Away

July 15, 2011

This worthy sequel to Hall's The Line (2010) continues to build a dystopian world rich with suspense and moral choices.

Rachel enters "Away," the wild area on the other side of the "Line," the border of the repressive "Unified States." Life has evolved in Away, even producing such new animals as the terrifying baern and a marvelous, clever sheep-cat named Nipper. There, Rachel meets Pathik, a possible romantic interest, and others of his family and group, many of whom have a supernatural ability. Rachel rescues her father, long thought dead, from a rival camp. Indigo, Pathik's grandfather and leader of their camp, decides they should relocate to an island that may offer real safety, continuing the suspense and setting up the next sequel. Hall tackles morality in the use of the characters' supernatural gifts. Indigo, for example, can kill with his mind, but should he, and will he? Her dystopian world comes across vividly, and her characters stand out as varied and real. Although the undefined political repression of the Unified States fades in this book, the tension of a police state remains. The Away people live without electricity in crude huts, but they live freely. As they make their way to their new life (including, one hopes, Nipper) readers will be waiting for them.

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December 1, 2011

Gr 7-10-This book picks up where The Line (Dial, 2010) leaves off. Rachel finds herself struggling to adjust to life Away, after having Crossed over the Line in order to save the leader of a group of Others. Feared, and in some cases openly despised, she clings to the hope that she will be able to find her father, Daniel, presumed dead for several years, and reunite her family. Rachel learns quickly that not all of the Others are as terrible and frightening as she has been led to believe, and through her, the Others discover that there are still good people on the other side of the Line. The story starts slowly, but once it gets going, it moves quickly-so much so that the ending seems a bit rushed and not quite fully developed. Rachel is a little vanilla as far as teen heroines go but there are plenty of fully fleshed-out characters to carry the narrative, particularly among the Others. The story will leave fans of the first book eager for the next installment.-Erik Knapp, Davis Library, Plano, TX

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