I received a review copy as part of the blog tour in exchange for an honest review. It has not affected my opinions.
Genre: Dystopia Age Range: YA Star Rating: 4 stars Series: second book in duology
*SPOILER ALERT: contains SPOILERS for THE STRANDED*
Blurb:
Trust no one.
It is six months since the Arcadia set sail for the first time in forty years. But this wasn’t the freedom the inhabitants were hoping for. Esther Crossland did what she had to do, but it has left a trail of destruction in her wake. Now the wrecked ship is abandoned. Its inhabitants are in exile, trapped in sprawling make-shift shelters made up of warehouse, tents, shipping containers.
Esther and Nik, architects of the rebellion, are on the run. Esther is in hiding, desperate to do something to help her people, and Nik seems to have abandoned all hope, on a journey taking him further and further from home. And neither of them want to face up to their true feelings about one another . . .
Not only that, there is a new villain in town. With the fall of Commander Hadley, it’s left to the ruthless Admiral Janek to deal with the traitors, and her own past is beginning to catch-up with her.
Then the shaky ceasefire negotiated by General Lall, Nik’s mum, falls apart. Nik and Esther find themselves in a world of betrayals and double crossings – a game of power, with no one to trust but themselves.
Blurb taken from Goodreads. Add to your shelves here.
Review:
THE EXILED finished off this YA dystopia duology in full “resist and rebel” style.
After THE STRANDED was set almost entirely on the one ship, THE EXILED takes place in more locations. It’s mostly based in the refugee camp (which is an even more obvious parallel to the refugee camps we see in the news than the Arcadia was), but we see a ocean rubbish clean up and the capital of the Federated States.
There’s once again plenty of action, but with more political intrigue. I, of course, loved that aspect of it. Plus the rebels are being very cagey, so it’s hard to know who to trust – and just exactly who is working for whom.
There are four POVs this time – Esther and Nik return, with newcomers Meg and Janek joining the narration crew. The book starts out with just Meg and Esther for a while, as they’re in the same location. It then switches to Nik and Janek, before bringing all their stories together.
Janek is replacing Hadley’s role of “show the reader what the villains are up to”, while also delving into the cut-throat political backstabbing of the Federated States’ upper echelon’s. Meg, in contrast to Janek, has a much murkier set of motives and plays a greyer role in the book. She and Esther have a (fleeting) past in THE STRANDED, and it was nice to explore how that has emotionally impacted them.
In all, it’s a fun duology, calling back to the age of “classic” dystopia but with it’s own reflections on society today.
Read my reviews of other books by Sarah Daniels:
The Stranded (this series):
- THE STRANDED (#1)
Sifa Elizabeth Reads 