3 stars

East

An ok story about a young boy’s journey to find his mother.
Set in a future “where China and other industrial economies have become primary world powers, and the United States has become a fractured, post-industrial wasteland”, Job is a 14 year old boy barely surviving in the Pacific Northwest. When Job learns that his mother is alive and living in Asia, he sets on a quest to find her and hopefully improve his life. To get there, he must emigrate illegally into the country. He pays for this once he gets there by working in a factory under oppressive conditions. The rest of the story revolves around his struggle to find his mother and survive in a crumbling world with little opportunities for those without an advantage.

I’m conflicted about this book. I think the concept is good, but the execution was a bit lacking. The book needs better editing to improve sentence structure and pace. The story was uneven, but improved toward the end. There was very little world building and other than the main character Job, almost no character development. Characters came and went with no explanation, background or history. It also felt more like the author was giving a report, rather than writing a book about a young boy’s journey navigating the obstacles of immigration and over-industrialization. Job experienced some horrible things on his journey, and yet robotically moved on from each situation with seemingly no adverse effects. I’m sure the author wanted to portray the numbness that can overcome a person when they’ve gone through too much, but that wasn’t adequately conveyed to the readers.

Overall, it was an ok book with a good concept.

I received a free copy of this book from BookSirens in exchange for an honest review.