Kat Falls

Any book that starts out with a luminescent shark attack is worth reading, I always say.

Dark Life is a Middle Grade novel set in a future Earth where most of the planet has been covered by ocean. Benthic Territory is an experimental colony where underwater pioneers cultivate the land, farm, and raise subsea “livestock.” Teenage Ty is the first person to be born subsea, and is looking forward to the day he is old enough to claim his own land and settle it. Meanwhile, the Topsiders, such show more as a girl named Gemma, call the pioneers “Dark Life” and rumors abound of “Dark Gifts:” special powers that the youngest generation of subsea pioneers have developed from so much time underwater. Gemma is looking for her prospector brother while Ty and his family are trying to fend off the Seablite Gang (underwater criminals (obviously)).

I really enjoyed this book, so prepare yourself for some gushing!

First of all, the world-building is really great, extremely imaginative, and yet set firmly in reality. Everything underwater is described with so much wonder and beauty and terror, whether it’s “real life” deep sea creatures or the kind of architecture the pioneers have developed for their houses (spherical bendy things). The only item that smacks of narrative convenience is “Liquigen,” a substance that can be swallowed and coats the lungs (or something) so they can breathe underwater. But otherwise the farming methods (bubbles as fences (no seriously it makes sense)), architecture, travel methods, etc, are all thoroughly thought out. Gemma’s stories of how Topsiders live was like a legitimate believable dystopia world, rather than the trendy How Horrible Can We Make The Future: Let’s Kill More Babies dystopias.

Speaking of great and clever, the characters are, too. Ty is very capable and resourceful underwater, but we also see that contrasted with his cautious discomfort when out of water. He’s just one of those characters you want to root for, only with bioluminiscent skin and epic underwater skills. He’s written like an actual teenager (always refreshing), but one that has had to work his whole life, so he’s dependable and hard-working. Gemma is fun, too: reckless and cocky, but smart and kind. Both of the teenagers are very lonely, as Gemma doesn’t really have a family and Ty doesn’t have any friends because he LIVES UNDERWATER. The supporting characters are all fabulous, too, especially Ty’s younger sister Zoe, but the book is on the short end of things and the focus is mostly on Gemma and Ty.

The mystery plot was very well paced and focused. It did a good job of convincing me that I knew what was going on, and then being all, “Just kidding, you don’t!” and then DOING IT AGAIN. The writing is extremely cinematic; the action is written in a visual, suspenseful way that makes it feel like it’s in real time. I’m not going to blather on about the plot because there’s too many things I can’t talk about without being spoilery.

Just do yourself a favor and read this book. It’s a really fun, fast, imaginative read.

(my review also posted on my blog http://bahnree.wordpress.com) show less

Inhuman by Kat Falls is a YA dystopian novel from Scholastic Inc., but it's not like any other YA dystopian story out there. Inhuman reads as if it's a cross between Alice in Wonderland meets The Walking Dead. I also find it hilarious to note that Chicago is again the setting of this dystopian society. Poor Chicago. Why do YA authors think this city is going to hell in the future?

Set in the future, the world has been ravaged by a virus that essentially turns humans into animalistic show more creatures. Those afflicted are trapped on the other side of heavily guarded defensive wall in attempt to control another outbreak and to protect the population from the danger posed by the infected. This abandoned area of the U.S. is nicknamed the Feral Zone- something that you can't really appreciate until the courageous female protagonist Lane adventures through it on a mission to save her father.

Inhuman is a mix of horror, suspense, action, and adventure. There's guns, bloodshed, corrupted minds, a light love story, and of course-- feral humans who have turned part-animal. The protagonist is courageous, smart, and yet another strong female character to inspire readers. I enjoyed the fact that she's not immune to the horror around her; she's humanized in her being both physically and emotionally sick at the violence around her in the Feral Zone.

The book explores the differences between being human and being animal, suggesting that with or without a virus, we all have a little "feral" in us. You can be "all human" and still be driven to feral qualities or actions in moments of pure desperation or in an attempt to survive. We see that not all "animals" are feral, but we also see that all humans have some animal in them; whether they were infected or not. It's a vague analogy that refers to the process of evolution with a virus that can take us back from man and turn us into beast.

Inhuman is a fact-paced adventure through a mutated, desperate, and violent world. It is a fantastic fantasy/dystopian story that is well-written, exciting, and different from the wealth of other dystopian YA novels out there. If you enjoy teen action/adventure and dystopian novels, this is a fantastic choice!

4 stars show less

It often amazes me how an author can pull in a reader with just a handful of words in an opening paragraph, making that reader want to continue reading more than anything else at that moment in time. Kat Falls pulls this off with remarkable ease, especially considering this is her debut novel:

"I peered into the deep-sea canyon, hoping to spot a toppled skyscraper. Maybe even the Statue of Liberty. But there was no sign of the old East Coast, just a sheer drop into darkness."

And she has not show more been let down by the designer of the book's cover. If any book was going to shout "Buy me!" from a book store shelf this summer it is going to be this one.

Dark Life is set in the future, when the oceans have risen due to global warming. Land is now at a premium with the majority of the world's population living in tightly packed high rise towers, and people only venture out smothered in super-high factor sunblock in order to stop their skin from being stripped away by the extremely high levels of UV radiation that now bombard the planet. In an attempt to forge a better life a small number of brave individuals and fmailies have set up homesteads on the sea beds, staking claims to land just as the pioneers of the Old West did one hundred and fifty years ago. In fact, the parallels with the Old West do not stop there. Imagine all those classic Westerns that are repeated on TV ad infinitum, but in a future setting, where the farms are underwater, the crops farmed include plankton and kelp, and outlaws travel in submarines instead of on horseback. Ms Falls has taken a period in american history that we all know so well from decades of Hollywood movies, and has used this as the basis for her creation of a fully realised and fascinating future world.

The story is told through the voice of Ty, a teenage boy whose mother and father own 200 acres of ocean floor. Right from the start we discover how different Ty's life is from your average modern day teenager when he has to evade a green lantern shark - only twelve inches long but able to "rip apart something twenty times their size". On balance I generally prefer third person narration, but the telling of this story in the first person really worked for me - Ty's life is so alien to anything that a young reader has ever experienced the first person narration really helps us get inside his head and understand his hopes and dreams, and his fears and frustrations. Ty can come across as a little too goody-goody at times, and yet he is also a rule breaker as he bravely takes risks and ignores the boundaries set by his parents as he seeks to explore his fascinating world. With so few teenagers to socialise with who can blame him for wanting a little excitement?

Excitement suddenly comes along by the truckload when he meets Gemma, a Topsider who has run away from her boarding house and is searching the subsea area for her long lost brother. From the moment the two meet Ty's life seems to go into overdrive as he races from one near-death experience straight into another, facing deadly creatures and bloodthirsty outlaws, whilst also trying to hide a dark secret about himself and his sister. Rumours abound amongst Topiders that children born beneath the waves have special mutant powers resulting from the 'unnatural environment' in which they live. Ty, his sister and his friend Hewitt have spent their lives hiding their powers from everyone, including their parents, as they worry that their parents will worry about any potential long-term damage and move the families back to dry land. Gemma has her suspicions right from the start, although some of this is prompted by Ty's physical appearance - his skin shimmers, a product of eating bioluminescent fish.

I think boys will love this book. The action is non-stop throughout - there is certainly no chance to get bored. The subsea world is truly fascinating, and although the concept of people dwelling beneath the waves has been around for centuries, in Dark Life it is explored in a fresh and original way. Most of all I think boys will love the villains of the story - the ruthless Shade and his Seablite Gang, the most feared outlaws beneath the waves. These guys are nasty, seemingly happy to kill anyone if it suits their cause.

Unlike many books being released these days this book doesn't end on a cliffhanger, and all the loose ends and various little mysteries created by the author are brought to a satisfying conclusion. I would be very disappointed however if this isn't the first in a series as I very much want to see what happens next in the lives of Ty and Gemma in their underwater world. show less

There is some seriously cool world-building going on up in here. I'm glad I squeezed finishing off this book in between watching Easy A with my family (pretty awesome) and trying NOT to watch Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (all music by Burt Bacharach...nuff said). Kat Falls' first novel is set underwater in a future where most of our land is under the ocean and the majority of people live in crowded tenement blocks. Ty, the teenage protagonist, is the first child born in the underwater show more colony and its only male teenager. (though there ARE other kids) Most of the action surrounds a "Topsider" girl, Gemma, who appears at the ocean trading post looking for her lost brother and the outlaw gang that is harassing the supply lines to the settlement.

Here is an equation to sum up this book: Underwater awesomness Outlaws a la Firefly fun (if a little juvenile) writing style quasi super powers = This book. The climax was a little anticlimactic, but not in terms of action--it just seemed too hurried. Overall, though, the world was really interesting and I'd definitely (will definitely? I don't know if there is a series in the works) read more books set in Kat Falls' underwater world. show less