The Last Voyage of Poe Blythe - ADVISABLE

The Last Voyage of Poe Blythe by Ally Condie, 324 pages.  Dutton Books, 2019.  $19.  

Content: Language: PG-13 (8 swears); Mature Content: G; Violence: PG-13.  

BUYING ADVISORY: MS, HS – ADVISABLE  

AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE  

Poe lives in a dystopian society and works on a drudge that pulls gold nuggets off the river floor.  One day river raiders board the ship and kill Poe’s best friend and boyfriend, Call.  Poe is so upset by his death that she vows revenge on the river raiders and spends the next two years building a ship that is impervious to the raiders.  Although Poe has mostly been the inventor for the ship, the Admiral assigns Poe to a mission to go up the river Serpentine on the next voyage.  As Poe captains the ship she starts to suspect that there is a traitor on board.  

I enjoyed the story and the fast-moving plot.  I liked the minor characters and the dystopian society was interesting.  My one complaint about this book is that it felt one-dimensional, so I had a hard time feeling like the setting was realistic and a hard time connecting with the main character.  The content includes blood and killings.  

Reviewer, C. Peterson