future when women were unable to get pregnant, the only survivors are small pockets of humans living off the land. Ami’s great-grandfather saw the signs of a world going to sin and converted his family’s trailer dealership into a survival compound decades ago. Ami’s mother was the last of the family able to bear a child before she was run off by the government agents who used to force fertile women into birthing camps. Now that Ami is sixteen, her grandparents have brought home a willing, religious-minded older man to be her husband in the hopes that she is just as fertile as her mother.
The idea of sleeping with a man three times her age is terrifying to Ami, and she isn’t even sure she WANTS a baby, but she knows it’s her role to submit to the will of Papa Solomon. Then her aunt comes to her with a way out: Ami’s mother is alive and living only four days from their compound, and she’s packed everything Ami will need to sneak away.
Does Ami dare defy God’s—and Papa Solomon’s—goal to repopulate the world? Can she survive in the wilderness away from her family’s compound? (The answer is OMG, yes, baby girl, run like the freaking wind.)
BFF Charm: Big Sister
Having grown up with an extremely religious, self-proclaimed “prophet” of a father figure, Ami is obviously very sheltered and naive. When she finally meets other people, her worldview is shot to hell and must expand at warp speed. Ami has enough people to tell her what’s what that she doesn’t really need a big sister like me, but I think that’s the best role I could fill were we to hang out. Oh, also! Ami’s only ever been allowed to read 3 things: an encyclopedia from 1992, the Christian Bible, and The Little House on the Prairie series. So if anything, I would love to be her librarian. She’s got some major catching up to do.
Swoonworthy Scale: 3
Ami figures that once she’s reunited with her mom and gotten settled, she can find a husband she wants to, ah, mate with, and then when she returns home with him, Papa Solomon will have to forgive her for running off. (Um, Ami…) Then she meets guitar-strumming, spunky Jessi and she starts to feel things she never knew could be possible…
Talky Talk: Coming Of Age
This book was not for me, and, by that, I mean it does not have crossover appeal for Olds like me as many YA novels do. I could see this being great for teenagers who’ve grown up in very strict and/or religious households who need to hear that one adult’s take on the world doesn’t have to be THEIR take. A young person who needs to think through some weighty, “controversial” topics with a non-judgmental, open-minded guide. Aside from Ami’s concern about her family coming to find her, there wasn’t a lot of outward conflict driving this quiet story along; this was all about Ami’s internal journey towards thinking for herself and thriving after being deprived of love and freedom of expression.
There’s a place out there for this book, but it’s not on my shelves.
Factor: Dystopian World
The author didn’t dwell very long on the reasons why women were struggling to conceive, why cities were completely abandoned like there’d been a zombie outbreak, and people in the 2100s were living like they did in the 1800s. I was definitely…confused. I know it wasn’t the point of the novel, but since I was a little bored by the life-altering revelations that Ami was experiencing, I had a lot of time to ponder.
Relationship Status: It’s Not You, It’s Me
You’re a little young and under-cooked for us to really be a thing, Book. You seem like you’ll do alright out there in the world, though, so I wish you the best.
FTC Full Disclosure: I received my free review copy from Swoon Reads. I received neither money nor peanut butter cups in exchange for this review. The Ballad of Ami Miles is available now
