Bound To Stay Bound

Booklist - 05/01/2011 This postapocalyptic opener to the Dustlands series looks like a doorstop but reads with the fleetness of a book half its length, In part, this is due to the terse narration of 18-year-old Saba, whose single-minded determination to find her kidnapped twin brother, Lugh, takes her far out into a blasted wasteland. With her annoying kid sister in tow, Saba gets captured and is forced to fight in cage matches for the pleasure of the maniacal king Vicar Pinch (who styles himself after an ancient portrait of Louis XIV) and the populace he keeps in his thrall thanks to copious amounts of the chewable drug chaal. Saba can be a tough heroine to root for, sullen and ungrateful to those who try to help her, but fans of the Hunger Games’ Katniss will find in her similar reserves of hidden good nature and ferocious fighting abilities. Some of the haphazard plot logic is hard to swallow, but Young has leveraged an intriguing action-romance story into a Mad Max–style world that’ll leave readers both satisfied and eager for more. - Copyright 2011 Booklist.

Bulletin for the Center... - 06/01/2011 Saba’s mother believed that “there can be beauty anywhere . . . even here”; since her death, though, the only beautiful part of Saba’s hardscrabble life is her twin brother, Lugh, in whose shadow she has always willingly lived. When he is kidnapped, and their father killed, she vows to rescue him, embarking on a cross-country journey that acquaints her with the many dangers of her world, seemingly a post-apocalyptic future despite hints of the supernatural. Saba is of the Katniss school of heroine, all tough edges, tender insides, and ferocious protective instincts, and watching her slowly open her heart-to her younger sister, Emmi, to the group of Amazonian revolutionaries she falls in with, to roguish thief Jack-after a lifetime of investing all her emotions in Lugh is exhilarating. The adrenaline, fueled by the oppressive dystopian atmosphere and fantastically perilous landscape, is nonstop: cliffhanger chapter endings abound, and Saba survives a desert crossing, sandstorms, gladiator games, a gauntlet, a fire, a waterfall, a hellwurm, and then a giant hellwurm (which she kills with her bare hands) . . . and that’s before she even reaches Lugh. The stylized orality of Saba’s narration draws readers assuredly into her head and recalls Ness’ similarly brutal The Knife of Never Letting Go (BCCB 10/08), and the combination of fraught relationships, high-stakes action, and a tough heroine will be a sure sell to fans of Hunger Games (BCCB 11/08). Young’s character- and world-building are entirely her own, however, and readers will be eager to return to Saba, Emmi, and the teased-at mysteries of their devastated world in future series volumes. CG - Copyright 2011 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois.

School Library Journal - 09/01/2011 Gr 7 Up—Eighteen-year-old Saba and her beloved twin brother, Lugh, know nothing of the world beyond the bleak landscape of their father's shack on the outskirts of a postapocalyptic Wrecker city. Everything changes, though, when the dreadful Tonton (think Haiti's Tonton Macoutes) descend on the homestead, kill their father, and abduct Lugh. Saba sets out to find him, trailed by her annoying little sister, Emmi. As the two girls cross a desert they enter a world in which the surviving remnants of humanity have organized themselves into haphazard and often brutal factions. An unlikely pair of scavengers captures them and force Saba to fight other slave girls in a cagelike coliseum. Her physical strength and ferocious spirit earn her the sobriquet "The Angel of Death." After a slow start that establishes the background and the siblings' relationships, the plot takes off on a wild ride through intrigues and battles, encounters with dastardly villains, and sudden reversals of fortune. Saba is aided by a seemingly human crow, loyal Emmi, a band of women warriors known as the Free Hawks, and a handsome scoundrel named Jack. Readers know that Saba will succeed, but not without overcoming impossible odds. Invented spelling and punctuation (no quotation marks are used) add to the vigor of the telling, and the protagonist's voice vibrates with the glorious energy of a young woman coming into her power. Saba has just the right combination of warrior rage and tender heart to survive and thrive in her chaotic world. The ending leaves several threads hanging, and readers will be eager for more.—Carolyn Lehman, Humboldt State University, Arcata, CA - Copyright 2011 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.

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