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Kricket
Religious freedom has been stripped from Americans through the Religious Uniformity Act. Kricket Foster is a second-generation fighter in the Religious Resistance, a radical group of activists organized to restore this freedom. After a brush with the law, Kricket gives up activism to protect her young daughter.
Kricket makes her living bootlegging and bringing medications into the US. Other than paying off or shooting the occasional extortionist Department of Religious Affairs agent, she lives a quiet life. Her vow to stay out of the Resistance is challenged when she finds herself embroiled in a plot to murder the DRA Director. She must choose between her family and her beliefs while maintaining her commitment to her community. If she makes the wrong choice, she will lose her freedom and many of her friends will lose their lives.
Kricket makes her living bootlegging and bringing medications into the US. Other than paying off or shooting the occasional extortionist Department of Religious Affairs agent, she lives a quiet life. Her vow to stay out of the Resistance is challenged when she finds herself embroiled in a plot to murder the DRA Director. She must choose between her family and her beliefs while maintaining her commitment to her community. If she makes the wrong choice, she will lose her freedom and many of her friends will lose their lives.
242 pages, Paperback
Published April 25, 2018
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15 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
May 22, 2018
I usually avoid dystopians, be they zombie apocalypse, plague, nuclear holocaust... you name it, I avoid it. I'm not a sunny person, okay, if you ask me, after things have disintegrated to say 4/10 on the quality of life scale, I don't understand why these people don't just top themselves and get it over with.
What possible value can they still find in life, when they have to spend that life on the run, eating garbage to stay alive, getting in shootouts and fistfights and that all day every day? You've already got a gun, there, friendo, what are you waiting for?
There's that other kind of dystopia, though: the Big Maybe, you might say, where things are pretty terrible, but there's still a chance they'll improve. The GP has won the Get the Crap Kicked Outta Ya Contest, sure, but even if it's down, it isn't quite out, yet. The Handmaid's Tale. V for Vendetta. 1984.
And, as another example, Penni Jones's Kricket.
You might be tempted to believe that Kricket's a product of the current sociopolitical climate down in the US, but I read an early draft of it, years ago, when the world didn't seem as scary as it does now. When we weren't as scared. It was a funhouse mirror prediction, then, and it's genuinely remarkable for that, you know, we're not there yet, not exactly, but nobody is going to read this book and think comoffit, poopypants, that could never happen.
What sets it apart from many other books in the genre is its workaday humanity, you know, the author doesn't content herself with showing a series of forgettable, interchangeable characters subjected to her world's atrocities, and nor are the atrocities all she shows. She's built the world--built it very well--but she's built the people living in it with just as much dexterity.
Some of the time they're fighting, on whichever side they're on, but sometimes they're just eating pancakes, or having a smoke. It's often in the small moments that character is revealed, after all. The private moments. You don't really get a sense of yourself when you're busy at work, but stuck awake in bed at 2am?
Um yeah.
Not just the titular protagonist but all of Jones's characters are fully-realized, flesh and blood, not just nametag automatons to be shuffled from scene to scene as the story unfolds. They have history, layers of it, none of it predictable, and that's what drives the story, far more so than the world they live in, though the richness of that world is an achievement on its own, just familiar enough to be upsetting.
It's a world I cared about, reading it, people I cared about. I'm sure you will, too.
What possible value can they still find in life, when they have to spend that life on the run, eating garbage to stay alive, getting in shootouts and fistfights and that all day every day? You've already got a gun, there, friendo, what are you waiting for?
There's that other kind of dystopia, though: the Big Maybe, you might say, where things are pretty terrible, but there's still a chance they'll improve. The GP has won the Get the Crap Kicked Outta Ya Contest, sure, but even if it's down, it isn't quite out, yet. The Handmaid's Tale. V for Vendetta. 1984.
And, as another example, Penni Jones's Kricket.
You might be tempted to believe that Kricket's a product of the current sociopolitical climate down in the US, but I read an early draft of it, years ago, when the world didn't seem as scary as it does now. When we weren't as scared. It was a funhouse mirror prediction, then, and it's genuinely remarkable for that, you know, we're not there yet, not exactly, but nobody is going to read this book and think comoffit, poopypants, that could never happen.
What sets it apart from many other books in the genre is its workaday humanity, you know, the author doesn't content herself with showing a series of forgettable, interchangeable characters subjected to her world's atrocities, and nor are the atrocities all she shows. She's built the world--built it very well--but she's built the people living in it with just as much dexterity.
Some of the time they're fighting, on whichever side they're on, but sometimes they're just eating pancakes, or having a smoke. It's often in the small moments that character is revealed, after all. The private moments. You don't really get a sense of yourself when you're busy at work, but stuck awake in bed at 2am?
Um yeah.
Not just the titular protagonist but all of Jones's characters are fully-realized, flesh and blood, not just nametag automatons to be shuffled from scene to scene as the story unfolds. They have history, layers of it, none of it predictable, and that's what drives the story, far more so than the world they live in, though the richness of that world is an achievement on its own, just familiar enough to be upsetting.
It's a world I cared about, reading it, people I cared about. I'm sure you will, too.
January 9, 2019
I haven’t read a book in a long time where I was left wondering who to trust. Kricket is like an American V for Vendetta. But instead of a warning of the future, this has the hallmarks of the prohibition era and shows a history where America had continued down a very controlling path. I had some worries since the book could have used an extra gay/trans sensitivity reader, but it’s flaws in that department are mostly of omission in large part based on the time period the book is set in rather than something more actively harmful so I never stopped reading because of it. Opinions may vary however since the subject matter is so very heavy. Personally the more I read the more anxiously curious and worried i became to find out if anyone’s ruse would pay off in the end. There’s a lot of tension because of this so I won’t share any spoilers! ;)
August 11, 2018
This book was difficult to put down. I don't normally read dystopian books, but this one was particularly fascinating. Well done!
did-not-finish
February 2, 2019DNF @ ~30%
***I received a review copy from someone who works with the publisher in exchange for an honest review.***
I was curious to try this book when I saw a mutual tweeting about it, and so received a review copy from the publisher, as I mentioned. While I don't think this was necessarily a bad book, it just wasn't for me. I couldn't connect with the writing and thus wasn't invested in any of the characters.
What I read of it was your typical dystopian fare--religion rules everything, queer people are sent to conversion and/or prison camps, racism abounds and interracial relationships are banned, and so on. These are perhaps part of the reason I wasn't able to get lost in the book. If you read the blurb, then you know about most of this ahead of time, but it's just so blandly similar to other dystopians, and honestly, I'm a bit skeptical of a white lady writing a book where racism reigns. (I didn't find anywhere that the author is confirmed as queer, so I won't comment there, but if she isn't, then I'm just as skeptical about an allocishet person writing a reality where queer people are violently punished for being queer.)
Content Warnings (for the 30% I read): religion (Christianity), violence, corrupt government, cissexism/trans exclusionary language, anti-queerness, ableism, enby exclusionary language, abortion mention, cheating mention, classism mention, rape mention, corrective rape mention, torture mention, suicide mention, slurs, gendered slurs, menstruation, racism
***I received a review copy from someone who works with the publisher in exchange for an honest review.***
I was curious to try this book when I saw a mutual tweeting about it, and so received a review copy from the publisher, as I mentioned. While I don't think this was necessarily a bad book, it just wasn't for me. I couldn't connect with the writing and thus wasn't invested in any of the characters.
What I read of it was your typical dystopian fare--religion rules everything, queer people are sent to conversion and/or prison camps, racism abounds and interracial relationships are banned, and so on. These are perhaps part of the reason I wasn't able to get lost in the book. If you read the blurb, then you know about most of this ahead of time, but it's just so blandly similar to other dystopians, and honestly, I'm a bit skeptical of a white lady writing a book where racism reigns. (I didn't find anywhere that the author is confirmed as queer, so I won't comment there, but if she isn't, then I'm just as skeptical about an allocishet person writing a reality where queer people are violently punished for being queer.)
Content Warnings (for the 30% I read): religion (Christianity), violence, corrupt government, cissexism/trans exclusionary language, anti-queerness, ableism, enby exclusionary language, abortion mention, cheating mention, classism mention, rape mention, corrective rape mention, torture mention, suicide mention, slurs, gendered slurs, menstruation, racism
September 1, 2018
Unlike most dystopian tales that take place in the future, Kricket is an alternative-history set in the present day. And it’s all too believable. The Religious Uniformity Act has turned America into a fundamentalist nightmare. Kricket, whose parents were once members of the Resistance, practices her own form of resistance by running an illegal bar and smuggling banned drugs (such as antibiotics and a treatment for an AIDS-like disease). Intolerance of gays is a major through-line in the novel and affects Kricket personally.
The plotting is tight and hard-driving. And the author truly excels with her characters. They are all so real—good guys and bad—that I hope there’s a sequel because I’d like to learn more about some of them. Coming from Kricket’s cynical point-of-view, Penni Jones’ noir prose is truly addicting. The opening lines are among the most memorable I’ve read and will get you hooked immediately. The rest of the book is just as good.
Kricket is highly recommended and I look forward to reading more of Penni Jones’ work.
The plotting is tight and hard-driving. And the author truly excels with her characters. They are all so real—good guys and bad—that I hope there’s a sequel because I’d like to learn more about some of them. Coming from Kricket’s cynical point-of-view, Penni Jones’ noir prose is truly addicting. The opening lines are among the most memorable I’ve read and will get you hooked immediately. The rest of the book is just as good.
Kricket is highly recommended and I look forward to reading more of Penni Jones’ work.
June 29, 2018
Kricket is a compelling drama, set in a dystopian present. It was uncomfortable at times, because so much of the dystopia is completely plausible in the current political environment. But that's the hallmark of good fiction, right? There but for the grace of God, go us.
The characters are richly drawn, and consistently told. Everything the heroine did was exactly what I would have expected her to do. Not that the story was predictable, but that the characters rang true throughout. I have no idea if a sequel is planned, but the story is ripe for one, and I'd read it in a heartbeat.
The plot moved quickly. There was always something happening, and the author managed to avoid having the "saggy middle" that plagues the modern novel. For me, things really started to cook at about 50% through the book, and I went into page-turner mode to the end.
The characters are richly drawn, and consistently told. Everything the heroine did was exactly what I would have expected her to do. Not that the story was predictable, but that the characters rang true throughout. I have no idea if a sequel is planned, but the story is ripe for one, and I'd read it in a heartbeat.
The plot moved quickly. There was always something happening, and the author managed to avoid having the "saggy middle" that plagues the modern novel. For me, things really started to cook at about 50% through the book, and I went into page-turner mode to the end.
August 13, 2018
This book was a wild ride and at times uncomfortably plausible. It’s not a far leap from today’s headlines and will haunt the reader’s mind and heart long after it’s finished.
September 10, 2018
This book was great! I couldn't put it down.
It starts out with a new world order, and wow, is it action packed.
It starts out with a new world order, and wow, is it action packed.
March 8, 2020
An excellent world, and the action starts on the first page and never lets up. Jones is exceptional.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews