I won this one a little while back from my friend,
Christina’s blog. Not everyone loves Kimberly Derting, but I so do! I love her
Body Finder series. And I absolutely adored this book. I know it kind of seems
like I love everything I read, but lately I’ve just been so impressed with the
YA books I’ve been reading. And Derting has totally won my respect for this
one.
She has developed such an interesting and unique dystopian
world. Her main character is amazing. She combines, war, dystopia, romance, and
royalty in this one. There’s torture, death, bombings, evil queens,
revolutions, first love, and secret powers all in one book! What about that
sounds bad?
It’s about Charlie. She has the amazing ability to
understand all languages without ever really learning them. Unfortunately for
her, she lives in a society where the people are divided by the languages they
can speak. The poor people have one language, the merchants have one language,
the wealthy have another language, and the royalty have one only few know how
to speak at all. And once you are born into your place in the world, you can’t
ever change; you can only know the language that fits your class.
Charlie’s parents have forced her to hide her ability since
they found out she had it. They also are working on having her younger sister
learn to hide her own special abilities. They never really explained why this
needs to be hidden, but then things happen, and it’s hard to question. Like,
when Charlie breaks a rule and actually looks someone of an upper class in the
eye when they are speaking their own language, the consequences for her should
be death. Seriously, in this world, all it takes is looking at someone when
they are speaking a higher up language, and off you go to be executed!
Thankfully, Charlie gets away with it out of luck. But most
people don’t. The queen has a very strict set of rules, and this has resulted
in a revolution. Many are fighting against her, and the land is constantly
going through drills and then actual attacks. There’s a lot of time spent in
hiding, underground from bombs. There’s also the side story of the queen and
how she got to be the way she is. For centuries, the oldest royal daughter born
becomes queen. Men never rule. And the queen is always the same. The same
essence takes over each girl’s body. So Ludania has only really ever seemed to
have one queen (not that anybody really knows this).
Charlie falls hard for a soldier, Max, in a night club she
goes to with her best friend. She goes to these clubs partly because her friend
is boy-crazy, and partly because these sort of illegal places (where underage
girls get stamped with a drug that makes them “looser”) are the only places
where class and language don’t seem to matter. Everyone dances and drinks with
everyone and no one gets in trouble for looking up when a different language is
being spoken.
And as the romance and the story builds, it becomes more and
more clear that there was a lot more than the mere thought of death that was
keeping Charlie’s parents so secretive. They make sure at all costs that their
daughters stay as far away from the queen as possible. Soon, it’s up to Charlie
to save the lives of everyone she cares about. She finds herself walking a thin
line between hiding to protect herself and her sister and joining the
revolution. No one is who they seem to be. And Charlie will have to decide what
is more important to her: the ones she loves, her country, or herself.
So, I really did not want to give a lot away here. But, be
warned I am about to give a little something away right now. Charlie learns she
is actually a long lost royal daughter. And the main reason she needs to stay
hidden is because if the queen were to find out, her body would be taken over
by the queen’s spirit, and Charlie would be gone forever. Oh, and the queen is
very old and desperate because she has no female heirs to pass her essence to.
And I’m bringing this up because I just love how Derting
handled this. I love how Charlie hated the idea of being a queen, yet she never
whined about her life. She struggled so much to survive, but never complained.
She did everything she did for her sister. And I loved her for not whining
about how hard her life was! She took it, lived it, and eventually fought it. I
loved the other characters too! Her parents clearly loved her. Her sister was
just so awesome. Charlie could speak every language, but her sister never spoke
at all. And she reminded me so much of Charles Wallace from A Wrinkle in Time!
The queen storyline was really interesting too! It reminded
me of some the evil queen’s storyline in Once Upon a Time. I would have loved
to have gotten more of the revolutionary story. I felt like Charlie just kind
of accepted that really quickly. How did everyone living underground get there?
What made them join this cause? And why were they so willing to accept a
different queen? Why any queen at all?
And the only thing that I honestly was not a huge fan of was
the romance. I loved the tension between Charlie and Max, really, I did. I just
felt like it kind of came out of nowhere. All of a sudden, Max will do
anything, risk anything, and be anything to protect a girl who continuously
rejects him? I feel like there was something missing here, some important
connection scene that was cut out. Still though, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t
eat up the romance.
I give this one a 9/10. I really loved it. I was just so impressed with
the story, the concept, the world, and the characters. Really, Derting has won
my respect for this one. And I really hope she continues Charlie’s story!
