Book Review - Dark Life

Dark Life by Kat Falls
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Well, this was another one of those stay-up-til-2 to finish books, where I'm so wired after the ending that I figure I might as well stay up a little longer to pen a review!

In the aftermath of global warming, the earth is almost - but not quite - the vision of WaterWorld we've all worried about since we saw the Kevin Kostner movie. No? That was just me that had those nightmares? Okay, well then. At any rate, almost the full surface of the world is water, with some land peppered here and there (Colorado Islands anyone?) overstuffed with millions of people living in one-room apartments in tiny towers. Except for the pioneers. Homesteaders get 100 acres if they work it for five years. The only catch is, the land is underwater - at the very bottom of the sea.

There is some very fun world building going on in this book, which probably is terribly inaccurate all over the place when it comes to science, but since I know nothing about scuba diving, let alone what it would take to engineer an undersea house (or casino, as the case may be), I just went with it and enjoyed the ride. And a very interesting ride it was, too, full of novel ideas and gorgeously described landscapes that tickled my imagination.

I loved that this book had a male narrator. So many main characters in YA fiction - even the post-apocalyptic sort that I favor - tend to be females. And I know it's because that is who tends to read the stuff, like it or not, but Ty was charming and had a very real and exciting story to tell. I hope there are more in store in this underwater colony, as I'm eager to re-visit the depths, and the fascinating characters there.

The only point I found vaguely unsettling was the way Ty called his parents "Ma and Pa..." sure, they're pioneers, and it hearkens back to Little House on the Prairie and all that, but this is the future, right? I don't think kids are time traveling backwards in terms of their verbiage. It struck me as a little weird; one "off" note in an otherwise lovely piece.

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