Into the Wilderness

November 15, 2013
Volume 2 of any post-apocalyptic series is the epic journey from frying pan to fire, and Maryam's harrowing adventure delivers. It was only sensible to flee the Holy City, where the white rulers were draining the blood of Maryam's people to save their own lives. Now Ruth, Joseph and Lazarus must fight to survive as they sail though a potentially depopulated Pacific. They're a mismatched set: "two brown Blessed Sisters, two white Apostles," plague-stricken Joseph, believer Ruth, skeptical Maryam and Lazarus, whom Maryam had witnessed attempting rape in the first book (The Crossing, 2013). They'll need to work together to survive the surprises that await outside the Holy City's long isolation. In a land once known as Australia, they encounter violence, apathy, cruelty and foulmouthed racism oozing filth across every conversation. After the mystical colonialist violence of the Holy City, the dangers of the Confederated Territory for Christian Territorials (where unsubtle, occasionally explicit comparisons to present-day troubles abound) cast an unforgiving lens on the modern world. The new villainies Maryam encounters make more sense than her origin story--a modern indigenous population too-easily tricked by white missionaries--and make for a more thought-provoking dystopia. Though the focus too often shifts from Maryam's quest to differentiating good white people from bad, ultimately this dystopia will please fans of the genre and leave them awaiting Maryam's trilogy-ending heroics. (Post-apocalyptic romance. 13-16)

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March 1, 2014

Gr 10 Up-This installment in a dystopian series picks up right where the first book left off. Maryam is a Chosen. When a Chosen is of age, she leaves her home to work for the rest of her life as a servant to the community's power-hungry spiritual leaders, known as the Apostles of the Lamb. The Apostles are survivors of the Tribulation, who live a life of the privilege on a dilapidated cruise ship. Referred to as the Holy City, the vessel is docked on the isolated shores of a South Pacific island. Unbeknownst to the public, the Apostle community has been struck by a plague, which can only be cured with blood transfusions from their servants. In a desperate attempt to escape the religious despots' tyranny, Maryam, her friends Joseph and Ruth, and Joseph's volatile cousin Lazarus, make use of a small boat to try and find asylum on a neighboring island. When the motley crew finally manage to reach land, they are confronted by more tragedy: there's evidence of genocide where they've come ashore, and Joseph, having been reared in The Holy City, is experiencing plague symptoms. Central to the plot's development are the dynamics of an interracial romance between Maryam and Joseph and the growing rancor between Maryam and Lazarus. There is no need to read The Crossing (PYR, 2013) due to the author's skillful insertion of the backstory into new events. Readers will enjoy the thought-provoking discussions that arise from the novel's focus on how racial and religious superiority is explicitly pitted against a modern indigenous population.-Sabrina Carnesi, Crittenden Middle School, Newport News, VA

Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2014
Grades 7-11 When Maryam, Ruth, Joseph, and Lazarus escape from the Holy City, their purpose is to bring back hope. Instead, in this bleak sequel to The Crossing (2013), they find more suffering. From an island crowded with the bones of its long-dead inhabitants to hellish prison quarters, the small group meets tyranny, death, and virulent bigotry that appear immutable. Hager deepens the relationships, ably showing how these divided people can come to a hard-fought understanding. Maryam, meanwhile, struggles to answer the same theological questions that affect us all. This is a thoughtful and tightly plotted sequel, with several crushing moments that will peak interest in the upcoming finale.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2014
Fleeing the religious island community that subjugated her race as forced blood donors (The Crossing), Maryam and her fellow refugees search the seas for other people in an apocalyptic postclimate change Pacific landscape and finally find another (oppressive) regime. Despite overwrought prose, the well-defined characters, genuine plot turns, and hard-hitting commentary on colonialism make this a memorable addition to the dystopian genre.

(Copyright 2014 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)