From NetGalley
Serpent & Dove meets Arcane in this dystopian romance debut that follows a cunning memory merchant who deals a little extra happiness on the side and the handsome rookie officer on her tail!
In 2364, eighteen-year-old Liv Newman dreams of a future beyond her lower-class life in the Metro. As a Proxy, she uses the neurochip in her brain to sell memories to wealthy clients. Maybe a few illegally, but money equals freedom. So when a customer offers her a ludicrous sum to go on an assignment in no-man’s-land, Liv accepts. Now she just has to survive.
Rookie Forceman Adrian Rao believes in order over all. After discovering that a renegade Proxy’s shady dealings are messing with citizens’ brain chemistry, he vows to extinguish the threat. But when he tracks Liv down, there’s one problem: her memories are gone. Can Adrian bring himself to condemn her for crimes she doesn’t remember?
As Liv and Adrian navigate the world beyond the Metro and their growing feelings for one another, they grapple with who they are, who they could be, and whether another way of living is possible.
Reminiscent of the true blue books that made us fall in love with the genre, The Dividing Sky is an excellent installment to the catalog of YA Dystopia. Lovers of Divergent and Legend will feel like coming home when they pick up this romantic and thrilling debut novel.
I have an endless amount of good things to say about this book, but let's start with the characters. The fully fleshed, genuinely interesting, characters of The Dividing Sky drive this story from the very beginning. There's not a lag in sight. Starting with Liv, a scrappy, resourceful firecracker "Lower" who uses the engineered chip permanently attached to her mind to share memories and experiences with Uppers, who are too busy to get out and live themselves. Liv notes all of the issues in the city, the Metro, on her way to see her highest-paying client. The city is run by a corrupt entity called Life Corp which values productivity above all else and uses a drug named Mean to control its citizens. All Liv wants is to save enough "credits" so that she and her friends can make a better life for themselves.
Adrian, however, is drinking the Life Corp Kool-Aid. As a young forceman, he is in a position of privilege. He benefits from the system that keeps civilians under its thumb. He doesn't see a reason to want anything more than the life Life Corp has provided and he's a staunch rule-follower. His main motivation is moving up the ranks within the forcemen organization, and he can do that by tracking down the mysterious drug making its users resistant to Mean and Life Corp's ever-looming authority. A chance encounter, a moment of vulnerability for Adrian, brings him face-to-face with Liv who, unbeknownst to him, is the key to all his questions. But when they both witness a terrible event from opposing perspectives a domino effect of happenings will change their lives forever.
Jill Tew has created a vibrant futuristic world, full of wonderous and terrifying possibilities. There isn't any technological feature in this book that is unimaginable. The beginnings of the advancements within its pages are well within our grasp. Tew plays with our reality, the capitalistic machine that rules society as we know it now, and shapes it into a mirrored version of our future. That's always been the best part of dystopian fiction, that the reader can see the parallels and carry on that fighting spirit long after the story ends. Tew has achieved just that.
And don't get me started on the romance! Tris and Four, meet your successors. The tension between Liv and Adrian is its own entity. This plot, the world, lends itself to so much uncertainty. The pressures from Adrian's career and training as a forceman led to some questionable choices on his part. Couple that with Liv's memory missing, there are many concerns left up in the air for much of the book, but it keeps the reader turning that page.
The Dividing Sky is an action-packed romance that asks big questions and forces you to pay attention to the little, memorable, moments. It is one of the best books I've read in a very long time. Do yourselves a favor and go get a copy because it's out now wherever books are sold!
I highly recommend this book to any readers who love the dystopian genre, any of the dystopian books, forbidden romance, stories where he falls first, the amnesia trope, or just want a really good book!
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