Blurb
Four centuries after The Last War scorched the planet, human life endures in the Underground City—a totalitarian society where every act of affection is policed and laboratory breeding has erased the concept of family.
Nineteen-year-old Spark, an Outsider, infiltrates the city in search of her missing brother. She meets Drill, an aging rebel haunted by his past, and Alaska, his android protector. Drill offers his team of outcasts to assist Spark in her search. Utah, a humanoid bot, and Mian, the human man who loves her, use all their skills to protect her.
As she peels back layers of terrible secrets, Spark comes face to face with Citizen One, the immortal dictator responsible for the design of the brutal society. If Spark is successful at rescuing her brother, she may bring down the entire government.
Dark, haunting, yet bittersweet, Spark in the Underground City explores the meaning of family and friendship, and the line between human and AI machine.
Review
Spark’s brother is missing, so she goes to Underground City to find him. She gets a job as a delivery driver for a restaurant, where she befriends her boss, Mian, and later, she meets the rebel leader, Drill, and his crew of misfits. After she infiltrates a government administration office, she learns just how wrong and corrupt her society is, including its leader, Citizen One.
This is a pretty fascinating book. Men are treated as second-class citizens while women control society. That’s a nice change of pace from our present-day world and from most dystopian tales. While I won’t give away the twist regarding Citizen One, I was completely surprised by it. Spark is a wonderful, strong, smart young woman. Her friends are great, too, and loyal to a fault. In a world where genetic breeding is the norm and romantic relationships are illegal, people have to form their own family units while keeping them platonic.
I’m torn between giving this book 3 or 4 stars. There are some unanswered questions, and I didn’t like how the sexbot, Alaska, was pimped out and kept naked, even though she didn’t mind. Utah was also a sexbot, yet he was treated with a bit more respect and got to wear clothes. Sometimes, I couldn’t visualize the scenes because the description was so vague. I know in 1st POV narratives that telling is common, but it’s one of my pep peeves. That, along with exposition and missing punctuation, which kept drawing me out of the story. Despite all that, I really did enjoy it.
If you’re in the mood for an erotic dystopian thriller about human resilience in the face of great adversity, then you should check out this book.
3.5 Stars
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