Contract City

March 1, 2015

Gr 9 Up-In the year 2021, Sara Paige Christie lives in Tulsa, OK. She is a high school student who desperately wants to go to UCLA as a film student. She is working on a documentary about the graffiti that keeps popping up on the outskirts of town, which reads, "WH2RR " As Tulsa is now denationalized, the private police force, Free Force Tulsa, washes every trace of this graffiti away within 24 hours. All pictures have been scrubbed from the Internet as well, which fascinates and inspires Sara. She is determined to discover the secrets behind "WH2RR " Along her journey, Sara meets Billy, a fellow film amateur. Her infatuation leads her down a path she is not equipped to handle. As tensions rise, Sara films more than a high school student should see. She finds out the identity of the graffiti artist and that Free Force Tulsa is trying to eradicate the homeless population. As the situation explodes, Sara is in the right place at the right time, but at what cost? This is an interesting take on the popular dystopian style. The omniscient narrator's language is elegant, almost out of place in such a gritty world, but the vernacular of the characters' dialogue is realistic. Teens will identify with the protagonists here, who are concerned with the same issues: sex, alcohol, smoking, school angst, and friendship. However, the flat, underdeveloped characters seem to be buried beneath the language of the story and the dystopian world Falkin has created. VERDICT An additional purchase for any high school library.-Jeni Tahaney, Duncanville High School Library, TX

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