Mortal Engines

I am not a fan of YA fiction, but after I saw the preview for the upcoming Jackson movie version, I decided I needed to check out the original. I was pleasantly surprised I did, and I even bought the second book in the series. (Thankfully all the books are stand-alone stories, as I can't stand having to read 3 to 4 books just to get the full story.)

Set in a future distant from our own on a post-apocalyptic Earth devastated by war, the young protagonist, Tom who is on the cusp of becoming a a man, discovers all that he believes in and idolizes, is a thin veneer of lies by adults who wish to keep himself and the rest of his beloved city-on-wheels, London, in the dark. An assassination attempt literally throws his world into chaos as he discovers, first-hand, pirates, slavers, the enemy of the state, and death at every turn.

What really shook my foundation of belief that YA books are “childish” was the death and destruction in the novel. Not only was there death, but there was violent death. Not overly descriptive, but told straight-forward enough and well enough that there was no question as to what was happening. This may be simply my own inexperience with YA novels, but it was refreshing in a way, and I will be reading the series in complete. Kudos to the author on such beautiful world and character creation.