Cherry Heaven

City Five #2

by L.J. Adlington, Lucy Adlington

Kat and Tanka J are starting over. The New Frontier is nothing like war-stricken City Five—no battle scars, no memories of their parents. It's a perfect society, where everyone lives in harmony. Or so they say. There's me, the ghost in the glass, and there's everyone else on the warm side of the windows. If you're really quiet, you'll hear me creeping in the shadows. Someone else is starting over, too, running on a path perilously close to Kat and Tanka. Can the two girls and their friends uncover the dark secrets of the New Frontier before the unthinkable happens? The last birthday i ever had, years ago, was the one where I got shot instead of presents. i wasn't killed before and i won't get dead now. run, run as fast as i can, can't catch me 'cause i got a Plan! Don't anyone get in my way.

Genres: Young Adult, Science Fiction, Dystopia, Teen, Fantasy, Fiction, Aliens

464 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 2008

Reviews

[Sarenna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Actually 3.5, but rounded to 4 stars.

I read The Diary of Pelly D a while back and remembered liking it. I think I gave that one 4 stars also. This was the companion book to Diary. And it was okay. Not quite as good, but still entertaining. It was a quick, easy read once I got past the punctuation and lack of capitalization in Luka's portion of the story.

The story follows three girls - two sisters Kat and Tanka who move to the New Frontier from City Five and Luka who grew up (sort of) in the New Frontier. What links them is Cherry Heaven - the home that the sisters move into, the home that Luka was forced from.

Kat and Tanka come from the privileged class, the Atsumisi, Luka is the underclass, the Galrezi, and in between are the Mazzini class. Class distinctions are drawn by genetic codes that are displayed on the wrist - red for the privileged, blue for the in-betweens, and green for the untouchables.

In the New Frontier, there aren't supposed to be the distinctions like there were in City Five. But if that were true, there wouldn't be a book. Or at least not an interesting book.

What struck me was how similar this was to the Holocaust. You have the Galrezi (the Jews, gypsies, political prisoners) who work in the Factories or the Quarry (concentration camps) all led by the in-between Bossman (Hitler) and middle men called capos (kapos). There's even the Diary of Pelly D (Anne Frank) in this story.

So, basically, we have the Holocaust. In the future. On a different planet. Only these people have hand stamps instead of Peyots (curls).

It's still a good story, although the reader is nearly beaten to death with the moral of the story (racism is bad, racism is bad, racism is bad). But I give that a pass. It is, after all, YOUNG adult.

[Angela · Rating 2 out of 5]

While the jacket declares in several places that LJ Adlington also wrote The Diary of Pelly D, no where does it actually tell you that this is the companion book. From someone who hasn't read Pelly D, it seems like you can read this book without reading the previous one, but you'll probably understand a lot more if you've read Pelly D. At the end of this book, I had a lot of questions about the logistics of this world - questions I'm not sure would have been answered in Pelly D.

Ultimately it's those unanswered questions that led to the low score, combined with my dislike of the overall writing style. While Luka's chapters were interesting to read, as I liked seeing how her thought process clarified throughout the novel, the other chapters got highly irritating as it seemed the author couldn't figure out who she wanted to follow. 90% of the third person chapters follow Kat exclusively, but will occasionally report on Tanka's inner thoughts and once, inexplicably, jumped to Millijue's point of view. Third person omniscient is a perfectly fine narrative style to use, but it wasn't used effectively (and was in fact quite distracting) in this case.

[Katrina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have always been a fan of utopian fantasies such as 1984 and Brave New World, Cherry Heaven falls into this category and does not disappoint. Of course, the interesting things about these books is the commentary they make on our current society.

The alternate narrations between the Jones sisters and Luka P eventually intertwine as their lives and stories do. Some themes in Cherry Heaven are honesty and the lengths people will go through to gain power.

I think the story idea and the characters are very original, and the setting too. I would definitely recommend this book. It's also good to know that this book is a sort of sequel to The Diary of Pelly D also by L.J. Adlington.

[Stacey Adams · Rating 3 out of 5]

Moving from war ravaged City Five to the New Frontier Kat and Tanka don't see it as the paradise it is portrayed as.....neither does factory worker Bottle Seal 55/Luka. We see the story through the eyes of Luka who is in a prison (masquerading as a factory), afraid for her life, starved, exhausted and fed up with living that way. We also see the story through Kat and Tanka, two very different sisters who have moved into Cherry Heaven, an abandoned cherry farm. We see different sides of people, people who have a public persona and a very different underground one that no one is privy to. In City Five there was racism and it brought about war....this is not supposed to happen in the new frontier....but racism still exists, it's just hidden....hidden very well.

[Erin Hudgens · Rating 4 out of 5]

I REALLY liked this book, but I felt like I had to slodge my way through the first bits to get into it. I am so glad I did though, because it left me extremely satisfied and full, with a smile on my face. I also just realized this is a second book in a series, so maybe that is why I had to push my way through the beginning. 😂🤷🏼‍♀️

[Elissa]

A little confusing at first

[Noah Tiihonen · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 💫
Okay, this was a boom! It was really good. It didn't terrify me at all. And I think people should read this book.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

So awesome..if you like girlie young adult sci fi you’ll like this book. Ms. Arlington creates this fantasy world with realistic characters. There are three races and one particular race is enduring hate crimes, especially during the war that ended a decade ago. In this frontier that proposes peaceful living, a factory worker slave girl plots her escape and revenge and you will enjoy reading g all her thoughts. In the meantime a couple of sisters are settling in their new environment not knowing the horrible hate crime committed there and even worse by whom. Their lives will intersect. I highly suggest reading the author’s other novel ‘ Pelly D ‘ first. Although it could be read as s stand alone.

[Lucy · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the aftermath of the vicious genetic war that devastated their home City, Kat and Tanka J are ready for a new start. With their Uncle Prester and Aunt Millijue, who has been headhunted into a prominent new position, they move away from the war-torn Cities and into the New Frontier. In the New Frontier, they can forget about the destruction, and the terror, and the deaths of their parents. In the New Frontier, in the beautiful Cherry Heaven estate, they can start over.

But someone else is starting over, too. Someone who has been through unspeakable horrors—horrors that were not supposed to exist in the New Frontier, horrors that everyone still believe don’t exist. Someone who wants to show the world the truth about the corruption existing on the highest levels of their new, perfect utopian society…no matter what the cost.

For the most part, this is a good novel. The characters of Kat and Tanka and Luka are all lovingly drawn, and by the time you turn the last page, they are people you care about and want to stay with.

I do have a few points that trouble me about the book. First, how could Kat and Tanka be Atsumisi when their parents were both Galrezi? Maybe I’m wrong, but it seems to me that genes are genes—you get your genes from your parents. For the girls to be Atsumisi, one of their parents should have been as well—unless Prester and Millijue faked their IDs? Is that even possible?

The other issue I have is with why Q Essnid would have needed to kill the Papillon family in the first place. It’s just not clear. Obviously, he is not the saint he makes himself out to be—otherwise he would not be involved with Linveki’s factory, but I just don’t understand why he needed the Papillons dead. There’s a throwaway line suggesting he wanted their house, but he never moves in, and his own house is far fancier. So what is the motivation? Was Celia Papillon poised to reveal the truth about the Factory? What danger did the girls pose?

I was expected to see some sort of sinister underbelly to the entire O-HA organization, but aside from Q Essnid’s shady past, that never really surfaced.

Have any of you people read it? Do you have any insight into these things? Please share, if you have.

Aside from those two major sticking points, I really enjoyed this novel. I think it does a fascinating job of exploring the dystopia beneath the surface of the utopia, and the dystopian society trying to rebuild itself in general.

The references to The Diary of Pelly D, the previous book, were nice touches, but as I read Pelly D over a year ago, it took me a little too long to strain my memory to remember why we cared about these people.

The Holocaust-esque overtones were (as in Pelly D) very heavy-handed.

I did enjoy reading it, don't get me wrong, but it loses points for those two points that don't really make sense to me. Overall, good solid read and interesting addition to the post-apocalyptic dystopian genre.

[Eva Mitnick · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this sequel or companion to The Diary of Pelly D, two teenaged sisters move with their foster parents to the New Frontier. The war in the Five Cities may be over, but devastation and awful memories remain; Kat and Tanka’s parents, both identified as Galrezi and thus inferior, were rounded up and killed 10 years ago.

In a parallel story, teenaged Luka, a Galrezi, has been a virtual slave for the last 10 years, first digging in a quarry and then imprisoned under awful conditions in a flavored-water factory. She manages to escape, and makes her way home with vengeance on her mind.

Kat and Tanka’s new home is gorgeous, nestled next to a now-defunct cherry orchard, and it happens to be Luka’s former home, where her family was killed and where she was captured. Kat begins to question the carefully constructed lies about the fate of Luka’s family and about the New Frontier, while Luka tries to get revenge on the powerful people who have destroyed her life. Finally, they meet, and the truth about the New Frontier comes out – rather than being an open and tolerant place, Galrezi have been just as loathed as in the Five Cities. Rather than exterminate them, the New Frontier simply used them as work slaves.

Luka’s story is chilling – her story, told in first-person, has a vivid and compelling voice that forces the reader to imagine every brutality she describes. Kat’s story, on the other hand, is more distant. Perhaps it is because of the third-person narration or because Kat herself has tried to forget that horrible time 10 years ago when her parents desperately and vainly sought shelter before being dragged away and eventually killed, but the nightmare of the Five Cities wars is muted.

The parallels with the Holocaust and other incidents of genocide throughout history are obvious. Readers who haven’t read The Diary of Pelly D won’t know that the indelible Galrezi, Mazzini, or Atsumisi labels that all colonists must wear on their hands are the results of a tiny and meaningless gene tag. Somehow, the Atsumisi gene became the superior one, with Mazzini being tolerated and Galrezi being scum – all completely arbitrarily. Adlington does a good job of describing, both in this book and in Diary, how much chaos can come about from the natural but evil human instinct to despise those different from oneself, even if those differences are invisible until tested for and brightly labeled. There are plenty of logical problems, and Adlington doesn’t always get across the subtleties of how ordinary people react (or not) to thinly disguised evil being done under their noses – but most teens will find this a scary and thought-provoking read.

Ages 13 and up.

[Arminzerella · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kat and her sister Tanka and their aunt and uncle are moving to The New Frontier to start over. It’s been about 10 years since the war ended and the sisters’ real parents were killed for being Galrezi. There’s still a lot of tension between the different gene clans (Atsumisi, Mazzini, and Galrezi), and the Atsumisi are at the top of the pecking order. Since both Kat and Tanka are Atsumisi they have nothing to worry about as far as discrimination goes, and, in fact, Tanka can be pretty outspoken and racist against the Galrezi. What they don’t know is that their new home, Cherry Heaven, once belonged to a family of Galrezi who were murdered during the war, and one of them – Luka Papillon – has just escaped from The Factory (where they bottle Blue Mountain water products and the workers are treated no better than slaves, are considered expendable, and are regularly beaten and abused by their boss) to tell her story, but also to get revenge. As they adjust to their new lives, Kat begins to suspect that The New Frontier is not the shiny, happy, perfect place it purports to be.

Although this clocks in at over 400 pages, it’s a quick read (large type, small pages, and SUSPENSE! move the story along quite rapidly). This takes place in a human colony in another world in the future (science fiction/dystopia) where the colonists have gills (sounds like they genetically engineered these), and one of the things they love to do is slip into warm pools and let the water cover their gills (blissing out). Cherry Heaven doesn’t get into the real specifics of the different gene clans or the war, but there are enough clues/context sprinkled throughout for readers to pick up the general/important details. Cherry Heaven takes place in the same world as The Diary of Pelly D, and features some of the same characters (although they play lesser roles). I’m looking forward to reading The Diary, because I loved Cherry Heaven. Imaginative and intriguing.

[Maribella · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cherry Heaven by L.J. Adlington is a book with many twist and turns that make you want to keep reading. What originally attracted me to this book was the book cover and the summary in the back of the book. The cover had pink flowers with barb wire and water with a dark background. The summary caught my attention because it said something about a mysterious ghost coming back to a place, and I love books that have to do with ghosts, suspense,and mystery. Later, as I read on, I found out that there was no ghost, but the book ended up being better than I thought.
The book is about a future race of humans and how they have to over come racism and greed. The main characters are Luca, a girl who only wants to live a normal happy life after escaping her life as a slave; Kat, a nerd; and Tanka, a popular girl. Tanka and Kat move to the New Frontier to try to start over after the war and they say that the New Frontier is famous for bringing peace. But, soon Kat starts to notice that things weren't right and her questions are answered after she meets Luca. The purpose of the book was to entertain, but at the same time to send a message about how in the end nobody is what they seemed. I think the intended audience is anyone a teen and older.
At first it was kind of boring and confusing because of the introduction to the setting and characters, but then it gets good, but in the end I loved the book. There were chapters where Luca was the narrator and she gave use foreshadowing and that gave a lot to think about. The only thing I would change is I would add more problems to make the story more intriguing. I loved how they are an advanced race of humans on another planet, but there are still a lot of themes that are common in our time. It really got me thinking about the society we live in and how there are so many secrets and people who seem like someone there not,and in the end you have to be smarter then them to notice the things that aren't right.

[Rachael · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recently reviewed Cherry Heaven for Harperteen. I was very impressed with this book.

The story is set in a futuristic society on a planet other than earth. People are grown in test tubes and have gills. Status is based on the color of the tattoo on your hand, which is based on a gene test. At the top, there are the Atsumisi with their red/silver tattoos. Then, there are the blue/sliver Mazzini. At the bottom are the green/silver Galrezi.

Kat and Tanka Jones moved from City Five to the New Frontier with their adoptive parents in the hopes of having a new beginning. Things start out perfectly, until they delve into the history behind the estate they just moved into, Cherry Heaven. They learn about the Papillon family, and their fate at the hands of Oklear Foster.

But not everything is as it seems. People have lied or failed to speak up with the truth.

The alternate narrations between the Jones sisters and Luka P eventually intertwine as their lives and stories do. Some themes in Cherry Heaven are honesty and the lengths people will go through to gain power.

I think the story idea and the characters are very original, and the setting too. And it's long too, almost 500 pages. It was such a great story that I read it in a few days and then immediately reread it.

I would definitely recommend this book. If you read this and like it, you also might want to check out The Diary of Pelly D, also by L.J. Adlington.

reposted from http://thebookmuncher.blogspot.com

[Randi (The Artist Formerly known as Guitar Chick) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cherry Heaven was definitely one of the more un-expected page turners I've read this year. I had never heard of it until I checked it out from the library. I sure didn't know it was a companion book either, although I do plan to read the Diary of Pelly D now.

Anyway, onto this little book here.
It's definitely hard to get into, but once you get past the first fifty pages, I was hooked.
Luka's chapters were especially hard to get into in aforementioned first fifty pages, but thye heat up pretty fast. As soon as you can get used to the writing style, it becomes effortless.
Tanka's/Kat's chapters are a definite departure from Luka's, and it's those that are easier to read, but also seem to be begrudgingly dragging the book in a direction it never follows. It's probably because of the drastic change in narration that I found it hard to get into Cherry Heaven.

But I liked the story, I just wish we had a little more info on the details.

Not bad by any means, it just could use some more fleshing out. I'm interested to see what comes next.

[Azuree · Rating 3 out of 5]

Set in a dystopian future, Kat and Tanka move to the frontier with their foster parents where the race disputes are supposed to be over and everyone lives in harmony. Kat soon realizes that things aren't what they seem as a crazed lunatic escapes from the Factory and is on the loose and Kat finds out that people were murdered in the house she's now living in. Kat is a bit too goody-goody and smart, her sister Tanka is the stereotypical pretty & popular mean girl, the story is a bit disjointed as it goes back and forth between Kat and the escaped Factory worker and the whole book is quite predictable. The beginning of the story is hard to get into, but it gets easier to read and understand as it progresses. It's also easy to skip parts of the narrative that meander in places. Not nearly as good as The Hunger Games, but people looking for a similar read alike may enjoy it.

[Jennifer Wardrip · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reviewed by Jennifer Rummel for TeensReadToo.com

History repeats itself.

Everyone left Earth because of all the fighting and destruction of the planet. All these people left for a better chance at life, but they've forgotten their past mistakes.

Kat and Tanka move to the New Frontier with their foster parents ten years after the war killed their real parents. The New Frontier is taking giant leaps in equality for everyone, keeping peace, and helping to rebuild this world.

Unfortunately, there's a secret behind the equality and it's about to be exposed.

CHERRY HEAVEN, the companion novel to THE DIARY OF PELLY D, will open your eyes towards war and give new meaning to the word hope.

[Lexi · Rating 5 out of 5]

this was an amazing book. Its full of facism and racism as Tanka and Kat J restart their lives on the new frontier. Unaware of the ongoing troubles including their new home Cherry Heaven, Kat and Tanka go untroubled. Until Kat discovers the letters "H, M, L" scrawled into the frame of the door. Luka, the former owner of Cherry Heaven, is on a journey from escaping the Blue Mounatain Factory, to restart her life. But revenge is on her mind before she can re-boot her systems, and she has a plan. So follow Luka, Kat, and Tanka through their blisses, falling, and battles as these three teenagers learn a little something about reality.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

Satisfying companion book to the Diary of Pelly D. I love books like this that draws upon historical and/or current events but removes them from the context we normally see them in and puts them in a new world with sci-fi/fantasy elements. I feel when getting lost in such a story we become more open to self-reflection, both societal and personal, and have an opportunity to decide who we want to become and to do so with a purpose instead of riding along with what's considered "normal".

[Abby · Rating 2 out of 5]

Definitely not as good as The Diary of Pelly D. This should really be 1 and 1/2 stars (why doesn't Goodreads let you do that?) You could see the ending coming from miles in advance, and the characters were all totally one-dimensional and predictable. Still, if you want to find out what happened to some of the characters in Pelly D, you might want to read this. Or you could save yourself some time by emailing me and I'll tell you what happened to them.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took me quite awhile to get into this book, but when I did, I couldn't put it down. It's a companion to "The Diary of Pelly D" which I haven't read yet, but I am going to now! I think I would have done better if I had read Pelly D first, but it was still a good read. It is set in a society that is still reeling after a war of mass persecution on racial classes. One girl escapes from a factory where she is a slave and tries to get let people know the truth about their society.

[Jess · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perhaps it because I just read Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and the images from that novel were fresh in my head--- but all I could think about during Luka's narrative was WWII and concentration camps. It took a good 100 pages for me to get into this book, but once I did, I didn't want to put it down. Although I am not typically a fan of SCI FI (I much prefer realistic fiction), the story was believable... which really is quite scary.

[Corin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everyone should read this. I feel its one of those books that should be in every classroom and library up and down the country.

The ideas, the characters, the storyline.....everything from the cover picture is perfection.

It doesn't matter that its children's literature - c'mon look at the success of the Hunger Games! This book is amazing and I could read it endlessly without getting bored.

Read it.

[Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome, mysterious, captivating book.
I think the number one thing that made me love this book so much is the mysterious beginning and then the astonishing results. It made me hold my breath.
But, the one thing that really disappointed me was the ending. It was like a flap, rather than the flourish I expected. But it was acceptable, I guess...
The plot was amazingly made, the conflicts were spicy, and the resolution was awesome. All of that equal one great 5 star book, Cherry Heaven.

[Martha · Rating 4 out of 5]

*spoiler ahead* ----> I really enjoyed this, but for some reason I struggled with the last 10-20 pages or so. It got kind of slow and I felt like the author tried too hard to tidy up all the little details and create a happy ending. Also, apparently it's a sequel and I probably should have read the first book ahead of this one. Oh well.

[Hanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Awesomly weird. Really shows you the depth of human cruelty, resourcefullness, and ethics. It kind of makes you realize that there will always be some kind of evil in mankind, no matter how hard you try to escape it. But it also shows you that there also really is some good in the world if you just try to look. Beautiful, and very touching.

[Charlie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really loved this book and it takes a little while for you to understand the tragedy of what has happened to the human race and it really strikes a chord when it does. I feel that the sister and Luca are compelling characters who I empathized with, and the suspence created with the dual storyline really draws you in. Overall I really believe this is a fantastic book. :) x

[N · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the companion novel to The Diary of Pelly D. I read it because I loved the Diary of Pelly D. Maybe my expectations were too high. I found that it fell a bit flat. It was not bad, and I did like how it tied together with the Diary of Pelly D, but if you are only going to read one of the two, I would recommend that one. Definitely read the Diary of Pelly D first.

[Tony Stark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kind of a strange book, but all the same I give it points for originality. I read it due to a close friend's suggestion. It was slightly difficult to get into, and certain points throughout the book required every ounce of focus in my body so I that I wouldn't put it down and read something else. Some parts are hard to mentally grasp, but in the end it pretty much all fits together. Good book!

[Jen Bojkov · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just found out that I'm reading book two first. Should have read the Diary of Pelly D. Oh well- too far in now to stop. I guess I'll go back and read the other and see if I made a mistake... Finished reading it and really liked it. Going to go back and read Pelly D. This was nicely done and had points to make in between the action.

[Hailey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this book was pretty good. However, I thought it was kind of confusing because it switches back and forth between a girl that works at a factory and the two main girl characters. Although I like how it describes the character's feelings and their surroundings. I also like the idea of there being different races of people like that and the concept of the book in general.