Scythe
Christina Bauer
(Dimension Drift Worlds, #1)
Publication date: April 24th 2018
Genres: Dystopian, Fantasy, Young Adult
“Fans of A Wrinkle in Time can’t missDimension Drift!” – Christina Trevaskis, The Book Matchmaker
Truth time. I go to a Learning Squirrel High School. Don’t judge.
On second thought, judge away. Learning Squirrel is one step above attending class in a junkyard. But what do you expect? Everything’s made out of garbage these days. At least, I have my freelance work to keep Mom and me housed, clothed, and fed. How? I’m your regular high school science geek for hire, except my work manipulates space-time. The good news is that these gigs pay really well; the bad news is that the government likes to kill people like me. Whatever. I’m not worried; hiding from their detection systems is easy for me.
Then I screw up one of my illegal projects. Badly.
In fact, things go so sideways that my house slips into two-dimensional space-time. The shift only lasts for a few seconds, but that’s long enough to set off a dozen government alarms. If those goons track me down, Mom and I are as good as dead. Long story short, I need to pay someone off, hide the evidence, and keep us safe.
Unfortunately, that means asking the Scythe for help. He runs the local underground crime scene and has absolutely no conscience…Or at least, I’m pretty sure he doesn’t. It’s hard to think straight when a guy’s that hot in an ‘evil Mafioso kingpin’ kind of way. Most importantly, the Scythe is a crime lord who can conceal my slip-up with a few clicks on his minion’s computer keyboards. But the man has his price. In this case, the Scythe wants me to finish a certain dimensional prototype for him in twenty-four hours. I can do it, but it might mean Learning Squirrel High gets blown up in the process. Oh yes, and there’s also my new hot classmate who may or may not be an alien…and he says he’ll do anything to help me.
This job won’t be easy, but I’ve gotten out of worse scrapes. Maybe.
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Meimi is a girl with a lot on her shoulders. She believes that her sister Luci is dead, as she has gone missing over a year ago. Her mother’s condition is also worsening, and she is only lucid a few times every couple of days. On top of all of this, she is supposed to be attending school. Luckily, she has found a way to hack her school system so that it says she’s always there. When her hacking gets her on the government’s radar, she has to find a way to protect both herself and her mother.
Meime is a strong main character. This book isn’t about romance, even though it does have it’s scenes where it hints at romance for future novels. She is determined to protect both herself and her mother in this messed-up world, even if she has to commit crimes to do it. She is an amazing hacker and can get into almost anything. Without her mother, she may have been able to escape her situation entirely, but it is up to her to protect her mother.
Her mother’s illness is not explained in the book, but it makes it so that she sometimes can’t really walk, talk, or function. Without anyone else in their lives, Meime must take on the role as the family breadwinner. She has several heart-to-heart moments with her mother when she is lucid, and her mother tries to apologize for not being there. But Meime is just that strong, and she knows that she will be able to support her family. Her older sister isn’t around anymore to do it, so it is up to her.
The plot of this book starts off really slow, and then it ends a bit abruptly. It is a short story, but with the amount of information packed into this book, I had felt as if I had read a complete novel. This was the only thing that bothered me a bit about the story. It just felt a little too fast. But I can’t wait to read the next novella in the series, I’m sure I will love Meime’s character even more!
I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a new YA dystopian series to start.
I received an advance copy of this book, and this is my voluntary review.
Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 books
Author Bio:
Christina Bauer knows how to tell stories about kick-ass women. In her best selling Angelbound series, the heroine is a part-demon girl who loves to fight in Purgatory’s Arena and falls in love with a part-angel prince. This young adult best seller has driven more than 500,000 ebook downloads and 9,000 reviews on Goodreads and retailers. The first three books in the series are now available as audiobooks on Audible and iTunes.
Bauer has also told the story of the Women’s March on Washington by leading PR efforts for the Massachusetts Chapter. Her pre-event press release—the only one sent out on a major wire service—resulted in more than 19,000 global impressions and redistribution by over 350 different media entities including the Associated Press.
Christina graduated from Syracuse University’s Newhouse School with BA’s in English along with Television, Radio, and Film Production. She lives in Newton, MA with her husband, son, and semi-insane golden retriever, Ruby.
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Thanks for hosting today, Bri! This sounds like a fun read and with a great, relatable MC, too!