What do you think?
Rate this book
The Change #1
Stranger
Many generations ago, a mysterious cataclysm struck the world. Governments collapsed and people scattered, to rebuild where they could. A mutation, "the Change,” arose, granting some people unique powers. Though the area once called Los Angeles retains its cultural diversity, its technological marvels have faded into legend. "Las Anclas" now resembles a Wild West frontier town… where the Sheriff possesses superhuman strength, the doctor can warp time to heal his patients, and the distant ruins of an ancient city bristle with deadly crystalline trees that take their jewel-like colors from the clothes of the people they killed.
Teenage prospector Ross Juarez’s best find ever – an ancient book he doesn’t know how to read – nearly costs him his life when a bounty hunter is set on him to kill him and steal the book. Ross barely makes it to Las Anclas, bringing with him a precious artifact, a power no one has ever had before, and a whole lot of trouble.
Teenage prospector Ross Juarez’s best find ever – an ancient book he doesn’t know how to read – nearly costs him his life when a bounty hunter is set on him to kill him and steal the book. Ross barely makes it to Las Anclas, bringing with him a precious artifact, a power no one has ever had before, and a whole lot of trouble.
432 pages, Hardcover
First published November 11, 2014
52 people are currently reading
3253 people want to read
About the author
Sherwood Smith
168 books37.5k followersI am a writer,( Patreon here) but I'm on Goodreads to talk about books, as I've been a passionate reader as long as I've been a writer--since early childhood.
I'm not going to rate books--there are too many variables. I'd rather talk about the reading experience. My 'reviews' of my books are confined to the writing process.
I'm not going to rate books--there are too many variables. I'd rather talk about the reading experience. My 'reviews' of my books are confined to the writing process.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 180 reviews
September 3, 2017
This is a YA post-apocalyptic novel, with a mutation twist and a Wild West flavor. It's told from the alternating points of view of five different teens who live in "Las Anclas," what's left of Los Angeles, a small walled town of a little over a thousand people.
The backstory is that several generations ago, there was a worldwide disaster caused by sun flares that caused machinery to stop working and mutations (human, animals and plants) to proliferate. These mutations, called "the Change," are often triggered by puberty or other hormonal changes. Some people gather in small communities, some wander and prospect for artifacts from our prior civilization. Others try to conquer and gain power.
The "stranger" of the title is Ross, a young prospector with PTSD who is being hunted down for a valuable artifact that he's found. He's found by the sheriff of Las Ancles and carried into town, and his presence there starts a chain of events with the local teenagers and with Voske, the dreaded leader of a nearby town, who's in the habit of taking over other communities and leaving the heads of dissidents displayed on spikes.
The beginning and end of the book are exciting but the middle part has a more leisurely pace, as Ross and the reader get to know Las Ancles. For readers who appreciate diversity, this is a refreshingly broad cast of characters of various cultures, races, and appearances. At least in this city, same-gender attraction is completely accepted, without any comments or sideways glances. Several teenage characters are gay. What is a source of discrimination is whether you are Changed, or mutated. Some people are very accepting of those who are changed, while others want to kick them out of town.
I found many of the mutations unique and fascinating: large intelligent rats (R.O.U.S.'s?) who help their human owners with hunting and spying, rabbits who project illusions that they're bushes so they can munch on your gardens in peace, man-sized rattlesnakes herding you to certain death, and my favorite:
KILLER MUTANT CRYSTAL TREES!!!
These trees shoot seedpods full of crystal shards at you that quickly burrow under your skin, head toward your heart, kill you and use your body to grow a new tree:
I think I would have preferred this book with a few less viewpoints and less exposition, but overall I found it an enjoyable, imaginative tale. This is the first book in a series, but it works fine as a stand-alone novel.
Content note: kisses only (straight and gay), with some non-explicit discussion of teenage sexual relations.
The backstory is that several generations ago, there was a worldwide disaster caused by sun flares that caused machinery to stop working and mutations (human, animals and plants) to proliferate. These mutations, called "the Change," are often triggered by puberty or other hormonal changes. Some people gather in small communities, some wander and prospect for artifacts from our prior civilization. Others try to conquer and gain power.
The "stranger" of the title is Ross, a young prospector with PTSD who is being hunted down for a valuable artifact that he's found. He's found by the sheriff of Las Ancles and carried into town, and his presence there starts a chain of events with the local teenagers and with Voske, the dreaded leader of a nearby town, who's in the habit of taking over other communities and leaving the heads of dissidents displayed on spikes.
The beginning and end of the book are exciting but the middle part has a more leisurely pace, as Ross and the reader get to know Las Ancles. For readers who appreciate diversity, this is a refreshingly broad cast of characters of various cultures, races, and appearances. At least in this city, same-gender attraction is completely accepted, without any comments or sideways glances. Several teenage characters are gay. What is a source of discrimination is whether you are Changed, or mutated. Some people are very accepting of those who are changed, while others want to kick them out of town.
I found many of the mutations unique and fascinating: large intelligent rats (R.O.U.S.'s?) who help their human owners with hunting and spying, rabbits who project illusions that they're bushes so they can munch on your gardens in peace, man-sized rattlesnakes herding you to certain death, and my favorite:
KILLER MUTANT CRYSTAL TREES!!!
These trees shoot seedpods full of crystal shards at you that quickly burrow under your skin, head toward your heart, kill you and use your body to grow a new tree:
There was no wind, but the glassy leaves struck together, ringing out a threat. He was still safely out of range, but not by much. Another step past the outcropping revealed a rock fall that had shattered a brilliant purple tree. The others in the grove were colored by the fur of the animals they had killed and rooted in: yellow brown for coyotes, dark brown for raccoons, gray for javalinas, white for bighorn sheep. But those trees that grew from humans usually took their color from the dyes in clothing. He wondered who had died to create that purple tree.(There is, by the way, a bright red tree that will play a significant role in the plot.)
I think I would have preferred this book with a few less viewpoints and less exposition, but overall I found it an enjoyable, imaginative tale. This is the first book in a series, but it works fine as a stand-alone novel.
Content note: kisses only (straight and gay), with some non-explicit discussion of teenage sexual relations.
Read
July 18, 2024UPDATE JULY 2024
Just a note to say that we've rededited this book, along with HOSTAGE and REBEL in preparation for TRAITOR's publication in October 2024. It was fun to come back to it, and our process hasn't changed any except that between our first meetings and now Zoom made it possible to meet without trying to coordinate physical proximity over the length and breadth of LA. The story was so much fun to revisit!
This is a collaboration, but my "rule" still holds: my review only talks about the process of writing it. Actual reviews are up to readers.
Rachel Manija Brown was working in Hollywood when she first got the idea. She’s always loved the images and story elements of Westerns— the stranger who comes to town and shakes things up, the desperate chase through the desert, the man with no name, the tough sheriff, the saloon where everyone in town comes to gossip. But she wanted one where the characters were more like me, and more like the people who live in the west now.
The real California of the Gold Rush was much more diverse than it’s usually portrayed: Jews were there, and free black people, and Chinese people; Indians from various tribes, and people from Mexico, Chile, and Peru. Not to mention a whole lot of incredibly tough women. It was by no means a multicultural paradise. But it also wasn’t a place where everyone was white and women existed only as saloon girls, loyal wives, and prizes to be won by the male hero.
She imagined a future west: a post-apocalyptic Los Angeles where technology had reverted back to Gold Rush levels, but which was still as diverse as the real city we live in. An image came to her mind, of a teenage boy desperately fleeing through the desert, without food or water but carrying something precious in his battered pack. A bounty hunter was relentlessly tracking him, and the desert was full of mutated bloodsucking plants. Could he reach the refuge of a small frontier town before he succumbed to thirst, or deadly wildlife, or a bullet?
She could see that boy in her mind’s eye. He didn’t look like the typical tall, light-skinned, blue-eyed hero of a western. He looked like the young men we see every day in Los Angeles, like the young men who had really lived in the California of the Old West. His skin was brown and his hair was black; he wasn’t tall or burly, but he was stronger than he looked. She wondered what it was that he had in his pack, that he was so desperate to protect…
When we met to collaborate on a TV show for Henson, she told me about that idea. By then the young man had a name: Ross Juarez.
I loved it! She asked if I wanted to collaborate, and we talked back and forth, scribbling down our favorite ideas: mysterious ruins and super powers, and taking familiar tropes and turning them inside out. The brainy mechanic sidekick, who’s always a guy, would be a girl who has trouble getting outside of her own head. And she wouldn’t be a sidekick, but the heroine. The tough sheriff would be a woman— a super-strong woman, with half her face beautiful and half a skull! The town was guarded not only by adult men, but by all the townspeople—including teenagers. Some with powers, some not! And if a love triangle developed, we’d take it in a completely new direction.
We first wrote the story as a TV series, and at the same time we began developing it as a book project. For a time it looked as if it would sell as both, but Hollywood being Hollywood, the executive interested jumped ship and since we had not signed the contract giving them book rights, we were free to concentrate on the book, taking advantage of all the things you can do in a novel that you can’t afford to do—or are not allowed to do—on TV.
In listing all our favorite tropes (super-powers! Bad-ass teens! Weird flora and fauna! Interesting food from many cultures!), we discovered that we were also on the same wavelength concerning diversity.
It seemed natural to map our future Los Angeles over the actual demographics of LA. White people are already a minority; 50% of the city is Hispanic/Latino. Today many people face prejudice based on their race, gender, sexual orientation, or religion. After an apocalypse, we thought that many old prejudices would die out, once the power structure that sustained them was gone. But humans being humans, new ones have replaced them, specifically a bias against the mutated “Changed” folk.
The way we work is unusual in the book world, but more common in television, where writers will sit together in a room and create first the story of a script in discussion, then write it by speaking the dialogue. We sit down and discuss the plot of the entire story, taking notes.
Before we write a chapter, we discuss what will happen in more detail. Then we sit side by side at a computer and write the chapter, usually with me typing but either of us providing text. The result is a book where any given sentence was probably written by both of us together. When we have a first draft, we pass it back and forth for rewrites and polishes and additions.
I have done several collaborations, and enjoyed them all, though each is very different. The fun part of writing with Rachel is that we never get writer’s block, because as soon as one of us runs out of ideas, whether on a single sentence or in a scene, the other either picks up with it and zooms ahead, or we can talk it out. Sometimes act it out!
Just a note to say that we've rededited this book, along with HOSTAGE and REBEL in preparation for TRAITOR's publication in October 2024. It was fun to come back to it, and our process hasn't changed any except that between our first meetings and now Zoom made it possible to meet without trying to coordinate physical proximity over the length and breadth of LA. The story was so much fun to revisit!
This is a collaboration, but my "rule" still holds: my review only talks about the process of writing it. Actual reviews are up to readers.
Rachel Manija Brown was working in Hollywood when she first got the idea. She’s always loved the images and story elements of Westerns— the stranger who comes to town and shakes things up, the desperate chase through the desert, the man with no name, the tough sheriff, the saloon where everyone in town comes to gossip. But she wanted one where the characters were more like me, and more like the people who live in the west now.
The real California of the Gold Rush was much more diverse than it’s usually portrayed: Jews were there, and free black people, and Chinese people; Indians from various tribes, and people from Mexico, Chile, and Peru. Not to mention a whole lot of incredibly tough women. It was by no means a multicultural paradise. But it also wasn’t a place where everyone was white and women existed only as saloon girls, loyal wives, and prizes to be won by the male hero.
She imagined a future west: a post-apocalyptic Los Angeles where technology had reverted back to Gold Rush levels, but which was still as diverse as the real city we live in. An image came to her mind, of a teenage boy desperately fleeing through the desert, without food or water but carrying something precious in his battered pack. A bounty hunter was relentlessly tracking him, and the desert was full of mutated bloodsucking plants. Could he reach the refuge of a small frontier town before he succumbed to thirst, or deadly wildlife, or a bullet?
She could see that boy in her mind’s eye. He didn’t look like the typical tall, light-skinned, blue-eyed hero of a western. He looked like the young men we see every day in Los Angeles, like the young men who had really lived in the California of the Old West. His skin was brown and his hair was black; he wasn’t tall or burly, but he was stronger than he looked. She wondered what it was that he had in his pack, that he was so desperate to protect…
When we met to collaborate on a TV show for Henson, she told me about that idea. By then the young man had a name: Ross Juarez.
I loved it! She asked if I wanted to collaborate, and we talked back and forth, scribbling down our favorite ideas: mysterious ruins and super powers, and taking familiar tropes and turning them inside out. The brainy mechanic sidekick, who’s always a guy, would be a girl who has trouble getting outside of her own head. And she wouldn’t be a sidekick, but the heroine. The tough sheriff would be a woman— a super-strong woman, with half her face beautiful and half a skull! The town was guarded not only by adult men, but by all the townspeople—including teenagers. Some with powers, some not! And if a love triangle developed, we’d take it in a completely new direction.
We first wrote the story as a TV series, and at the same time we began developing it as a book project. For a time it looked as if it would sell as both, but Hollywood being Hollywood, the executive interested jumped ship and since we had not signed the contract giving them book rights, we were free to concentrate on the book, taking advantage of all the things you can do in a novel that you can’t afford to do—or are not allowed to do—on TV.
In listing all our favorite tropes (super-powers! Bad-ass teens! Weird flora and fauna! Interesting food from many cultures!), we discovered that we were also on the same wavelength concerning diversity.
It seemed natural to map our future Los Angeles over the actual demographics of LA. White people are already a minority; 50% of the city is Hispanic/Latino. Today many people face prejudice based on their race, gender, sexual orientation, or religion. After an apocalypse, we thought that many old prejudices would die out, once the power structure that sustained them was gone. But humans being humans, new ones have replaced them, specifically a bias against the mutated “Changed” folk.
The way we work is unusual in the book world, but more common in television, where writers will sit together in a room and create first the story of a script in discussion, then write it by speaking the dialogue. We sit down and discuss the plot of the entire story, taking notes.
Before we write a chapter, we discuss what will happen in more detail. Then we sit side by side at a computer and write the chapter, usually with me typing but either of us providing text. The result is a book where any given sentence was probably written by both of us together. When we have a first draft, we pass it back and forth for rewrites and polishes and additions.
I have done several collaborations, and enjoyed them all, though each is very different. The fun part of writing with Rachel is that we never get writer’s block, because as soon as one of us runs out of ideas, whether on a single sentence or in a scene, the other either picks up with it and zooms ahead, or we can talk it out. Sometimes act it out!
August 25, 2014
Three years ago, Rachel Manija Brown and Sherwood Smith went public with a post about a post-apocalypic YA novel they had written together. During the submission process, they received a response from an agent who offered to represent the book, "on the condition that we make the gay character straight, or else remove his viewpoint and all references to his sexual orientation."
They refused.
Their post led to a great deal of discussion about the need for gay characters in YA literature. The agency in question also posted a rebuttal.
So that's the backstory. The book eventually sold to Viking Juvenile, with a publication date of November 2014. I'm happy to have gotten my hands on an advance copy :-)
Stranger definitely has a western feel to it, as noted in the publisher's summary:
Many generations ago, a mysterious cataclysm struck the world. Governments collapsed and people scattered, to rebuild where they could. A mutation, "the Change," arose, granting some people unique powers. Though the area once called Los Angeles retains its cultural diversity, its technological marvels have faded into legend. "Las Anclas" now resembles a Wild West frontier town… where the Sheriff possesses superhuman strength, the doctor can warp time to heal his patients, and the distant ruins of an ancient city bristle with deadly crystalline trees that take their jewel-like colors from the clothes of the people they killed.
Teenage prospector Ross Juarez’s best find ever – an ancient book he doesn’t know how to read – nearly costs him his life when a bounty hunter is set on him to kill him and steal the book. Ross barely makes it to Las Anclas, bringing with him a precious artifact, a power no one has ever had before, and a whole lot of trouble.
I liked this one. There's a lot of imaginative worldbuilding going on, particularly around the different powers people develop and the new forms of wildlife. The crystalline trees are awesome and terrifying. Also: telekinetic squirrels. They don't get a lot of page-time, but just the fact that there are telekinetic squirrels makes me happy.
Smith and Brown rotate chapters through five (I think) different PoV characters, which was a little tricky to keep track of in the beginning, but I think it worked well. I'm less thrilled about the different font used for each PoV, but since I was reading an ARC, I'm not sure the publisher will keep that quirk in the final version. It might not bother you, but it distracted me.
There's a lot going on here. You've got the eponymous stranger Ross Juarez, a loner with a bit of PTSD who finds a sense of community for the first time in his life ... but there are those who don't want him around, and others who just want to use him. There's the larger conflict with a power-hungry king who's been conquering neighboring towns. There are multiple romances. There's internal political struggles between a family trying to create their own dynasty as leaders of Las Anclas and the changed sheriff who messed up their plans.
There's also an ongoing story about discrimination and prejudice. You have open hostility and fear, and some of that fear is almost understandable, given the damage changes can do when people can't -- or don't -- control them. Poor Ross gets fear and suspicion from both barrels, as a stranger and someone with a suspected change.
I'm impressed by how well the multiple relationships, stories, and characters all come together. It did feel like there were some loose ends when I finished, and I'm hopeful those will be addressed in future books. But Stranger provides enough closure that I didn't feel cheated. It's a good ending, one that makes me want to pick up book two.
Oh, and yes, there are several non-straight couples in the book, and they're treated with the same respect and variety as the straight couples. Surprisingly enough, I did not burst into flames, nor did my own heterosexual marriage immediately crash and burn. Go figure.
They refused.
Their post led to a great deal of discussion about the need for gay characters in YA literature. The agency in question also posted a rebuttal.
So that's the backstory. The book eventually sold to Viking Juvenile, with a publication date of November 2014. I'm happy to have gotten my hands on an advance copy :-)
Stranger definitely has a western feel to it, as noted in the publisher's summary:
Many generations ago, a mysterious cataclysm struck the world. Governments collapsed and people scattered, to rebuild where they could. A mutation, "the Change," arose, granting some people unique powers. Though the area once called Los Angeles retains its cultural diversity, its technological marvels have faded into legend. "Las Anclas" now resembles a Wild West frontier town… where the Sheriff possesses superhuman strength, the doctor can warp time to heal his patients, and the distant ruins of an ancient city bristle with deadly crystalline trees that take their jewel-like colors from the clothes of the people they killed.
Teenage prospector Ross Juarez’s best find ever – an ancient book he doesn’t know how to read – nearly costs him his life when a bounty hunter is set on him to kill him and steal the book. Ross barely makes it to Las Anclas, bringing with him a precious artifact, a power no one has ever had before, and a whole lot of trouble.
I liked this one. There's a lot of imaginative worldbuilding going on, particularly around the different powers people develop and the new forms of wildlife. The crystalline trees are awesome and terrifying. Also: telekinetic squirrels. They don't get a lot of page-time, but just the fact that there are telekinetic squirrels makes me happy.
Smith and Brown rotate chapters through five (I think) different PoV characters, which was a little tricky to keep track of in the beginning, but I think it worked well. I'm less thrilled about the different font used for each PoV, but since I was reading an ARC, I'm not sure the publisher will keep that quirk in the final version. It might not bother you, but it distracted me.
There's a lot going on here. You've got the eponymous stranger Ross Juarez, a loner with a bit of PTSD who finds a sense of community for the first time in his life ... but there are those who don't want him around, and others who just want to use him. There's the larger conflict with a power-hungry king who's been conquering neighboring towns. There are multiple romances. There's internal political struggles between a family trying to create their own dynasty as leaders of Las Anclas and the changed sheriff who messed up their plans.
There's also an ongoing story about discrimination and prejudice. You have open hostility and fear, and some of that fear is almost understandable, given the damage changes can do when people can't -- or don't -- control them. Poor Ross gets fear and suspicion from both barrels, as a stranger and someone with a suspected change.
I'm impressed by how well the multiple relationships, stories, and characters all come together. It did feel like there were some loose ends when I finished, and I'm hopeful those will be addressed in future books. But Stranger provides enough closure that I didn't feel cheated. It's a good ending, one that makes me want to pick up book two.
Oh, and yes, there are several non-straight couples in the book, and they're treated with the same respect and variety as the straight couples. Surprisingly enough, I did not burst into flames, nor did my own heterosexual marriage immediately crash and burn. Go figure.
Read
October 4, 2016 D.N.F. at 46%
I feel really bad for not connecting with this book, before reading I was actually really excited because my young adult streak hasn't been at it's best...
I find it very sad when you go into a book you were expecting to love but ended up disappointing you... It's like online dating, all the qualities are so good but after meeting them in person you're like...
I enjoyed the first 100 pages but what the author failed to do was balance out the world building and the character developing. I love books with multiple perspectives but it went south for me with this book. The world building was what got me angry... like the author just shoved me and expected me to figure it out?
I wanted descriptions and hard prose but I couldn't even picture the characters. The only positive outcome from the book was the diversity :) literally 3/4 main POVs were people of colour and the gender spectrum was broaden, the LGBTQIA theme presented was really cool. It was a colourful book but the execution just didn't do for me :)
I recommend it for the diversity especially in a YA novel, if the story sounds cool then try it :)
Thanks for reading.
Kenyan Library Blog
I feel really bad for not connecting with this book, before reading I was actually really excited because my young adult streak hasn't been at it's best...
I find it very sad when you go into a book you were expecting to love but ended up disappointing you... It's like online dating, all the qualities are so good but after meeting them in person you're like...
I enjoyed the first 100 pages but what the author failed to do was balance out the world building and the character developing. I love books with multiple perspectives but it went south for me with this book. The world building was what got me angry... like the author just shoved me and expected me to figure it out?
I wanted descriptions and hard prose but I couldn't even picture the characters. The only positive outcome from the book was the diversity :) literally 3/4 main POVs were people of colour and the gender spectrum was broaden, the LGBTQIA theme presented was really cool. It was a colourful book but the execution just didn't do for me :)
I recommend it for the diversity especially in a YA novel, if the story sounds cool then try it :)
Thanks for reading.
Kenyan Library Blog
Want to read
February 27, 2014When I first started reading the description, this book sounded like just another cliche dystopia. Then I kept reading, and yeah, I totally want this in my hands yesterday.
Also, "the doctor can warp time to heal his patients".
The doctor can warp time.
The Doctor can warp time.*
Am I the only one laughing at this? Sorry, not sorry.
(If nothing else, that cover design is awesome.)
*Okay, not really, but I'm laughing anyway.
Also, "the doctor can warp time to heal his patients".
The doctor can warp time.
The Doctor can warp time.*
Am I the only one laughing at this? Sorry, not sorry.
(If nothing else, that cover design is awesome.)
*Okay, not really, but I'm laughing anyway.
Read
December 5, 2014Some really juicy worldbuilding in this one. A post-apoc where the mutations are out of hand - reminded me curiously of Harry Harrison's Deathworld in terms of sheer number of things trying to kill the protagonist(s). Five viewpoint characters, lots of action - took me nicely through part of the interminable plane journey home.
March 4, 2015
A young prospector stumbles across the desert, pursued by a bounty hunter. His only chance at escape is to squeeze past the singing trees--but if they touch him, he'll be dead in a day and turn into one of them.
The opening immediately hooked me, but the rest of the book takes place in a town and was really lacking in tension. The world building for this post apocalyptic YA novel is wonderfully imaginative: a sun flare stopped all machinery from working and changed life on earth. Now, every life form that survived has done so by adapting: rabbits broadcast fuzzy telepathic visions of vegetation where they are, cactii have blood-sucking tendrils, and humans sometimes acquire mutations when their hormone levels change. I loved all the off-hand introductions to how things work in this awesome (and far more dangerous) world.
What I didn't love were the characters or the plot. The characters are a quartet of teenagers: Ross, the loner prospector; Mia, the inventor with a crush on Ross; Jennie, who is stepping up to a leadership role in the Rangers but is torn between how well she spars with Ross and how long she's known fellow-Ranger Indra; Yuka, the only survivor of a city living in an aircraft carrier and now the only person in the village who speaks Japanese; and Felicite, the prim and manipulative daughter of the mayor. Frankly, it was too many view points and stories for a single book, and they all get shortchanged.
The plot was equally disappointing; there's no plot until the last few chapters, and then abruptly, randomly, the village is attacked. It felt disjointed, like the authors were trying to tell a low-key story about life in a post apocalyptic village and then felt the need to slap some Mad Max on at the end.
Much like Sherwood Smith's other books, the characters are a wide range of ethnic backgrounds and sexual orientations, there are no predefined gender roles, and it's all presented without comment or undue attention, and it's lovely. I just wish the story or the characters had hooked me in more.
The opening immediately hooked me, but the rest of the book takes place in a town and was really lacking in tension. The world building for this post apocalyptic YA novel is wonderfully imaginative: a sun flare stopped all machinery from working and changed life on earth. Now, every life form that survived has done so by adapting: rabbits broadcast fuzzy telepathic visions of vegetation where they are, cactii have blood-sucking tendrils, and humans sometimes acquire mutations when their hormone levels change. I loved all the off-hand introductions to how things work in this awesome (and far more dangerous) world.
What I didn't love were the characters or the plot. The characters are a quartet of teenagers: Ross, the loner prospector; Mia, the inventor with a crush on Ross; Jennie, who is stepping up to a leadership role in the Rangers but is torn between how well she spars with Ross and how long she's known fellow-Ranger Indra; Yuka, the only survivor of a city living in an aircraft carrier and now the only person in the village who speaks Japanese; and Felicite, the prim and manipulative daughter of the mayor. Frankly, it was too many view points and stories for a single book, and they all get shortchanged.
The plot was equally disappointing; there's no plot until the last few chapters, and then abruptly, randomly, the village is attacked. It felt disjointed, like the authors were trying to tell a low-key story about life in a post apocalyptic village and then felt the need to slap some Mad Max on at the end.
Much like Sherwood Smith's other books, the characters are a wide range of ethnic backgrounds and sexual orientations, there are no predefined gender roles, and it's all presented without comment or undue attention, and it's lovely. I just wish the story or the characters had hooked me in more.
September 17, 2014
Post-apocalyptic YA. Ross is on the run from a bounty hunter. He hasn’t had anyone on his side since his grandmother died, so when he washes up in Las Anclas – a stranger in a haven of near-tolerance and a community of people trying to do their best in a lethal world – he doesn’t know how to deal with the friendship and kindness he meets in some of the people there. Some want him to stay – teenaged engineer Mia and ranger-in-training Jennie are the first friends Ross has ever had, and maybe they could become even closer than that – some are wary, and some are convinced his presence is dangerous. But when the bounty hunter catches up, an even more dangerous enemy on his heels, the whole town faces a fight for its very survival, and Ross will have to decide whether to keep running or choose people to stand with.
I liked this a lot. There’s a vibrancy to the world-building and the people that I haven't seen very much in post-apocalyptica: Las Anclas is a very real-feeling community with a lot of natural diversity of people and culture plus a large swathe of the town consisting of Changed people, with powers that range from small and semi-useless to revolutionary and accompanied by startling physical weirdnesses; and in the larger world, everything is very desert-bright and full of science fictional flora and fauna that can kill you. There are two romances that get POV time, both some kind of queer, and while there’s prejudice in the town along Changed/non-Changed lines, there’s a complete lack of prejudice around queerness, race and (Changed differences aside) disability, which is really lovely and soothing to read.
Just in general this book feels kind: cruel things happen, and there are definitely some real villains, but there’s this greater sense of people believably doing their best, and working on understanding each other, and the writers doing their best by their characters.
The action scenes are cool, too: both the training stuff (which, good training stuff is the best always) and the more serious fight scenes.
There are five POV characters, and the plot is a bit slow to develop as a result. Besides Ross, Mia and Jennie, we get Felicite the privileged and prejudiced mayor’s daughter, and Yuki the last refugee to come to Las Anclas before Ross. I liked both of their voices and they added valuable things to the world-building, but neither of them seemed to have very much effect on the plot, in this first book. I did feel that they could still have been important characters, and we could still have seen a lot of their arcs and emotions, while keeping the narrative with Ross, Mia and Jennie, and holding off introducing the other two POVs till the next book, where it seemed like some things were being set up for each of them to have greater plot relevance. Maybe there could have been more space for developing the Yuki romance in Book 2 as well? I liked what we got, and I would have liked more. But that would have been quite a different book, so who knows. I enjoyed it a lot as it was.
(Proof copy received from author for review.)
I liked this a lot. There’s a vibrancy to the world-building and the people that I haven't seen very much in post-apocalyptica: Las Anclas is a very real-feeling community with a lot of natural diversity of people and culture plus a large swathe of the town consisting of Changed people, with powers that range from small and semi-useless to revolutionary and accompanied by startling physical weirdnesses; and in the larger world, everything is very desert-bright and full of science fictional flora and fauna that can kill you. There are two romances that get POV time, both some kind of queer, and while there’s prejudice in the town along Changed/non-Changed lines, there’s a complete lack of prejudice around queerness, race and (Changed differences aside) disability, which is really lovely and soothing to read.
Just in general this book feels kind: cruel things happen, and there are definitely some real villains, but there’s this greater sense of people believably doing their best, and working on understanding each other, and the writers doing their best by their characters.
The action scenes are cool, too: both the training stuff (which, good training stuff is the best always) and the more serious fight scenes.
There are five POV characters, and the plot is a bit slow to develop as a result. Besides Ross, Mia and Jennie, we get Felicite the privileged and prejudiced mayor’s daughter, and Yuki the last refugee to come to Las Anclas before Ross. I liked both of their voices and they added valuable things to the world-building, but neither of them seemed to have very much effect on the plot, in this first book. I did feel that they could still have been important characters, and we could still have seen a lot of their arcs and emotions, while keeping the narrative with Ross, Mia and Jennie, and holding off introducing the other two POVs till the next book, where it seemed like some things were being set up for each of them to have greater plot relevance. Maybe there could have been more space for developing the Yuki romance in Book 2 as well? I liked what we got, and I would have liked more. But that would have been quite a different book, so who knows. I enjoyed it a lot as it was.
(Proof copy received from author for review.)
November 17, 2014
[reviewing an arc]
man, am i ever sorry this book is not out yet, because i want everybody to read it and then write me fics. it's a post-apocalyptic story done without this specific flair of post-ap noir despair: i've loved the vibrancy of the setting first, with deadly yet bright and lively fauna (or not always deadly: my favorites were squirrels that learned to telekinetically steal food), and small enclaves of people trying to survive. the book follows ross, a skittish, half-feral boy who ends up in a town of las anclas, and slowly learns to trust and love other people, and several young people of las anclas community. there's a ton of lovely understated h/c, several queer couples (with and without povs), a budding f/f/m relationship, a slowly unfolding plot (mostly setting up events for the following books, but still following a tight and self-contained narrative), lots of lovely worldbuilding details and a really appealing community.
i've came to the conclusion that los anclas reminded me a lot, in feeling, of postman book (that i love in all its b-movie glory): people genuinely trying their best to keep their world standing without resorting to violence or willful awfulness. there's some unsavory politics and unpleasant prejudices, but even these characters do try their best to stay human.
(my second favorite character is felicity, a scheming, bitter girl trying to keep her world tightly controlled and struggling with her secret identity: she starts out as something of a hidden antagonist, and then slowly unfolds in a flawed yet sympathetic, almost tragic figure. i can't wait to see what she will make herself into).
man, am i ever sorry this book is not out yet, because i want everybody to read it and then write me fics. it's a post-apocalyptic story done without this specific flair of post-ap noir despair: i've loved the vibrancy of the setting first, with deadly yet bright and lively fauna (or not always deadly: my favorites were squirrels that learned to telekinetically steal food), and small enclaves of people trying to survive. the book follows ross, a skittish, half-feral boy who ends up in a town of las anclas, and slowly learns to trust and love other people, and several young people of las anclas community. there's a ton of lovely understated h/c, several queer couples (with and without povs), a budding f/f/m relationship, a slowly unfolding plot (mostly setting up events for the following books, but still following a tight and self-contained narrative), lots of lovely worldbuilding details and a really appealing community.
i've came to the conclusion that los anclas reminded me a lot, in feeling, of postman book (that i love in all its b-movie glory): people genuinely trying their best to keep their world standing without resorting to violence or willful awfulness. there's some unsavory politics and unpleasant prejudices, but even these characters do try their best to stay human.
(my second favorite character is felicity, a scheming, bitter girl trying to keep her world tightly controlled and struggling with her secret identity: she starts out as something of a hidden antagonist, and then slowly unfolds in a flawed yet sympathetic, almost tragic figure. i can't wait to see what she will make herself into).
Read
July 17, 2017In the author's words:
"Ross, the hero, has PTSD and a disabled hand from an injury acquired in the first chapter. (The tendons are damaged, and he can't close his fingers to make a fist or grip tightly.)"
"Though [Ross] survives and escapes, the damage to his arm is severe and possibly permanent. Ross lives with loss of function and some amount of occurring pain. I also live with chronic pain and lost function in my arms and hands due to an old injury, and I was curious to see how such a non-standard physical injury would be represented in fiction. … My reading of Ross’s injury is mixed, but most of my negative reactions to the way it’s represented are because of my personal response to the injury. From a narrative point of view, Stranger represents a case where verisimilitude—the appearance of plausibility—succeeds where a more realistic representation might have failed."
Read contributor Deborah Kaplan's full review at Disability in Kidlit.
"Ross, the hero, has PTSD and a disabled hand from an injury acquired in the first chapter. (The tendons are damaged, and he can't close his fingers to make a fist or grip tightly.)"
"Though [Ross] survives and escapes, the damage to his arm is severe and possibly permanent. Ross lives with loss of function and some amount of occurring pain. I also live with chronic pain and lost function in my arms and hands due to an old injury, and I was curious to see how such a non-standard physical injury would be represented in fiction. … My reading of Ross’s injury is mixed, but most of my negative reactions to the way it’s represented are because of my personal response to the injury. From a narrative point of view, Stranger represents a case where verisimilitude—the appearance of plausibility—succeeds where a more realistic representation might have failed."
Read contributor Deborah Kaplan's full review at Disability in Kidlit.
Want to read
July 15, 2013This will still be 'to-read' when it's published next year, but just finished a reread today, and it's even better than when I read it in early manuscript form! The diversity (in multiple senses) of the set of characters is one strength, the world-building another, and the climactic battle scene at the end was so gripping I had enormous difficulty putting it down, even though this was a reread. Many different POV characters, but it never becomes confusing or weakens the tension, and it's wonderful seeing the different perspectives playing out. And that ending - so, so moving.
Now I get to read the next one! Lucky me!
Now I get to read the next one! Lucky me!
February 19, 2016
Stranger is a YA novel set in a post-apocalyptic world where some people have gained what are essentially super powers. The story centers around the town of Las Anclas, where “Norms” and “Changed” live side by side, even if there’s often distrust and prejudice between the two groups. The balance in the town is shaken when a teenage prospector, Ross Juarez, shows up at the gates.
Stranger is told through five teenage POV characters. There’s Ross, Mia, Jennie, Yuki, and Felicite. Ross has been on his own his entire life and is only starting to learn how to trust. Mia’s the town’s mechanic, and Jennie’s her friend, a strong willed girl who’s both a ranger in training and an interim schoolteacher. Yuki’s a prince who washed up at Las Anclas years ago but wants to venture out to see the world. Felicite’s the mayor’s daughter, self serving and manipulating.
Going into Stranger, I was wary of the number of POV chapters. However, I think it worked. By switching between so many different characters, Stranger became more about the town itself and the community created there than any one person. I really liked this focus on community. Las Anclas might have its problems, but it is by and large a good place to live. This book isn’t about a group of teenagers fighting the evil government. It’s about a community trying to work together and what it means to be a part of that community.
Also note while is the remarkable diversity of characters. None of our POV characters are white, and racism (or sexism or homophobia) don’t seem to be major forces in Las Anclas. There’s also a number of characters who’d fall under the LGBTQ umbrella, such as Yuki, who has a male love interest. Stranger is also one of the only YA books I’ve seen that proposes polyamory as the solution to a love triangle. However, I do have some problems with the treatment of Mia’s sexual orientation.
At the beginning of the book, it really looks like Mia’s asexual and maybe aromantic. She doesn’t get sex, romance, or those passionate feelings everyone keeps talking about. She went on a date only once, because she didn’t want to have turned eighteen without ever having been on a date. She worried about the fact that she was different from everyone else and wondered if there was something wrong with her or if she was “broken.” Over the past year or so, I’ve realized that I was asexual and I could relate to a lot of what was going on with Mia. However, despite her depiction at the beginning of the book, Mia turns out not to be either asexual or aromantic. She starts having romantic feelings for a male character (but could still be asexual) when there’s this scene. It’s the middle of a thunderstorm and she sees her love interest in soaking wet clothes and “suddenly understands” that passion everyone else talks about. It’s possible that she’s demisexual, though the book never uses any sort of labels for its LGBTQ characters and I haven’t found any sort of statement from the authors about Mia’s sexual orientation. However, even if Mia is demisexual, I’m really disappointed and upset about how the book handled her, in a large part because of how her worries about “broken” are fixed by her experiencing sexual attraction. What does this say about people who are asexual? I doubt the authors meant to imply anything, but it’s still bothered me. I think it would have helped if the beginning “broken” narrative had been different, if it used the words, or if it had a character who was asexual among the supporting cast.
All that aside, my main problems with the book steam from lackluster pacing. It starts off fast, with Ross being chased through the desert. Then the action and tension abruptly fall off and the plot slows down. Things pick back up towards the end, but the climax didn’t really have enough build up. I think some of the book’s issues here are that it may be a primarily character focused novel in an action focused genre.
One of my favorite aspects of the book is the world building. There’s a sort of Western feel to the setting. There’s prospectors and sheriffs and many of the other familiar Western tropes, but there’s also squirrels with teleportation abilities and carnivorous trees made of glass. There’s so much imagination, and I loved the attention paid to little details.
I’m not sure if I’ll read the sequel to Stranger. Some of my uncertainty may be all the feelings I have surrounding the Mia situation, but the pacing problems also play a part. There are things that interested me about the book, but I haven’t decided yet if it’s worth expending time on the sequel.
Originally posted on The Illustrated Page.
Stranger is told through five teenage POV characters. There’s Ross, Mia, Jennie, Yuki, and Felicite. Ross has been on his own his entire life and is only starting to learn how to trust. Mia’s the town’s mechanic, and Jennie’s her friend, a strong willed girl who’s both a ranger in training and an interim schoolteacher. Yuki’s a prince who washed up at Las Anclas years ago but wants to venture out to see the world. Felicite’s the mayor’s daughter, self serving and manipulating.
Going into Stranger, I was wary of the number of POV chapters. However, I think it worked. By switching between so many different characters, Stranger became more about the town itself and the community created there than any one person. I really liked this focus on community. Las Anclas might have its problems, but it is by and large a good place to live. This book isn’t about a group of teenagers fighting the evil government. It’s about a community trying to work together and what it means to be a part of that community.
Also note while is the remarkable diversity of characters. None of our POV characters are white, and racism (or sexism or homophobia) don’t seem to be major forces in Las Anclas. There’s also a number of characters who’d fall under the LGBTQ umbrella, such as Yuki, who has a male love interest. Stranger is also one of the only YA books I’ve seen that proposes polyamory as the solution to a love triangle. However, I do have some problems with the treatment of Mia’s sexual orientation.
At the beginning of the book, it really looks like Mia’s asexual and maybe aromantic. She doesn’t get sex, romance, or those passionate feelings everyone keeps talking about. She went on a date only once, because she didn’t want to have turned eighteen without ever having been on a date. She worried about the fact that she was different from everyone else and wondered if there was something wrong with her or if she was “broken.” Over the past year or so, I’ve realized that I was asexual and I could relate to a lot of what was going on with Mia. However, despite her depiction at the beginning of the book, Mia turns out not to be either asexual or aromantic. She starts having romantic feelings for a male character (but could still be asexual) when there’s this scene. It’s the middle of a thunderstorm and she sees her love interest in soaking wet clothes and “suddenly understands” that passion everyone else talks about. It’s possible that she’s demisexual, though the book never uses any sort of labels for its LGBTQ characters and I haven’t found any sort of statement from the authors about Mia’s sexual orientation. However, even if Mia is demisexual, I’m really disappointed and upset about how the book handled her, in a large part because of how her worries about “broken” are fixed by her experiencing sexual attraction. What does this say about people who are asexual? I doubt the authors meant to imply anything, but it’s still bothered me. I think it would have helped if the beginning “broken” narrative had been different, if it used the words, or if it had a character who was asexual among the supporting cast.
All that aside, my main problems with the book steam from lackluster pacing. It starts off fast, with Ross being chased through the desert. Then the action and tension abruptly fall off and the plot slows down. Things pick back up towards the end, but the climax didn’t really have enough build up. I think some of the book’s issues here are that it may be a primarily character focused novel in an action focused genre.
One of my favorite aspects of the book is the world building. There’s a sort of Western feel to the setting. There’s prospectors and sheriffs and many of the other familiar Western tropes, but there’s also squirrels with teleportation abilities and carnivorous trees made of glass. There’s so much imagination, and I loved the attention paid to little details.
I’m not sure if I’ll read the sequel to Stranger. Some of my uncertainty may be all the feelings I have surrounding the Mia situation, but the pacing problems also play a part. There are things that interested me about the book, but I haven’t decided yet if it’s worth expending time on the sequel.
Originally posted on The Illustrated Page.
June 30, 2020
The story is action packed but there's too many characters telling their povs! I did enjoy the writing style of the author but I felt let down by the ending.
July 26, 2014
I was given this book by the author after my sister recommended she send it to me in exchange for an honest review. I'm glad my sister knows my taste because I really enjoyed this book! I award it 4.5 stars.
Stranger by Rachel Manija Brown and Sherwood Smith has FIVE POV's in the tale. Usually, this is a tactic that is totally lost on me because there's either not enough story for these characters (and this may play true a little bit here) or it's just not well done. But don't be deterred by the number of different points of view-- the reasons for them become clearer, and I think they'll play an even larger role in the future books. There are a few characters that stand out as main characters, however. Ross is one, who is a prospector in this dystopian/paranormal like YA novel. In the beginning, he is staggering through the desert getting chased by a bounty hunter and ends up in a town, Las Anclas, with a precious stolen artifact. He never intended on settling down, but he may end up calling this place home. We get introduced to many many different characters and the world in general as well as the political setup.
I really enjoyed this book, and it's really unlike a lot of books that I usually gravitate towards. It wasn't the most fast paced of books, but I definitely wanted to pick it up again the next day to see what was going to happen with the rest of the characters. Ross, Mia, and Jennie are all very likeable characters, and we see each of their viewpoints. There are other supporting characters that we see into the heads of, which I am not going to talk too much about because there are definite surprises in store. One of my favorites is one of the town's mean girls, and I have a feeling we'll be seeing a lot more of her in future books. There are multiple homosexual couples, and I love how this is dealt with as completely normal in this world, nice to see, and even one relationship that is M/F/F, and I'm fascinated to see where that's going to lead. I wonder what naysayers are going to say about this. The book is very clean, and I hope we won't see any outrageous outcry about how the relationships are portrayed in this book.
The only issues I had with this book is that the pacing is sometimes slow, but I was willing to take the ride, and sometimes, the multiple POV's did hinder my enjoyment of the book, only because it even further slowed down the pace sometimes. I'd be really interested in what one character was doing and thinking and then get stuck in the head of another not as important character. That said, I obviously greatly enjoyed it even despite my personal preferences.
Overall, I was impressed with this first installment co-written by these two writers. I definitely am highly anticipating the next book already, and I think this is a worthy read that will be snapped up by those who are looking for something a little different in the dystopian, post-apocalyptic genre with fascinating characters and a really interesting world setup.
Stranger by Rachel Manija Brown and Sherwood Smith has FIVE POV's in the tale. Usually, this is a tactic that is totally lost on me because there's either not enough story for these characters (and this may play true a little bit here) or it's just not well done. But don't be deterred by the number of different points of view-- the reasons for them become clearer, and I think they'll play an even larger role in the future books. There are a few characters that stand out as main characters, however. Ross is one, who is a prospector in this dystopian/paranormal like YA novel. In the beginning, he is staggering through the desert getting chased by a bounty hunter and ends up in a town, Las Anclas, with a precious stolen artifact. He never intended on settling down, but he may end up calling this place home. We get introduced to many many different characters and the world in general as well as the political setup.
I really enjoyed this book, and it's really unlike a lot of books that I usually gravitate towards. It wasn't the most fast paced of books, but I definitely wanted to pick it up again the next day to see what was going to happen with the rest of the characters. Ross, Mia, and Jennie are all very likeable characters, and we see each of their viewpoints. There are other supporting characters that we see into the heads of, which I am not going to talk too much about because there are definite surprises in store. One of my favorites is one of the town's mean girls, and I have a feeling we'll be seeing a lot more of her in future books. There are multiple homosexual couples, and I love how this is dealt with as completely normal in this world, nice to see, and even one relationship that is M/F/F, and I'm fascinated to see where that's going to lead. I wonder what naysayers are going to say about this. The book is very clean, and I hope we won't see any outrageous outcry about how the relationships are portrayed in this book.
The only issues I had with this book is that the pacing is sometimes slow, but I was willing to take the ride, and sometimes, the multiple POV's did hinder my enjoyment of the book, only because it even further slowed down the pace sometimes. I'd be really interested in what one character was doing and thinking and then get stuck in the head of another not as important character. That said, I obviously greatly enjoyed it even despite my personal preferences.
Overall, I was impressed with this first installment co-written by these two writers. I definitely am highly anticipating the next book already, and I think this is a worthy read that will be snapped up by those who are looking for something a little different in the dystopian, post-apocalyptic genre with fascinating characters and a really interesting world setup.
February 24, 2015
I was blown away by how much I enjoyed this book, and how much it subverted the paradigms it is a part of. I bought it because the great faith I have in Sherwood Smith to be surprising and insightful in her depiction of teenagers. I kept reading it because it was relentlessly enjoyable -- fast-paced, humane, thrilling, and tender.
It would be easy to write this off as another HungerMazeRunnerDystopiana. It's not. It is about the difficulty of being a part of a community, and heroing that involves educating kids and recycling and research librarianship and amazing interdependence.
When I say a book is humane, I don't mean that it is free of cruelty (this one is not) or is prone to philosophical wanking (not so much); I mean that it is full of characters and situations that I recognize -- no one is an untouchable superhero, the stakes are not galactic, the fate of the world is not in the balance. I like all sorts of books, but I appreciate the unique courage it takes to write one that is not about starting a civil war, but rather a new business.
There are lots of other things that delighted me -- the sense of economics, the multicultural community (and their FOOD), the way characters didn't instantly overcome trauma, or all handle it the same way. The clothes, the worldbuilding, and the characters -- everything said that this was a book that had been thoughtfully constructed, but I didn't think of that until after I'd finished reading it in a day.
There's a love triangle. It's very sweet, and I give it two thumbs up, and yes, you can still let kids read this book. The overall level of sexiness is very low.
Overall, I would heartily recommend this book to anyone, and in fact, I'm nominating it for a Hugo. It is exactly what I want to see more of in the world.
Read if: You'd like to read about the post-post apocalypse, and how humanity has rebuilt. You're interested in the culture that does and does not get perpetuated.
Skip if: You can't handle teenagers dying in combat. It's not super gory, but there is a pitched battle.
Also read: Circus of Brass and Bone, for a community of mutants.
A Stranger to Command, for sheer awesomeness.
Flora's Dare for another satisfying retort to the love triangle.
It would be easy to write this off as another HungerMazeRunnerDystopiana. It's not. It is about the difficulty of being a part of a community, and heroing that involves educating kids and recycling and research librarianship and amazing interdependence.
When I say a book is humane, I don't mean that it is free of cruelty (this one is not) or is prone to philosophical wanking (not so much); I mean that it is full of characters and situations that I recognize -- no one is an untouchable superhero, the stakes are not galactic, the fate of the world is not in the balance. I like all sorts of books, but I appreciate the unique courage it takes to write one that is not about starting a civil war, but rather a new business.
There are lots of other things that delighted me -- the sense of economics, the multicultural community (and their FOOD), the way characters didn't instantly overcome trauma, or all handle it the same way. The clothes, the worldbuilding, and the characters -- everything said that this was a book that had been thoughtfully constructed, but I didn't think of that until after I'd finished reading it in a day.
There's a love triangle. It's very sweet, and I give it two thumbs up, and yes, you can still let kids read this book. The overall level of sexiness is very low.
Overall, I would heartily recommend this book to anyone, and in fact, I'm nominating it for a Hugo. It is exactly what I want to see more of in the world.
Read if: You'd like to read about the post-post apocalypse, and how humanity has rebuilt. You're interested in the culture that does and does not get perpetuated.
Skip if: You can't handle teenagers dying in combat. It's not super gory, but there is a pitched battle.
Also read: Circus of Brass and Bone, for a community of mutants.
A Stranger to Command, for sheer awesomeness.
Flora's Dare for another satisfying retort to the love triangle.
January 7, 2021
Y'all, this book has beautiful crystal trees that sing to you to lure you in, then shoot crystal shards at you that burrow into your flesh and transform you into one of them. Need I say anything more?
Oh, wait. You're still here? Really? Aren't you picky.
Lucky for you, this book has more cool stuff. A lot more cool stuff. Like squirrels that can teleport food out of your hand. Or raccoons that build primitive towns, or carnivorous eater-roses. It's all part of the post-apocalyptic, desert landscape of this world, where a massive solar flare caused society collapse, and started a series of mutations that have changed both the landscape, and the people. Enter Ross Juarez, a young prospector, who's on the run with an incredibly valuable artifact, and stumbles into the town of Las Anclas.
Las Anclas is the star of this book. With five points of view, all expertly interwoven, this book isn't the story of any individual person-it's about the community, their struggle to find their way in this bizarre world, and the heightening tensions between the townspeople as outside pressures increase. As such, although the novel starts off with a bang, it quickly turns into a quieter, more character driven story, and the plot takes a backseat to the development and exploration of the people living in its pages. If this isn't your thing, and you prefer more plot-oriented narratives, this one likely isn't for you. However, if you can't tell, I absolutely loved this book.
I'm amazed at the inventiveness of this novel. It's a gem in the world of ya dystopians, where the many similar stories begin to melt into a blur of identical characters and bleak but unoriginal settings. That makes a book like this, where you can almost feel the desert air on your skin, even more precious. Beyond that, the characters themselves are fresh. Not once did I feel like I was reading the same old archetypes, and the cast was effortlessly diverse-there was a believable demisexual character! They all felt like actual people-people with histories and complex emotions and relationships and hopes for the future. I don't know any higher praise than that.
So if you're looking for a character driven story with a diverse cast set in a fascinating world . . . well, maybe you should check this one out. :)
Oh, wait. You're still here? Really? Aren't you picky.
Lucky for you, this book has more cool stuff. A lot more cool stuff. Like squirrels that can teleport food out of your hand. Or raccoons that build primitive towns, or carnivorous eater-roses. It's all part of the post-apocalyptic, desert landscape of this world, where a massive solar flare caused society collapse, and started a series of mutations that have changed both the landscape, and the people. Enter Ross Juarez, a young prospector, who's on the run with an incredibly valuable artifact, and stumbles into the town of Las Anclas.
Las Anclas is the star of this book. With five points of view, all expertly interwoven, this book isn't the story of any individual person-it's about the community, their struggle to find their way in this bizarre world, and the heightening tensions between the townspeople as outside pressures increase. As such, although the novel starts off with a bang, it quickly turns into a quieter, more character driven story, and the plot takes a backseat to the development and exploration of the people living in its pages. If this isn't your thing, and you prefer more plot-oriented narratives, this one likely isn't for you. However, if you can't tell, I absolutely loved this book.
I'm amazed at the inventiveness of this novel. It's a gem in the world of ya dystopians, where the many similar stories begin to melt into a blur of identical characters and bleak but unoriginal settings. That makes a book like this, where you can almost feel the desert air on your skin, even more precious. Beyond that, the characters themselves are fresh. Not once did I feel like I was reading the same old archetypes, and the cast was effortlessly diverse-there was a believable demisexual character! They all felt like actual people-people with histories and complex emotions and relationships and hopes for the future. I don't know any higher praise than that.
So if you're looking for a character driven story with a diverse cast set in a fascinating world . . . well, maybe you should check this one out. :)
Read
July 7, 2015Wonderful read. Had to stay up extra late to finish. Excellent look at sexuality and race. Thinking is good!
September 9, 2020
For more reviews, Cover Snark and more, visit A Reader of Fictions.
When the offer of Stranger came to me, I almost said no. My hopes were low. I only accepted because of my infernal, unquenchable curiosity and how interesting Stranger sounded. The blurb I saw then mentioned “squirrels that can teleport sandwiches out of picnickers’ hands,” and it was that part which made me incapable of not giving Stranger a try. Even so, I was afraid. There are a lot of dystopian and post-apocalyptic YA novels that sounded amazing but left me underwhelmed at best. After so many let downs, I hardly feel interest in these genres anymore. I am, however, very glad that I gave Stranger a shot, because it’s a truly delightful post-apocalyptic novel with fascinating world building, a diverse cast, and an intriguing plot.
If you follow my reviews, you probably know that I adore books about people with powers. Stranger is totally awesome in this regard. The short version is that radiation from the sun affected the world, sending it into a post-apocalyptic state. Some people have undergone The Change, meaning that they are no longer ordinary humans. The Change happens at some point of hormonal upheaval in the body, like adolescence, menopause, or pregnancy (which totally means women will probably develop badass powers more often). The powers range from completely useless (like a guy who can grow little horns out of his head) to totally epic (like Jennie who is telekinetic). The powers are a total luck of the draw and there’s a lot of creativity in the various things people can do. What I like here is that the results of the change are not the same superpowers in every book.
The other difference from other superhuman books is that nature has been affected as well. Now, I know that’s not totally new either, but again I thought it was done so well. There are these singing trees that throw out crystal shards that kill the victim, turning it into a new tree, which takes on the color of the victim’s clothing or hide. There are rattlesnakes the size of a person. Terrifying creatures have sometimes evolved to look cute and fluffy. The world is recognizable, but everything’s askew. It’s a terrifying world to imagine living in but cinematic and fascinating to read about.
Stranger opens with Ross, the titular stranger, running away from a bounty hunter. The hook totally caught me. The opening chapter establishes the harshness of the landscape really well and sets up how wonderful Las Anclas is. Once Los Angeles, Las Anclas is now sort of like an old western town with some steampunk flair and superpowers. Life in Las Anclas isn’t easy, but they’ve carved out fairly safe, happy lives for themselves. The community has a lot of predictable tension between norms (those unchanged) and the changed. Even so, they seem to be working through that and I found myself really rooting for this town, hoping that the narrow-minded people would see the light and embrace changed and norms alike.
Though I enjoyed basically everything about Stranger, my favorite aspect of the book is the diversity. There’s diversity and then there’s this book. It’s pretty much like I’m used to any urban environment being. There are people from so many different racial backgrounds and not a one of them is defined by their race. Even better, there are both gay and lesbian couples in Las Anclas, and they’re accepted without any judgment. I am so thrilled to read a futuristic novel where, though a lot of stuff is still shit, equality has been gaining ground. Also, the gay couple is basically the cutest thing ever. I ship it. AND, if that wasn’t enough, I swear that there’s possibly going to be a totally canon three-person-couple; I’m not entirely sure if I ship that, but it does have potential. Oh, also, women are in all sorts of respected positions in this town; sexism is pretty much gone too. I LOVE THIS BOOK.
Stranger is told in alternating third person perspectives. Ross, Mia and Jennie get the most focus, but a couple of other characters get points of view as well. I thought the rotating POVs were easy to track and all interesting. One of the aspects I didn’t like as much initially was Felicité, who is just the worst. However, it seems like Brown and Smith are planning to develop her from more than a bigoted bully, which would be fabulous; she could end up having an amazing character arc. It’s easy to love Mia or Jennie, but if they can make me love Felicité by the end, I’ll be impressed. My personal favorite is probably Yuki, mostly because I’m really hoping that “Prince Yuki” is a reference to my favorite manga, Fruits Basket. I also love Jennie’s POV for the realistic relationship struggles with which she’s dealing.
The world building is rather minimal with regards to how the world came to be as it is. For the most part, I was fine with that, since so much time had gone by from the cataclysm and records weren’t really kept. However, I did find the blaming of the backwardness of society on technology a bit frustrating. While it does make sense to have books hard to find because of the popularity of e-readers, I’m getting really tired of that being a plot point in every post-apocalyptic. There’s also a reference to people forgetting how to write by hand because of computers. These things could definitely happen, but they’ve shown up so often that I’m personally over it.
Stranger was a wonderful surprise and has definitely restored some of my faith in the post-apocalyptic YA genre. I am so excited for the next book in the series, though I’ll have to settle in for a long wait.
When the offer of Stranger came to me, I almost said no. My hopes were low. I only accepted because of my infernal, unquenchable curiosity and how interesting Stranger sounded. The blurb I saw then mentioned “squirrels that can teleport sandwiches out of picnickers’ hands,” and it was that part which made me incapable of not giving Stranger a try. Even so, I was afraid. There are a lot of dystopian and post-apocalyptic YA novels that sounded amazing but left me underwhelmed at best. After so many let downs, I hardly feel interest in these genres anymore. I am, however, very glad that I gave Stranger a shot, because it’s a truly delightful post-apocalyptic novel with fascinating world building, a diverse cast, and an intriguing plot.
If you follow my reviews, you probably know that I adore books about people with powers. Stranger is totally awesome in this regard. The short version is that radiation from the sun affected the world, sending it into a post-apocalyptic state. Some people have undergone The Change, meaning that they are no longer ordinary humans. The Change happens at some point of hormonal upheaval in the body, like adolescence, menopause, or pregnancy (which totally means women will probably develop badass powers more often). The powers range from completely useless (like a guy who can grow little horns out of his head) to totally epic (like Jennie who is telekinetic). The powers are a total luck of the draw and there’s a lot of creativity in the various things people can do. What I like here is that the results of the change are not the same superpowers in every book.
The other difference from other superhuman books is that nature has been affected as well. Now, I know that’s not totally new either, but again I thought it was done so well. There are these singing trees that throw out crystal shards that kill the victim, turning it into a new tree, which takes on the color of the victim’s clothing or hide. There are rattlesnakes the size of a person. Terrifying creatures have sometimes evolved to look cute and fluffy. The world is recognizable, but everything’s askew. It’s a terrifying world to imagine living in but cinematic and fascinating to read about.
Stranger opens with Ross, the titular stranger, running away from a bounty hunter. The hook totally caught me. The opening chapter establishes the harshness of the landscape really well and sets up how wonderful Las Anclas is. Once Los Angeles, Las Anclas is now sort of like an old western town with some steampunk flair and superpowers. Life in Las Anclas isn’t easy, but they’ve carved out fairly safe, happy lives for themselves. The community has a lot of predictable tension between norms (those unchanged) and the changed. Even so, they seem to be working through that and I found myself really rooting for this town, hoping that the narrow-minded people would see the light and embrace changed and norms alike.
Though I enjoyed basically everything about Stranger, my favorite aspect of the book is the diversity. There’s diversity and then there’s this book. It’s pretty much like I’m used to any urban environment being. There are people from so many different racial backgrounds and not a one of them is defined by their race. Even better, there are both gay and lesbian couples in Las Anclas, and they’re accepted without any judgment. I am so thrilled to read a futuristic novel where, though a lot of stuff is still shit, equality has been gaining ground. Also, the gay couple is basically the cutest thing ever. I ship it. AND, if that wasn’t enough, I swear that there’s possibly going to be a totally canon three-person-couple; I’m not entirely sure if I ship that, but it does have potential. Oh, also, women are in all sorts of respected positions in this town; sexism is pretty much gone too. I LOVE THIS BOOK.
Stranger is told in alternating third person perspectives. Ross, Mia and Jennie get the most focus, but a couple of other characters get points of view as well. I thought the rotating POVs were easy to track and all interesting. One of the aspects I didn’t like as much initially was Felicité, who is just the worst. However, it seems like Brown and Smith are planning to develop her from more than a bigoted bully, which would be fabulous; she could end up having an amazing character arc. It’s easy to love Mia or Jennie, but if they can make me love Felicité by the end, I’ll be impressed. My personal favorite is probably Yuki, mostly because I’m really hoping that “Prince Yuki” is a reference to my favorite manga, Fruits Basket. I also love Jennie’s POV for the realistic relationship struggles with which she’s dealing.
The world building is rather minimal with regards to how the world came to be as it is. For the most part, I was fine with that, since so much time had gone by from the cataclysm and records weren’t really kept. However, I did find the blaming of the backwardness of society on technology a bit frustrating. While it does make sense to have books hard to find because of the popularity of e-readers, I’m getting really tired of that being a plot point in every post-apocalyptic. There’s also a reference to people forgetting how to write by hand because of computers. These things could definitely happen, but they’ve shown up so often that I’m personally over it.
Stranger was a wonderful surprise and has definitely restored some of my faith in the post-apocalyptic YA genre. I am so excited for the next book in the series, though I’ll have to settle in for a long wait.
February 2, 2015
Disclaimer: I received this book from the author in exchange for an honest review. This did not change my opinion of the book or the contents of this review.
The closest comparison I can find to this book is Michael Grant's Gone, only more subtle. It's a bit of an ironic description, since Rachel Manija Brown doesn't like Gone very much. But in my mind, Grant's writing shares a lot of strengths with the writing of Rachel Manija Brown and Sherwood Smith (henceforth known as Brith, because that's less of a pain to type). Both Stranger and Gone feature a large and well-developed cast of characters. Both are post-apocalyptic sci-fi stories with people mutating X-Men-like superpowers. Both have action-oriented plots. Both take great effort and care to be diverse. And both are largely successful, even if they trip up here and there.
This novel's most obvious strength is its cast of characters. There are five protagonists, but Brith make the wise decision to write the novel in third-person, sparing them the challenge of writing in five different voices. All five characters have distinct character arcs, and they're all engaging. Jennie was the only one that I wish got more development - her arc seemed a bit shallow compared to the others, and she was the only character that didn't get some hint of growth towards the end of the novel.
But there's plenty to like apart from her. In particular, Felicité is an excellent example of a villain protagonist, or at least, a very manipulative hero. Brith did an excellent job of giving a human touch to her manipulation and ambition. And while the twist involving her character wasn't the most original twist Brith could've chosen, it still worked to add depth to her character. It's here that we see the most apt comparisons to Grant's writing - both authors do an excellent job of showing characters that do manipulative things in a sympathetic light. Another character whose POV I enjoyed was Ross. Brith did a good job of showing how his experiences as a prospector affected him, as well as the effects from another experience that's a bit spoilery. Suffice it to say, it wasn't subtle, but Brith did a good job of writing about characters that were shaped by their experiences.
The other big strength of this novel is its worldbuilding. Refreshingly for a post-apocalyptic book, there are next to no infodumps about the society that our protagonists live in. Brith show instead of tell - we get to know the society gradually. Early on, I wished we'd get to know it just a bit faster, but by the end of the novel, we have a complete and compelling picture of the society. The society was one of the more believable ones I've run into in post-apocalypses. We know the exact power hierarchy - complete with power tensions - how the city gets food, and all sorts of other things that lazier authors would be tempted to skim over or leave out altogether. After lots of incomplete or lazily-written worlds from YA dystopias, this is surprisingly cohesive.
Alas, not all elements of the book were that good. The novel's plot was its biggest weakness. For the first half of the novel, there really is no overarching conflict, and it's not quite clear what the story is supposed to be about. The character arcs, while compelling on their own, seemed only loosely related at first. And while everything does come together towards the end - sort of - it just doesn't feel cohesive. Even towards the end, the character arcs don't quite come together, and there are lots of inadequately explored relationships. Perhaps Brith are saving that for later in the series, but I was still hoping for a little more of the dynamic between, say, Ross and Jennie. We're given glimpses at their interactions, but it's nothing substantial. Moreover, the plot itself just wasn't that interesting to me. It wasn't boring, per se, but it wasn't as engaging as I would've liked an action-oriented plot like this one to be. The action, while well-written, was only engaging because of the character interactions that took place within it. That would've been fine if this were the sort of plot that's there only to serve as a vector for character interaction, but I feel like Brith expects this plot to be engaging in its own right, and it doesn't hold up very well.
The prose was on the mediocre side of passable. It's not bad, but it is pretty bland, and it does the bear minimum in terms of making the story engaging. There's a good bit of telling instead of showing - the characters' emotions are often spelled out for us, instead of being conveyed more subtly. It's not the kind of thing that's going to make you cringe, and it's readable enough. But it could've gone a lot further in terms of making the story engaging.
Still, this is an atypical dystopia, the kind that refuses to stick to the mold that mainstream YA has built for it. It's diverse (three of the protagonists are people of color, and one of them is gay), it isn't romance-oriented, and there's no abstract and ultimately meaningless message about how today's society functions. And that's why I'd recommend it even if you're (rightfully) wary of YA dystopias. This has some excellent worldbuilding and some very meaningful character arcs, and if you're looking for something that breaks the dystopian mold, this is where I'd point you to.
The closest comparison I can find to this book is Michael Grant's Gone, only more subtle. It's a bit of an ironic description, since Rachel Manija Brown doesn't like Gone very much. But in my mind, Grant's writing shares a lot of strengths with the writing of Rachel Manija Brown and Sherwood Smith (henceforth known as Brith, because that's less of a pain to type). Both Stranger and Gone feature a large and well-developed cast of characters. Both are post-apocalyptic sci-fi stories with people mutating X-Men-like superpowers. Both have action-oriented plots. Both take great effort and care to be diverse. And both are largely successful, even if they trip up here and there.
This novel's most obvious strength is its cast of characters. There are five protagonists, but Brith make the wise decision to write the novel in third-person, sparing them the challenge of writing in five different voices. All five characters have distinct character arcs, and they're all engaging. Jennie was the only one that I wish got more development - her arc seemed a bit shallow compared to the others, and she was the only character that didn't get some hint of growth towards the end of the novel.
But there's plenty to like apart from her. In particular, Felicité is an excellent example of a villain protagonist, or at least, a very manipulative hero. Brith did an excellent job of giving a human touch to her manipulation and ambition. And while the twist involving her character wasn't the most original twist Brith could've chosen, it still worked to add depth to her character. It's here that we see the most apt comparisons to Grant's writing - both authors do an excellent job of showing characters that do manipulative things in a sympathetic light. Another character whose POV I enjoyed was Ross. Brith did a good job of showing how his experiences as a prospector affected him, as well as the effects from another experience that's a bit spoilery. Suffice it to say, it wasn't subtle, but Brith did a good job of writing about characters that were shaped by their experiences.
The other big strength of this novel is its worldbuilding. Refreshingly for a post-apocalyptic book, there are next to no infodumps about the society that our protagonists live in. Brith show instead of tell - we get to know the society gradually. Early on, I wished we'd get to know it just a bit faster, but by the end of the novel, we have a complete and compelling picture of the society. The society was one of the more believable ones I've run into in post-apocalypses. We know the exact power hierarchy - complete with power tensions - how the city gets food, and all sorts of other things that lazier authors would be tempted to skim over or leave out altogether. After lots of incomplete or lazily-written worlds from YA dystopias, this is surprisingly cohesive.
Alas, not all elements of the book were that good. The novel's plot was its biggest weakness. For the first half of the novel, there really is no overarching conflict, and it's not quite clear what the story is supposed to be about. The character arcs, while compelling on their own, seemed only loosely related at first. And while everything does come together towards the end - sort of - it just doesn't feel cohesive. Even towards the end, the character arcs don't quite come together, and there are lots of inadequately explored relationships. Perhaps Brith are saving that for later in the series, but I was still hoping for a little more of the dynamic between, say, Ross and Jennie. We're given glimpses at their interactions, but it's nothing substantial. Moreover, the plot itself just wasn't that interesting to me. It wasn't boring, per se, but it wasn't as engaging as I would've liked an action-oriented plot like this one to be. The action, while well-written, was only engaging because of the character interactions that took place within it. That would've been fine if this were the sort of plot that's there only to serve as a vector for character interaction, but I feel like Brith expects this plot to be engaging in its own right, and it doesn't hold up very well.
The prose was on the mediocre side of passable. It's not bad, but it is pretty bland, and it does the bear minimum in terms of making the story engaging. There's a good bit of telling instead of showing - the characters' emotions are often spelled out for us, instead of being conveyed more subtly. It's not the kind of thing that's going to make you cringe, and it's readable enough. But it could've gone a lot further in terms of making the story engaging.
Still, this is an atypical dystopia, the kind that refuses to stick to the mold that mainstream YA has built for it. It's diverse (three of the protagonists are people of color, and one of them is gay), it isn't romance-oriented, and there's no abstract and ultimately meaningless message about how today's society functions. And that's why I'd recommend it even if you're (rightfully) wary of YA dystopias. This has some excellent worldbuilding and some very meaningful character arcs, and if you're looking for something that breaks the dystopian mold, this is where I'd point you to.
September 18, 2017
4.5
I liked this a lot! The worldbuilding is great: I love the singing trees in particular, the pit mouth is a cool monster, the post-apocalyptic setting worked for me, and just overall I thought it fit together well. At the very beginning there were imo too many PoV switches, but it surprised me how quickly I began to care about the characters. I liked both the quieter character/town and the action parts. I'm glad that there are already sequels to this one because I really look forward to reading more.
I liked this a lot! The worldbuilding is great: I love the singing trees in particular, the pit mouth is a cool monster, the post-apocalyptic setting worked for me, and just overall I thought it fit together well. At the very beginning there were imo too many PoV switches, but it surprised me how quickly I began to care about the characters. I liked both the quieter character/town and the action parts. I'm glad that there are already sequels to this one because I really look forward to reading more.
December 14, 2014
Stranger was one of the books I flagged in my anticipated books series six months ago and I did so solely on the basis of the above blurb. It sounded like an engaging post-apocalyptic adventure with a bit of a Weird West vibe, something that I’d enjoyed in several other books earlier in the year. And it was all of that, but it was even more than that. Because this book? This book could be the poster child for the We Need Diverse Books movement. The book features protagonists of colour, sexual orientations all over the spectrum, characters with disabilities, and none of these elements feel shoe-horned in to hit some sort of diversity quota. Instead, the story and its characters feel organic, set in a world that feels true and fully realised.
The story is told through five different characters: Ross, Mia, Yuki, Jennie, and Felicité, and all of them have very distinct voices. As is often the case with stories told from multiple points of view, not all protagonists are equally compelling, though in Stranger’s case it’s a near thing. The one point of view I didn’t truly enjoy was that of Felicité, mostly because of the five, she is not only unlikeable, for most of the book she’s unsympathetic as well. She’s the character that directly articulates the anti-Changed sentiments of parts of the community and is generally duplicitous and hypocritical in her behaviour. In short, for me Felicité was generally a character I loved to hate, yet the authors did manage to make me feel empathy for her by the end of this first book in the series. I look forward to seeing how she’ll develop in the next book.
The other four viewpoint characters are the true heroes of the book, with Ross and Mia being the leads and Jennie and Yuki being their supporting characters. I loved Mia. She is such a sweet and earnest character, who tries to do right by people and is struggling with her own position in her community and the transition from adolescent to adult. Also she kicks ass by using her brains to create brawn as evidenced by her building of a flamethrower and a six-shooter crossbow. Ross is the titular Stranger and it’s interesting to see him claim his place in Las Anclas. His struggles with confirming to people’s expectations and just plain being around others all the time where well drawn and his experiences with the strange and frightening crystal trees. I love how he comes to care for Mia, Jennie, Dr Lee, and Sheriff Crow almost despite himself. While Jennie was lovely, my favourite of the other two was Yuki. I love his mysterious history that the reader gets to slowly discover and his longing for the sea and adventure, yet his conflicting desire to stay due to his relationship with Paco. I loved Yuki and Paco together, they were such a sweet couple and I couldn’t help but root for them to pull through.
Brown and Smith created an interesting world. I loved the mix of Western sensibilities with post-apocalyptic and fantasy elements. I hope we’ll learn even more about what happened to the world to shift it so dramatically and what caused the Changes in the future books, but the things that we learn in Stranger are fascinating on their own. The fact that the Change could be dormant in all people, but is brought on by hormonal changes was a cool idea and made the idea of adolescence even more scary than it already is. I also loved how differently people reacted to their Change, my favourite being Jennie’s family, where when the youngest finally gets her Change she disappointed that it’s not more ’spectacular’ than the one she gets. Especially as it is such a contrast to how Felicité and her family and numerous other townsfolk react to the Change and Changed people. But beyond the Change and its effects, there is also the way humanity has adapted the changes in nature to their new situation, for example flesh-eating thorn bushes as a creeper plant to cover their town walls for extra security or breeding and training rats to act as aides and messenger beasts.
Stranger wasn’t just a great adventure set in an interesting world, it also was just a really fun read. The writing is smooth, the dialogues flowed easily on the page, and the story features a wonderfully diverse and engaging cast. The story ends in a great resting place, but leaves some slack to be picked up in the next book and I can’t wait to go back to Ross, Mia, Jennie and the others, as the book went by far too fast for me. Stranger is a post-apocalyptic story with a twist and one I think fans of YA dystopias and post-apocalyptic tales and adventure will gobble up with delight.
This book was provided for review by the author.
The story is told through five different characters: Ross, Mia, Yuki, Jennie, and Felicité, and all of them have very distinct voices. As is often the case with stories told from multiple points of view, not all protagonists are equally compelling, though in Stranger’s case it’s a near thing. The one point of view I didn’t truly enjoy was that of Felicité, mostly because of the five, she is not only unlikeable, for most of the book she’s unsympathetic as well. She’s the character that directly articulates the anti-Changed sentiments of parts of the community and is generally duplicitous and hypocritical in her behaviour. In short, for me Felicité was generally a character I loved to hate, yet the authors did manage to make me feel empathy for her by the end of this first book in the series. I look forward to seeing how she’ll develop in the next book.
The other four viewpoint characters are the true heroes of the book, with Ross and Mia being the leads and Jennie and Yuki being their supporting characters. I loved Mia. She is such a sweet and earnest character, who tries to do right by people and is struggling with her own position in her community and the transition from adolescent to adult. Also she kicks ass by using her brains to create brawn as evidenced by her building of a flamethrower and a six-shooter crossbow. Ross is the titular Stranger and it’s interesting to see him claim his place in Las Anclas. His struggles with confirming to people’s expectations and just plain being around others all the time where well drawn and his experiences with the strange and frightening crystal trees. I love how he comes to care for Mia, Jennie, Dr Lee, and Sheriff Crow almost despite himself. While Jennie was lovely, my favourite of the other two was Yuki. I love his mysterious history that the reader gets to slowly discover and his longing for the sea and adventure, yet his conflicting desire to stay due to his relationship with Paco. I loved Yuki and Paco together, they were such a sweet couple and I couldn’t help but root for them to pull through.
Brown and Smith created an interesting world. I loved the mix of Western sensibilities with post-apocalyptic and fantasy elements. I hope we’ll learn even more about what happened to the world to shift it so dramatically and what caused the Changes in the future books, but the things that we learn in Stranger are fascinating on their own. The fact that the Change could be dormant in all people, but is brought on by hormonal changes was a cool idea and made the idea of adolescence even more scary than it already is. I also loved how differently people reacted to their Change, my favourite being Jennie’s family, where when the youngest finally gets her Change she disappointed that it’s not more ’spectacular’ than the one she gets. Especially as it is such a contrast to how Felicité and her family and numerous other townsfolk react to the Change and Changed people. But beyond the Change and its effects, there is also the way humanity has adapted the changes in nature to their new situation, for example flesh-eating thorn bushes as a creeper plant to cover their town walls for extra security or breeding and training rats to act as aides and messenger beasts.
Stranger wasn’t just a great adventure set in an interesting world, it also was just a really fun read. The writing is smooth, the dialogues flowed easily on the page, and the story features a wonderfully diverse and engaging cast. The story ends in a great resting place, but leaves some slack to be picked up in the next book and I can’t wait to go back to Ross, Mia, Jennie and the others, as the book went by far too fast for me. Stranger is a post-apocalyptic story with a twist and one I think fans of YA dystopias and post-apocalyptic tales and adventure will gobble up with delight.
This book was provided for review by the author.
November 24, 2014
I love this book!!!!!
Really good story. Really good worldbuilding - I love the mysterious past stuff, and the authors must have had fun figuring out how the town works, and as for the changed magical ecology it's awesome, all the way from the carnivorous singing trees to the intelligent coyote and raccoon predators to the fireflies that come in all different colours. I loved reading Mia and Ross and Jennie, and then not only do I get good characters there's a gay romance, and then not only that but a completely unexpected (by me) poly relationship starts up. Sherwood Smith seems to like writing somewhat cold, selfish young adults but also showing how what they do makes sense to them, and making you see their good points even as you also see them cause characters you like to hurt. This might even be a trope she does too much, but I like it in this novel because she and Rachel Manija Brown do it really really well. Felicité and (surprisingly) Yuki are difficult characters but I like them too - I just wish they'd stop doing certain things. Which is one of the things fiction books are for, to make us understand what it's like to be someone else or why other people make different choices than we do. Or to see things around us that we haven't noticed before.
I want to find out what happens next book. I want to see more of the sheriff. I want to see what how Yuki and Ross and Felicité get together to prospect the city on the hill. I want to find out how the singing trees started existing. I want to find out about Ross' past and Paco's family history and where the Taka is and what the heck is up with that bounty hunter and whatever the massively fascinating backstory of Sera, Uncle Omar, and Mr Preston is. I want to see the family discovery of spoilery spoilers, because I think the dad is going to react better than everyone expects and the mom worse but less obviously. I want to find out more about cats in the changed world!
It's kind of disturbing that the coyotes and racoons are intelligent enough to build irrigation ditches and do battle tactics and everybody in Las Anclas just kills them though. On the other hand, what would animals around us now do with opposable thumbs? I don't know where to draw the line and I don't even know what questions to ask or what to look for. I just know I eat meat, but there's some animals I wouldn't eat.
The authors have also set Mia up to come up with some non-slaughtery fix or negotiation, possibly. I guess we'll see what happens in the next 2 (or more?) novels.
And for anyone looking for a book with characters of diverse ethnicities and religions and sexualities, both with and without disabilities, this is one of the droids you're looking for. May there be more.
Really good story. Really good worldbuilding - I love the mysterious past stuff, and the authors must have had fun figuring out how the town works, and as for the changed magical ecology it's awesome, all the way from the carnivorous singing trees to the intelligent coyote and raccoon predators to the fireflies that come in all different colours. I loved reading Mia and Ross and Jennie, and then not only do I get good characters there's a gay romance, and then not only that but a completely unexpected (by me) poly relationship starts up. Sherwood Smith seems to like writing somewhat cold, selfish young adults but also showing how what they do makes sense to them, and making you see their good points even as you also see them cause characters you like to hurt. This might even be a trope she does too much, but I like it in this novel because she and Rachel Manija Brown do it really really well. Felicité and (surprisingly) Yuki are difficult characters but I like them too - I just wish they'd stop doing certain things. Which is one of the things fiction books are for, to make us understand what it's like to be someone else or why other people make different choices than we do. Or to see things around us that we haven't noticed before.
I want to find out what happens next book. I want to see more of the sheriff. I want to see what how Yuki and Ross and Felicité get together to prospect the city on the hill. I want to find out how the singing trees started existing. I want to find out about Ross' past and Paco's family history and where the Taka is and what the heck is up with that bounty hunter and whatever the massively fascinating backstory of Sera, Uncle Omar, and Mr Preston is. I want to see the family discovery of spoilery spoilers, because I think the dad is going to react better than everyone expects and the mom worse but less obviously. I want to find out more about cats in the changed world!
It's kind of disturbing that the coyotes and racoons are intelligent enough to build irrigation ditches and do battle tactics and everybody in Las Anclas just kills them though. On the other hand, what would animals around us now do with opposable thumbs? I don't know where to draw the line and I don't even know what questions to ask or what to look for. I just know I eat meat, but there's some animals I wouldn't eat.
The authors have also set Mia up to come up with some non-slaughtery fix or negotiation, possibly. I guess we'll see what happens in the next 2 (or more?) novels.
And for anyone looking for a book with characters of diverse ethnicities and religions and sexualities, both with and without disabilities, this is one of the droids you're looking for. May there be more.
May 9, 2015
Really, for me, this is more of a 2.5 stars. Otherwise, I probably would have finished it. I'm super-into the diversity - there are TONS of races and cultures here, and people of various orientation. Indeed, of the five point-of-view characters, I don't think any two are the same race, and one is gay. I'm really glad this book exists for all the people whose experiences it celebrates.
However, notice how I said "five point-of-view characters"? This book has a LOT packed into it. Lots of people, lots of different powers (some humans are "Changed," and have supernatural abilities, no two of which seem to be the same), lots of bizarre plants and animals. There's so much that it's a little overwhelming, and the story seems to sometimes sacrifice depth for breadth.
That, and the tension drops in the middle. I made it over two hundred pages into this book, and now I feel like I don't know what the real conflict is. What questions should I be wondering about to make me keep reading? The first chapter or so is life-or-death stuff as Ross tries to escape a bounty hunter and dodge deadly desert flora. At the halfway point, the tension is tied to things like, "Who will go with Ross to the dance?"
Another reviewer made a nice point about this book, which is that it feels kind. Sure, there are people who do bad things, and bad things happen, but overall there is a sense of hard work and good intentions, which is nice.
All that said, this book is over four hundred pages long. I'm a little over halfway through, and I feel like I've been reading it for a long time and am just not enthusiastic about continuing. It's reeeally hard for me to put down a book unfinished, but I'm working on that, because I don't have enough free time to force myself to finish books I'm not enjoying. I don't want my pleasure reading to feel like a chore. Plus, if picking up a book commits me to finishing it, I might start to avoid books that aren't sure things, enjoyment-wise, and thus miss out on some interesting reads.
All right, enough justifications! Next book!
However, notice how I said "five point-of-view characters"? This book has a LOT packed into it. Lots of people, lots of different powers (some humans are "Changed," and have supernatural abilities, no two of which seem to be the same), lots of bizarre plants and animals. There's so much that it's a little overwhelming, and the story seems to sometimes sacrifice depth for breadth.
That, and the tension drops in the middle. I made it over two hundred pages into this book, and now I feel like I don't know what the real conflict is. What questions should I be wondering about to make me keep reading? The first chapter or so is life-or-death stuff as Ross tries to escape a bounty hunter and dodge deadly desert flora. At the halfway point, the tension is tied to things like, "Who will go with Ross to the dance?"
Another reviewer made a nice point about this book, which is that it feels kind. Sure, there are people who do bad things, and bad things happen, but overall there is a sense of hard work and good intentions, which is nice.
All that said, this book is over four hundred pages long. I'm a little over halfway through, and I feel like I've been reading it for a long time and am just not enthusiastic about continuing. It's reeeally hard for me to put down a book unfinished, but I'm working on that, because I don't have enough free time to force myself to finish books I'm not enjoying. I don't want my pleasure reading to feel like a chore. Plus, if picking up a book commits me to finishing it, I might start to avoid books that aren't sure things, enjoyment-wise, and thus miss out on some interesting reads.
All right, enough justifications! Next book!
November 11, 2014
I received a copy of this from the publisher via Net Galley in exchange for an honest review
Post apocalyptic western in which a young man finds refuge in a town after discovering a treasure that someone else wants badly enough to kill for. There were too many characters to follow, which never really allowed me to become invested in any of them. The characters of Mia and Jennie were too similar and I was often confused about which one I was following. The action sequences were exciting, but they were few and far between, and evolved into chaos because there were just too many characters doing too much. It feels like this was a book that evolved in the face of the diversity In YA movement, and it is overkill. I like diversity and encourage my high school readers to try books that embrace it, but this was overly ambitious in its attempt to include every single issue a ya reader could face. If the book were told in alternating narratives from the perspective of two or three characters, it would probably be awesome -- there is a very cool world waiting to be explored here. I think it would have been more interesting as a series of books about these different character pairs, which would have allowed me time to be engaged in the individual character's issues. As it stands, the plot and characters are unwieldy. I felt like I needed a chart to keep up with everyone and it wasn't something I could just read for pleasure as a result. Language and situations were appropriate for ninth grade and up.
Post apocalyptic western in which a young man finds refuge in a town after discovering a treasure that someone else wants badly enough to kill for. There were too many characters to follow, which never really allowed me to become invested in any of them. The characters of Mia and Jennie were too similar and I was often confused about which one I was following. The action sequences were exciting, but they were few and far between, and evolved into chaos because there were just too many characters doing too much. It feels like this was a book that evolved in the face of the diversity In YA movement, and it is overkill. I like diversity and encourage my high school readers to try books that embrace it, but this was overly ambitious in its attempt to include every single issue a ya reader could face. If the book were told in alternating narratives from the perspective of two or three characters, it would probably be awesome -- there is a very cool world waiting to be explored here. I think it would have been more interesting as a series of books about these different character pairs, which would have allowed me time to be engaged in the individual character's issues. As it stands, the plot and characters are unwieldy. I felt like I needed a chart to keep up with everyone and it wasn't something I could just read for pleasure as a result. Language and situations were appropriate for ninth grade and up.
July 27, 2016
the setting is pretty cool! post-apocalyptic Western LA yeah! and nearly everyone is POC, which was done pretty well imltho actually (surprisingly?)
SPOILERS SPOILERS but i was so so sure that this one character was aro/ace, since she kept being like i've never been attracted to anyone! is something wrong with me? hmmm my dad says it's okay though? -- but then in the end, she falls for this other guy and kisses him... and it's like NO WE COULD HAVE HAD IT ALLLLLLLL sigh
SPOILERS SPOILERS but i was so so sure that this one character was aro/ace, since she kept being like i've never been attracted to anyone! is something wrong with me? hmmm my dad says it's okay though? -- but then in the end, she falls for this other guy and kisses him... and it's like NO WE COULD HAVE HAD IT ALLLLLLLL sigh
July 6, 2021
Ross Juarez is on the run from a bounty hunter hired by the ruthless dictator of a neighboring town. Ross is rescued and given sanctuary in Los Ancles, a town of about 1000 people. Some of the townsfolk are suspicious that Ross might be Changed even though there is no outward manifestation. As he is recovering from his encounter with a singing tree, we meet four other teens whose stories get interwoven with Ross - Jennie, Mia, Yuki, and Felicite. I enjoyed this post-apocalyptic story sprinkled with an Old West flavor. I will have to see if there are sequels as I would like to learn more about the cause of the apocalypse and learn about the rats.
July 22, 2024
Nice twist of found family, coming of age in a post apocalyptic world setup 👌
August 27, 2017
“Ross felt the tree before they saw it, moonlight reflecting crimson off its gemlike facets. He knew where it was like he knew his own left hand. He could even sense how far the shards could reach. And he knew it wouldn't loose those shards at him. “
I completely breezed through that book. Though it's a little over 400-pages (child's play, really), and it reads super quickly and easily. A lot of chapters are pack-full of action, and those that aren't, are just main characters furthering their own little stories. So, lots of things to see here.
Despite all that, I couldn't help but feel like the whole execution was a little clumsy : the plot is there, but the details go by too fast, and like, not enough time is given to the important things. There are too many inner monologues which just feel like the characters are talking out loud to themselves without any purpose whatsoever, like it would be if you're reading someone's diary. That sort of writing really doesn't appeal to me, at all.
There are way too many characters. It's great that the whole universe seems to be so clear inside the author's head, but from a reader's point of view, it's impossible to keep track of everyone. Like, it's great that each character that appears in the book, however briefly, has a name, an identity, but is it really useful to the reader to know that one's name (mentioned in passing, by the way), when they won't appear again in the story ? More importantly, should you really keep introducing new characters, present in the story for a only a couple chapters, when the main cast is more than enough to get the plot going ? The answer is no, by the way.
The end result is like when you're trying to do too many things at the same time : none of them gets done well. It feels like the plot is scattered and the story suffers from that. I can assure you that most readers would prefer a small band of characters that's developed well, than a big group of people you only get brief glances at.
I mean, it works in real-life, where everything doesn't have to be tightly brought together, but in terms of storytelling, it isn't really compelling.
But, even if the characters are too numerous, they're really what sold the story, for me. For all those who crave diversity, this book brings it tenfold : disabled characters, a character on the asexual spectrum, hints at possible polyamory (I will never stop hoping, okay ?!), gay and lesbian couples everywhere, all of the couples are mixed-race, the large majority of the characters isn't white … It's just beautiful and I wish more books were so explicitly inclusive, you know, because it's too easy to say “Yeah, that particular thing was never clear, so everyone can read whatever they want into it”. In this book, it's all very clear, you can't imagine Jennie as anything but a black young-woman, or the Vardams as anything but Indian. There's no hiding, the diversity is right there in your face, and it's good ! It's even better than no one bats an eyelash at it. “Yeah, Becky likes girls, no big deal” (*shrug*). That's the kind of book I've always wanted.
I'm still hesitating on whether I want to read the sequels, but in the end, no matter the flaws, this book still left a good impression on me.
did-not-finish
September 7, 2015Years ago, I read a book by Sherwood Smith called Wren to the Rescue. I fell in love with the characters and the world the author created. That book really stoked my love for fantasy literature. So when I saw this book at the library and read the synopsis, I thought I'd give it a try... because it really sounded like my sort of thing.
But, after less than a fifth of the way in, I was struggling. Stranger is just... clumsy. After a strong start with Ross being chased by a bounty hunter through a perilous desert, during which he 1) almost gets turned into a tree, and 2) almost gets eaten by another tree, I thought things would only get better. But things got boring and confusing really quickly.
Each of the first five chapters are from different points of view... and each of those points of view introduces multiple characters. My head was absolutely spinning. I couldn't keep anyone straight, and part of the reason was because of the weak characterization. So far, each character is just a name and a trait. Even the dialogue (which is weak and juvenile) doesn't really help the reader distinguish between characters.
This book also tries way too hard to be diverse... and it makes little sense. This is supposed to be many years in the future, and yet most people seem to have stayed within their own ethnic groups for mating purposes, leading to characters with certain physical and cultural traits that match perfectly with their surnames. The only exception appears to be the "mean girl", who seems to be a mixed-race character (she has ancestors with very Chinese-sounding names, laments that her hair is not a "true black" -- at least when she's not dyeing it blond, and has a blue-eyed father with an English surname). All of those point-of-view characters, and the only one who's even part white is a villain? It just seems subtly racist to me. (To be clear, I don't have a problem with a white person being the villain. But when the only white or part-white major characters in the book are portrayed as the bad guys, it's a little offensive -- just as it would be if it were any other race. Had one of the protagonists been white as well, I probably wouldn't even have noticed the race issue!) Aside from ethnic diversity, the authors have also thrown in sexual diversity. At 18%, I'd already encountered heterosexual characters, homosexual characters, and an asexual character. Again, it came across as clumsy, because those sexual preferences are some of the only defining characteristics of those characters (so far, anyway).
While the world is definitely interesting, some of the minor characters have amusing stories (like the grandmother who accidentally burned down the schoolhouse with a mutant menopausal hot flash), and I'm curious about what the cataclysm was that caused everything to start mutating, I'm too exhausted from trying to keep all the characters straight to want to continue. Reading this one already feels like a chore.
So, in the final analysis, the reasons why I didn't finish Stranger are as follows:
- way too many characters
- clumsy attempts at diversity
- subtle racism
- it's just not holding my interest
http://theladybugreads.blogspot.com/2...
But, after less than a fifth of the way in, I was struggling. Stranger is just... clumsy. After a strong start with Ross being chased by a bounty hunter through a perilous desert, during which he 1) almost gets turned into a tree, and 2) almost gets eaten by another tree, I thought things would only get better. But things got boring and confusing really quickly.
Each of the first five chapters are from different points of view... and each of those points of view introduces multiple characters. My head was absolutely spinning. I couldn't keep anyone straight, and part of the reason was because of the weak characterization. So far, each character is just a name and a trait. Even the dialogue (which is weak and juvenile) doesn't really help the reader distinguish between characters.
This book also tries way too hard to be diverse... and it makes little sense. This is supposed to be many years in the future, and yet most people seem to have stayed within their own ethnic groups for mating purposes, leading to characters with certain physical and cultural traits that match perfectly with their surnames. The only exception appears to be the "mean girl", who seems to be a mixed-race character (she has ancestors with very Chinese-sounding names, laments that her hair is not a "true black" -- at least when she's not dyeing it blond, and has a blue-eyed father with an English surname). All of those point-of-view characters, and the only one who's even part white is a villain? It just seems subtly racist to me. (To be clear, I don't have a problem with a white person being the villain. But when the only white or part-white major characters in the book are portrayed as the bad guys, it's a little offensive -- just as it would be if it were any other race. Had one of the protagonists been white as well, I probably wouldn't even have noticed the race issue!) Aside from ethnic diversity, the authors have also thrown in sexual diversity. At 18%, I'd already encountered heterosexual characters, homosexual characters, and an asexual character. Again, it came across as clumsy, because those sexual preferences are some of the only defining characteristics of those characters (so far, anyway).
While the world is definitely interesting, some of the minor characters have amusing stories (like the grandmother who accidentally burned down the schoolhouse with a mutant menopausal hot flash), and I'm curious about what the cataclysm was that caused everything to start mutating, I'm too exhausted from trying to keep all the characters straight to want to continue. Reading this one already feels like a chore.
So, in the final analysis, the reasons why I didn't finish Stranger are as follows:
- way too many characters
- clumsy attempts at diversity
- subtle racism
- it's just not holding my interest
http://theladybugreads.blogspot.com/2...
December 5, 2014
Thank you to the publisher for sending me this book in exchange for an honest review.
“A needle of pain jabbed in his wrist, then shot into his forearm. Ross patted it. He tried to lift his hand, but his whole arm felt heavy.
A crystal shard was growing under this skin.”
Stranger is about a young man, a town, and fighting for survival in a post apocalyptic world. When a young man suddenly shows up near the town of Las Anclas everything changes. The town people don’t know if they should kick him out or let him stay. On top of dealing with a stranger the towns people have been under the possible threat of an attack all while dealing with those who went through the Change. People who are Changed have special powers that accepted by some and rejected by others. This book is best described as the X-Men in the post-apocalyptic Wild West.
I went into this book not knowing much about the plot and not having high expectations. By the end of the book I was blown away by how much fun I had reading it. The writing style between both authors blended nicely and I couldn’t tell that two different people wrote it. The writing is rich in detail, which helps the reader imagine the setting. This is an important aspect of the book because there are many things described that are so unique and bizarre.
Stranger is written from multiple perspectives, 5 to be precise. Each of the chapters has a different tone and feel to them and are easily distinguishable from each other. Usually with multiple perspectives I find that there is at least one perspective I don’t like, but with Stranger I thoroughly enjoyed each perspective. Each character brought something different to the story and allowed the reader to experience the world in 5 different ways. The chapter changes are written strategically to allow the reader to experience what’s happened from multiple perspectives. Whether it’s experiencing the same moment from multiple perspectives or different moments happening simultaneously the reader is viewing a complete story.
By the end of the book I was invested in every character. I was invested in some characters more than others. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the multiple perspectives.
Diversity is a hot topic in the world of young adult publishing because of the serious lack of it in the selection of young adult literature available. This book is the definition of diversity. There are characters of all different races and ethnicities, have different sexual orientations, and fellow different religions. The best thing about the diversity in this book is that it’s not thrown in the readers’ face.
Overall, I thought this was a fantastic post apocalyptic book that brought something new to the table. It’s set in a Wild West sort of world with X-Men like powers and very unique trees. If you’re a fan of a little mystery and badass fight sequences Stranger is the perfect book for you!
“A needle of pain jabbed in his wrist, then shot into his forearm. Ross patted it. He tried to lift his hand, but his whole arm felt heavy.
A crystal shard was growing under this skin.”
Stranger is about a young man, a town, and fighting for survival in a post apocalyptic world. When a young man suddenly shows up near the town of Las Anclas everything changes. The town people don’t know if they should kick him out or let him stay. On top of dealing with a stranger the towns people have been under the possible threat of an attack all while dealing with those who went through the Change. People who are Changed have special powers that accepted by some and rejected by others. This book is best described as the X-Men in the post-apocalyptic Wild West.
I went into this book not knowing much about the plot and not having high expectations. By the end of the book I was blown away by how much fun I had reading it. The writing style between both authors blended nicely and I couldn’t tell that two different people wrote it. The writing is rich in detail, which helps the reader imagine the setting. This is an important aspect of the book because there are many things described that are so unique and bizarre.
Stranger is written from multiple perspectives, 5 to be precise. Each of the chapters has a different tone and feel to them and are easily distinguishable from each other. Usually with multiple perspectives I find that there is at least one perspective I don’t like, but with Stranger I thoroughly enjoyed each perspective. Each character brought something different to the story and allowed the reader to experience the world in 5 different ways. The chapter changes are written strategically to allow the reader to experience what’s happened from multiple perspectives. Whether it’s experiencing the same moment from multiple perspectives or different moments happening simultaneously the reader is viewing a complete story.
By the end of the book I was invested in every character. I was invested in some characters more than others. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the multiple perspectives.
Diversity is a hot topic in the world of young adult publishing because of the serious lack of it in the selection of young adult literature available. This book is the definition of diversity. There are characters of all different races and ethnicities, have different sexual orientations, and fellow different religions. The best thing about the diversity in this book is that it’s not thrown in the readers’ face.
Overall, I thought this was a fantastic post apocalyptic book that brought something new to the table. It’s set in a Wild West sort of world with X-Men like powers and very unique trees. If you’re a fan of a little mystery and badass fight sequences Stranger is the perfect book for you!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 180 reviews