The Ship

February 27, 2017
“I was born at the end of the world” is how 16-year-old Lalla Paul of London begins her story. Though civilization is rapidly dying around her, her parents—mainly her wealthy and connected father, Michael, inventor of a major computer network censorship tool—manage to keep her sheltered from the worst of it. Michael has a plan in the form of a ship that’s large enough to carry them and 500 others, along with years’ worth of supplies, out to sea and safety. But once aboard the ship, Lalla is traumatized by tragedy, unsettled by her father’s slow transformation into a messianic figure, overwhelmed by love, and concerned about the long-term prospects for survival. Honeywell’s lyrical descriptions of Lalla’s thoughts and the ship itself are haunting, and quite grim when Lalla questions their plans and her father’s influence. But Lalla’s adolescent vacillating about different aspects of ship life can get tiresome, and the reader might eventually sympathize with the characters who are frustrated by her. This mixed bag of beauty and vexation has a gut-twisting epilogue that will appeal to lovers of psychological speculative fiction.

March 1, 2017
A sheltered teenager has an existential crisis while riding out the apocalypse aboard her father's private ark in this dystopian debut novel.Sixteen-year-old Lalage "Lalla" Paul lives comfortably in a secure flat with her wealthy parents, Anna and Michael. Outside, the environment is in ruins, resources are scarce, and the military-run government performs mass executions to reduce the population. Intent on providing a better life--and eventual death--for his family, Michael purchases a ship, stocks it with supplies, and selects 500 virtuous people to fill its berths; Anna, however, maintains it's their moral obligation to stay in London and help the less fortunate. When someone shoots Anna through the living room window, Michael and Lalla carry her onto the ship, where she succumbs to her injury. The ship's passengers then do battle with British troops and a starving mob before heading out to sea. Michael (who becomes a quasi-cult leader known as "Father") encourages his new flock to forget the past and enjoy the present, but Lalla stubbornly refuses, whining about the lack of adversity, fixating on what's happening back home, and obsessing over where the ship is headed. Even falling in love isn't enough to distract the petulant, ungrateful Lalla from her endless cycle of adolescent angst and petty rebellion. After a harrowing launch, Honeywell's tale sails into the doldrums and sinks under the weight of haphazard plotting, uneven pacing, and subpar character work.

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March 15, 2017

As the daughter of a man with important government connections, Lalla Paul has grown up fairly well off in a devastated Britain that subsides on increasingly scarce food rations and is overrun with undocumented refugees. As conditions worsen, 16-year-old Lalla and her parents are ready to escape in the Ship with 500 carefully chosen other people. Throughout her young life, Lalla knew her father was preparing for the day they must flee, even if her mother stubbornly believed that things could get better. With her father's insistence that this is their one chance for survival, Lalla will finally see the culmination of these years of planning. But will the Ship be the answer to all their difficulties, or will Lalla discover that their problems exist in the people who surround her? Taking the old adage of "best laid plans," this debut novel creates a new world that may not necessarily be better than the old. VERDICT Honeywell's dystopian coming-of-age tale is challenging and intense, but the large amount of exposition and "daddy/daughter" dynamic slows the plot. Despite these flaws, this is a solid YA crossover.--KC

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