Kim and Klavan’s world building enticingly trickles through the brutal, fast-paced, multilayered plot, which is fueled by a sweet romance...and plenty of mysteries. Wasteland raises plenty of captivating questions and doesn’t shortchange readers on satisfying answers. - Booklist
Description
Fans of the Divergent and Hunger Games series will love Wasteland, the first installment of the Wasteland trilogy, by five-time Emmy Award–nominated writer Susan Kim and Edgar Award–winning Laurence Klavan. With heart-pounding thrills, this harrowing survival story is alive with action and intrigue. Welcome to the Wasteland, a post-apocalyptic U.S. where no one lives past the age of 19. But an early death isn’t the only doom waiting around the corner: Everyone is forced to live under the looming threat of rampant disease and brutal attacks by the variants—hermaphroditic outcasts that live on the outskirts of Prin.
Esther doesn’t care that her best friend, a variant, is considered “the enemy.” She doesn’t care that Levi, who controls the Source, is the real enemy and might send his Taser boys after her if she makes one wrong move. Then she meets Caleb, and just possibly, she might have a chance at salvation.
To survive, she’ll have to trust the stranger and defy the tyrant. But what will it cost her?
- A High-Stakes Dystopian World: In a shattered America where disease is rampant, no one survives past their nineteenth birthday.
- A Corrupt Leader: Levi controls the Source, the key to survival, and uses his brutal Taser boys to crush any hint of defiance.
- Outcasts and Rebels: Esther risks everything for her friend Skar, a variant outcast. But her loyalty makes her an enemy of the state.
- An Unlikely Alliance: When the mysterious Caleb arrives, Esther sees a chance for salvation—but trusting a stranger could be the last mistake she ever makes.