There’s no doubt that I am a lover of dystopian fiction as I read as much of it as I can grab up. And as is common in most genres, you come across some really great pieces and some really horrible pieces. But with Anomalies by Sadie Turner and Collette Freedman, I think I found the beginning of something truly special. The worlds created and such a strong female lead character had me completely enthralled from nearly the beginning.
Keeva Tee is our 15-year-old, red-headed, swim obsessed main character who thinks she is about to take part in one of the traditional experiences for all young men and women her age; a rite of passage. It’s during this time that Keeva will be reunited with the life-partner she was promised to at the age of five. The teens her age in the Global Governance all look forward for a long time to partake in Monarch Camp. But Keeva’s experience at camp would differ greatly from that of the majority of teens at camp with her. And that experience would open the door to the adventure of a lifetime…and possibly the future of all humanity.
As aforementioned, Keeva is our protagonist, and a majority of the story is told from her perspective. We’re also introduced to Calix, another teen Keeva’s age and the son of Sobek, head of the GG. Throughout the book, it was unclear as to where Calix truly stood in reference to whether he was our teen antagonist – like his father – or perhaps something altogether different. I found it unique the way the author differentiated the two POVs by using not only separate chapters and chapter dividers, but different fonts. It was something I hadn’t seen before – or if I had I’d overlooked it. It really made a difference, like seeing a character in a one-man(woman)-play change costumes.
I really enjoyed the different worlds Turner and Freedman created by separating the communities by their functions, basically. For instance, Keeva was from the Ocean community where they dealt with desalinization of ocean water and such. There was also a community the dealt strictly with agriculture, one for academics, and the central government community was Sabbatical City where everything is centralized – which just happens to be the old Las Vegas.
I found a theme running throughout that I found quite beautiful. I’m not sure if every reader will connect to it, but it seemed to me that the point was made about how our differences, apparent to the eye or not, shouldn’t be cause for each of us to accept another. We should accept one another despite these things.
I must say that I really did enjoy this book more than I can really express here and now. It was one of, if not the best YA dystopian piece I have read. I highly recommend it and hope that you will take the time to read it. It definitely deserves a read.