Language: R (86 swears, 61 “f’); Mature Content: R (talk of sex, no described sex, some crude sex talk); Violence: R (rape mentioned, attempted rape, suicide attempts)
BUYING ADVISORY: HS - NOT RECOMMENDED
AUDIENCE APPEAL: LOW
In a futuristic America, Jo is a black girl with a chance to leave her home in the slums of the Ashes and make a life for herself in the opulent city of New Georgia. Cove is the heart-throb of the city, the trail of broken hearts testifying to the magnificent of his light, clean skin and soft blond hair. Under false flattery and designer clothes Cove hides his scars, both physical and mental, that speak to his training in the matter of love. To escape his abuser and win his freedom, he must break one last heart: Jo's. But Jo is not like the girls from the city, and Cove cannot help that this is one assignment he may not be able to carry through.
This book wanted to be a lot of things. It wanted to be a social commentary on racism, wealth division, sexuality, physical and emotional abuse, and politics; it even tried to bring Aristotle into the mix at one point. Yet, spreading itself so thin it manages to accomplish nothing. Leaving this book, I am left with no specific morals or lessons that I feel the author was trying to accomplish and thus and, feeling as though that was the main focus of the book, not the storytelling, think it was somewhat of a failure. The world building was lackluster, inconsistent, and unbelievable and the same goes for the characters. Further, the mature themes are somewhat difficult to classify as while nothing is explicit, sexual encounters with varying numbers of participants and mixes of genders are mentioned often and crudely as well as heavy themes of depression, low-self worth, suicide, and abuse.
Sierra Finlinson
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