Finding My Chocolate Fix: The Sowing

Title:                        The Sowing

Author:                    K. Makansi

Genre:                     YA/Dystopian/Sci-Fi

Pages:                     292

Publisher:               Layla Dog Press

Publish Date:          December 15, 2013

Recipe Variables:   Language—F-Bomb!

Series:                     The Seeds Trilogy

Book Blurb:

The Resistance Has Begun.

Remy Alexander never thought she’d be hunted. Growing up in the posh comfort of the elite meritocracy of the Okarian Sector, she knew nothing of genetically modified food, drug regimes used to control and manipulate citizens, or the mysterious disappearances of powerful Sector scientists and politicians. But when her older sister Tai was killed in a brutal classroom massacre, Remy and her friend Eli swore to find the truth behind her sister’s murder. Now, three years after the massacre, Remy and Eli are fighters for the Resistance, a fledgling group of renegades trying to stop the Sector’s systematic enslavement of citizens. But just as Remy and Eli think they’ve found a clue into the mystery of her sister’s death, Valerian Orlean, Remy’s old schoolgirl crush, is put in charge of destroying the Resistance. While Remy and her friends race to unravel the mystery behind her sister’s murder, Vale is haunted by the memory of his friendship with Remy and is determined to find out why she disappeared. As the Sector hunts the Resistance, and Vale and Remy search for answers, the two are set on a collision course that could bring everyone together – or tear everything apart.

In this science-fiction dystopia, the mother-daughter writing team of Kristina, Amira, and Elena Makansi immerses readers in the post-apocalyptic world of the Okarian Sector where romance, friendship, adventure, and betrayal will decide the fate of a budding nation.

Review:

To satisfy my chocolate itch, I’ve shopped the candy aisles thinking, “huh, that looks like a good one, but chocolate is chocolate…it really doesn’t matter, just as long as I get some.” Oh contraire! Choosing just the right brand of yum to achieve a chocolate fix makes all the difference in the world, and also, incidentally, aligned with my assumptions when it came to reading The Sowing by the Makansi mother-daughter writing trio. This addition to the dystopian genre packed a punch that woke me up to the realization that not all chocolate (or dystopian novels) are created equal.

The strongest part of the book? The very first bite! Rarely do stories immediately suck the reader into the thick of things, but the Makansis do so in the prologue by getting us to love Tai within a couple of pages…then killing her off in a school shooting! What. The. Hell?!? Are you kidding me?! The amazing work of the authors, however, lies in the fact they are able to create a ripple effect through the rest of the novel, with Tai haunting the storyline and characters throughout the rest of the novel. The genealogy of both the younger and adult characters is also engaging; the reader is not dealing with two or three people the same age from one or two families, but rather, relationships are layered through jobs, politics, and family—both close and extended. What’s even better? It’s not confusing. At. All. There was no need of a complex glossary of characters because everything was smooth; it kept me involved, challenging my thought process, while in the meantime, not frying my brain to the point where I couldn’t keep up with what the hell was going on with the twisted helix, double strands, and genome sequencing.

Oh! And that’s the other cool thing about this read. It tackles a completely new and relevant topic to what’s happening in our own society. Food! With all the talk about GMOs, it’s fabulous to see the theories in action; best of all, the science is explained in a manner that any supermarket shopper can understand, as told through the lens of Remy, the main heroine. The dual narrative between the main characters of Remy and Vale is sharp and lends a dichotomy that is not to be missed. Get on down to the store and taste this dystopian treat, peeps!

 

5 Squares