Feuds

July 14, 2014
Hastings’s cluttered debut introduces a segregated society divided into elite Priors, engineered in utero for perfection, and the oppressed Gens who serve and resent them. Cole, a Gen cage-fighter in the brutal FEUDS competition, is hired to get close to Davis Morrow, an up-and-coming ballerina whose father is running for election on a pro-segregation platform. A photo of Davis fraternizing with a Gen would destroy her father’s political career. Cole falls for Davis, and his thoughts on the matter are equally predictable: he had “assumed... all Priors were the same. But now he’d met one, gotten to know one... and he couldn’t get her out of his head.” Meanwhile, Davis is endangered by a spreading virus that only attacks Priors, and her society goes into denial, dumping the bodies in Gen neighborhoods and refusing to admit that anyone is ill. The disparate elements of the story line, a familiar combination of dystopian adventure and forbidden romance, don’t cohere smoothly. This trilogy opener ends on a cliffhanger. A Paper Lantern Lit property. Ages 12–up. Agent: Stephen Barbara, Foundry Literary + Media.

August 15, 2014
Cole, a Geneserian, and Davis, a Prior, battle segregation, disease and meddling families to cling to the strongest love they've ever known. Davis has never been anything but beautiful and accomplished. But life is still hard for this 16-year-old. Just because she's genetically programmed to overcome certain biological events, such as illness, doesn't mean she can avoid complicated relationships with her friends and family. She also has to practice hard to achieve her dream of becoming a ballerina like her mother. Cole has it much worse. He lives in the slums and resorts to cage fighting for cash. When they meet and fall in love, it's complicated, and not just because there's a deadly disease striking down Priors. Debut novelist Hastings relies too heavily on stereotypes to offer anything new to readers hungry for tales of love in the time of dystopia. Instead, this book feels like a novel they've all read before. The action sometimes leaps over explanatory moments so it's hard to catch up to characters, who flit from one emotionally overloaded scene to another. Secondary characters like Davis' friend Oscar and a creepy boatman are more intriguing that the main characters, who suffer from dialogue made of cliches: "I'll never give up if you're beside me." A disappointing futuristic retelling of Romeo and Juliet. (Dystopian romance. 15-18)

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September 1, 2014

Gr 9 Up-In an alternate future that is harshly segregated, Davis, a "Prior," and Cole, an "Imp" could not be more different. Davis is part of an elite group of humans with enough money to genetically modify themselves into perfection. She gets the best education, goes to the hottest parties, and has the freedom to concentrate on her passion-ballet. Cole lives in the Slants with the other poor, imperfect humans. He is a fierce opponent in the FEUDS, an underground cage-fighting competition run by Priors. When Cole's FEUDS sponsor, a political rival to Davis' father, blackmails him into infiltrating a Prior party, everything changes. Cole becomes aware that a deadly virus covered up by the government is killing off Priors. He never meant to become involved, and he certainly never meant to fall in love with his mark. Feuds is fast-paced and plot-driven. While readers will naturally see Davis and Cole as star-crossed lovers, Davis is unaware of Cole's background until the end of the book. Hastings has created a fascinating society where the so-called ideal humans start dying off from a virus that is directly related to the modifications that made them perfect. Hopefully, the world-building and characters will be further fleshed out in future books. While the premise is not entirely unique, the story is executed well. Feuds ends with an unexpected cliff-hanger. Readers will eagerly await the sequel.-Marissa Lieberman, East Orange Public Library, NJ

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