Time Zero

March 7, 2016
Set on a walled-off, near-future Manhattan, this powerfully realized dystopian tale introduces Mina Clark, a strong-willed 15-year-old who struggles bitterly against the misogynistic, Taliban-like religious culture that she has grown up with. Plagued by a social climber of a mother, Mina is forced into an engagement with Damon Archer, the degenerate son of her father’s boss, only to discover that their religion’s strict prohibitions against alcohol, material wealth, and extramarital sexual alliances don’t apply to the powerful. Outraged, Mina fights back when Damon molests her, then attempts to escape from Manhattan with Juda, Damon’s good-hearted servant. Cohagan (The Lost Children) opens her story with a quote from Malala Yousafzai, (“All I want is an education, and I am afraid of no one”), and the Pakistani teen turned activist may well have been a model for Mina, who has illegally been taught to read by her eccentric grandmother and dares to protest the public stoning of an innocent woman. Featuring strong characters and crisp writing, this is a solid first entry in a series worth keeping an eye on. Ages 12–up.

March 15, 2016
In Cohagan's dystopian theocracy of New York City, women and girls wear face-covering veils and modest clothes and are forbidden to read, and the men wear beards and tunics. The author further underlines this state of affairs with a public call to prayer and references to the Prophet, who is referred to as "Her." However, the Prophet's edicts and the society upon which they're based are deeply patriarchal if not lethally misogynistic, with a woman publicly stoned for infidelity early on. On the day of her Offering, in which her family introduces her to prospective husbands, white, 15-year-old Mina Clark attempts to rescue the stoning victim while carrying a contraband Primer, from which her grandmother covertly teaches her to read. As the stoning becomes a melee, Mina is rescued by Juda, the manservant of Damon Asher, scion of a wealthy family to whom Mina ends up unwillingly betrothed. Could an all-women's cult called the Laurel Society, anti-veil and anti-male, be a refuge for her? Cohagan claims ecumenical intentions in an author's note, stating that she bases her fictional theocracy on several religions in the United States and the world. However, while it's possible to see traces of Orthodox Judaism and the Amish, for example, she seems to mostly borrow her ideas not only from current, media-driven stereotypes about Islam, but also the Western feminist-driven idea that Islam inherently oppresses observant Muslim women who wear the hijab and other modest clothing. Girl power need not be Islamophobic--but this book is. (Dystopian romance. 14 & up)

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May 1, 2016
Grades 7-10 As mandatory prayer bells ring out daily from every corner of a walled-off, dystopian New York City, so do 15-year-old Mina Clark's inner cries for freedom from the extremist theocracy that rules her life. Her only refuge is the Primer, a not-long-past artifact from which her grandmother has been illegally teaching her to read. For Mina's social-climbing mother, everything hinges on her Offeringthe day that Mina will be bid on by the city's most eligible bachelors. When Mina catches the eye of Damon Asher, son of the city's most affluent family, she marvels at the freedom that wealth brings, until Juda, Damon's courageous servant, rescues her from her new fiance's attempt to rape her. Will Mina find sanctuary with the antimale underground women's rebellion, the Laurel Society? Or will her love for Juda bring Mina back to the surface and maybe even out of the city? Some readers may feel the dystopian theocracy draws too heavily on negative views of Islam. Still, Cohagan's social commentary remains compelling, complex, and cleverly intertwined with an exhilarating love story.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)