The Last Princess and Revived - 2 YA Novels
May 22, 2012
Revived
Author: Cat Patrick
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Publication Date: May, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-316-09462-7
The Last Princess
Author: Galaxy Craze
Publisher: Poppy (Little, Brown and Company)
Publication Date: May, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-316-18548-6
These two YA novels are following a popular trend these days of extremely mature themes. One more than the other. I suppose that being a parent I tend to want to be protective of what my children read and not foster the ambivalence towards violence that these books present, but, it's getting harder to find "nice" books out there. Alas.
These two stories were perhaps more disturbing to me as they could be based in reality. No zombies, aliens, cyborgs or futuristic worlds that don't make sense, etc. These are situations that could conceivably happen.
The first book, Revived, is the story of a 16 year old girl who is part of a long running science experiment with a pharmaceutical company for a drug called Revived, which can "shock" a body that dies suddenly and traumatically back to life. She is part of a group of children who's bus went off a bridge 11 years ago. When everyone drowned they were "rescued" by this company, revived, and then relocated around the United States to be tested and watched. Several of the children have died several times. Daisy, the main character in the story, has always been told it was an accident and they should be grateful they were saved, but after discovering other people are having suspicious accidents, she begins to wonder. The danger starts when she gets a little too close to the truth.
The second book, The Last Princess, is set in future Britain after a world wide natural catastrophe destroys a large part of the earth. Princess Eliza is one of the daughters of the last of the house of Windsor. When they are overthrown and the children are hunted down so that there will be no more Windsors, (who needs royalty when everyone is starving to death) Eliza infiltrates the rebels to try to save her sister, now the Queen, and her little 6 year old brother. She doesn't want to save the kingdom, just her family.
Both of these stories have adults committing murder against children, extreme violence, ill children dying by starvation, cancer and other realities of life. Surprisingly, while there is teen longing, there's little actual sexual overtones - that stays rather innocent.
Daisy acts the usual teenager role with angst, pouting and hijinks, while Eliza deals with death and violence from day one.
Both books are very engaging and I think the teens will enjoy reading them. I do wish they didn't open their eyes to such adult issues, but then again, in today's world, it probably is too late anyway.
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Reviewed by Idgie. If you would like to have the Dew review a book, please contact me at dewonthekudzu@gmail.com
