Reviewed by: Pete Barber
Genre: Dystopian Sci-fi
Approximate word count: 85,000- 90,000 words
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Author:
Amber
Butler was born and raised in Texas. She graduated with a degree in Psychology
from Texas A&M University in College Station. After her second child was
born, she returned to college, this time to the University of Texas at Dallas,
to fulfill science requirements for medical school. The Burning of Cherry Hill is her first novel.
Description:
When their
parents are captured in a raid by establishment militia who burn their island
home killing all 1372 inhabitants, teenager, Zay, and his younger sister, Lina
are taken away on a helicopter and integrated within society as orphans. The
story follows their journey to find and rescue their parents
Appraisal:
This story was tough sledding for me. Not for the first time, I was misled
by a strong Amazon Sample, which dealt with Block Island. The idea of a secret
island which operated as a self-sufficient commune outside of a tightly
controlled mainland society was attractive. When the government forces arrived,
their brutality contrasted well with the peaceful life on the island. Certain
secrets were left with the children. The parents didn’t die, they ‘vanished’,
which was another interesting hook.
But once the novel moved to the dystopian world, I couldn’t achieve the
necessary suspension of disbelief. For one thing, the island was only eighteen
miles from the mainland. With such superior technology, how could it have been
a secret hideaway?
The technology and the way of life within the dystopian society, simply
didn’t work. For example, each individual had every meal delivered in a
separate paper bag with their name on it, which dropped through a chute in the
ceiling onto a kitchen table. Really? When a pregnant mother requested extra
food (through her embedded chip), it was approved and deliver in fifteen
seconds. Every aspect of societal life was controlled, yet video trials were
held wherein citizens voted guilty or not. The fact that the authorities fixed
the result seemed to be a shocking revelation. My thought was, why bother if
they controlled everyone so completely. I never did find out what the ‘free
citizens’ in the cities did, or why.
Outside of the city, millions of citizens were kept in slave camps at
Cherry Hill (hence the title). The camps purportedly encompassed the whole of
the American Mid-west. This was a wholly unbelievable place also. Over four
hours away from the city, and yet, apparently, producing all the food and
materials needed for instantaneous delivery. People were crammed into large,
black multi-story buildings. Surely maintaining this infrastructure would be a
nightmare. I doubt if the slaves (who were kept in a permanently starved
conditions and often beaten) could deliver enough food to warrant the
structure.
No one could escape Cherry Hill because they had a chip implanted which
would Taser them if they passed a boundary point. Yet, when our heroes cracked
the computer code and turned off the chips, they announced to the millions
(somehow) that they could escape, but they only had fifteen minutes in which to
do so before the chips were turned back on—huh?
Within this unbelievable society, the two children stumbled from one danger
to the next. Each time they found themselves faced with imminent danger, along
came a new minor character with some flimsy excuse and a way out. As I never
connected with Zay or Lina, it was difficult for me to care whether they
succeeded in their plan to save their parents, although with such a ready
supply of invented escape routes, I had little doubt they would.
To cap it all, the citizens and slaves were subjected to cruel and
unusual punishments, which I found distasteful. In particular, the authority’s
militia, who seemed to be all male, defaulted to using rape to subjugate
captive women or to leverage their male partners. Slave females were raped by
the militia to produce more slaves. Zay’s mother was raped. Lina was threatened
with rape. I think you get the picture. Frankly, I didn’t find any of the characters
or scenarios sufficiently developed to make this seem anything but gratuitous.
The genesis of the dystopia is explained through narrative (a long
letter) and a large slab of dialogue near the end of the story. By which time,
I could have cared less.
Format/Typo Issues:
Paragraphing
seemed to be oddly random. I read the Kindle version, so it may have been a
formatting issue for that device.
Rating: ** Two stars
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