The Dividing Sky / Jill Tew / Book Review

THE DIVIDING SKY

Liv Newman is tired of living for other people. Well, she's tired of living for richer people. She'll do whatever it takes to drag herself and the kids she calls family out of the slum where they're living, and if that means picking up a few illegal clients here and there on top of selling her best memories to the wealthy, so be it. That's what being a Proxy is all about.

But when her richest client asks for a memory she doesn't (read: she can't) have, Liv has a choice to make. She could leave the city, risking her life to raiders in the wild, to get a glimpse of the stars like her client wants. Or she could stay in the city and keep working for scraps--scraps that will never amount to the sum she's been offered. The choice isn't all that hard.

But Liv doesn't know she's got a rookie Forceman on her tail. Adrian Rao believes he's on the tail of a newdrug  dealer, someone messing with the carefully balanced brain chemistry of Metro's poorest citizens. Adrian Rao believes in order. Adrian Rao believes in productivity. He believes in living for the Metro, and so when his target slips out of the city, he can't help but follow.

THOUGHTS

This book feels classically YA dystopia in a really fun way. It might not be as poignant and impactful as the heavy-hitter dystopian books that launched that craze a decade ago, but it still strikes a good balance between social-critique and romantic-pining. It's fun. It's quick. It wasn't profound, but I really enjoyed it.

PROS

Classic	This book has a classic YA dystopia feel in the best way. It's got dual perspectives for each of the love interests. It's got stratified social classes and governmental roadblocks for clawing your way out of the poorest districts. It's got advanced tech and an untouched, "dangerous" natural world outside of the dystopian regime. In short, it has all of what made the initial dystopian boom so fun.
Rock-and-Hard-Place	What I love about this book is the fact that, since we get both perspectives, we can really see why these characters are making the (often rather bad) decisions they are. And even if I knew, as a reader, that this decision was bad... it also made sense. The decisions made make sense from a character perspective. We know more than the characters. We have less faith in the system than the characters. We can see how these choices are going to go horribly, terribly wrong... and yet we're hoping that they don't, because we can't really blame the characters when things do go predictably awry.
Found Family	Though I do wish some of these side characters had been given more time on the page, I absolutely adored the found-family element of this book. As much as it feels classically YA dystopia, this addition really elevates the story. Having that sort of kinship, those bonds and familiar banter, makes the central romance feel less isolating. In a genre that tends to be painfully individualistic (and consumed by a romantic "subplot"), this is definitely a refreshing twist.

CONS

Hey, it's a dystopian world. Things are bleak. Life is hard. And the government may or may not be doing a bit of chemical-psychological warfare on the people. So casual drug usage to escape it all feels pretty par for the course, right? But that might mean this book isn't the best read for those on the younger end of the YA spectrum. This is more of a parental content warning than a real con, just because it can be hard to find the right YA book for those just moving up from MG.	Drug Usage
I do stand by the fact that the dual POVs are done so well here we can really understand why these characters are making the poor choices they do... with one notable exception. This is a mild spoiler that happens fairly early on, but do skip to the next con if you want to pick this book up without any preconceptions! SPOILER: Liv decides, once she has escaped the city, to store her memories away and give herself a day of peace. Which, on the one hand, makes sense since she is going through a rough patch, internally. But she's also outside of the city for the first time in her life. She has heard stories of deadly raiders, and she doesn't know how to live off the grid. So why, why, why would she erase any of her knowledge in this case? That's just such a strange decision to make when you're in a strange and unfamiliar place. This is the only thing that didn't make sense to me. Not at all.	Why Would You Do That???
I don't like to nitpick too much when a book isn't meant to be particularly serious. This book has a message, sure, but it isn't really meant to be strictly realist fiction, right? But... you can't tell me that these off-the-grid raider communities have all the amenities that they do. In the contemporary age, we really have forgotten how much we have simply due to the global network underpinning our society. Once that collapses--or once you have to leave that behind--you're not out here with cayenne pepper and fresh cream cheese in a commune community in New England. That's just silly in a de-globalized world	Globalization

Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
7/10

Fans of Marie Lu's Legend will like this dive into a twisty sort of dystopian city. Those who loved Under This Forgetful Sky by Lauren Yero will like escaping the city confines to live under the stars.

Details Publisher: Joy Revolution Date: October 8, 2024 Series: N/A Add to Goodreads Buy it HERE

Note: I was provided with an ARC by the publisher through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions here are my own.