Short Story Review: "Skies of Dripping Gold" by Hannah Heath

Short Story: “Skies of Dripping Gold” by Hannah Heath
Genre: Christian, dystopian, young adult
Awards: None
My rating: 4/5 stars
One word description:  Genuine

I know it’s not a novel, but all the novels I have been reading lately are in the middle of a series. And as much as I enjoy series, and I hope you do too, I don’t usually post reviews for sequels on my blog. That being said, I’d started following Hannah Heath’s blog a couple months ago, and if you’re a writer, you should definitely check it out! Anyway, Heath did such a good job promoting “Skies of Dripping Gold” recently that I just had to read it.

 

I was really impressed. Heath presents a typical dystopian society with relevance to situations today. Instead of your typical, catastrophic “the world is ending!” dystopian, this story is up-close-and-personal with the lives of the characters, Gabriel, Lilly, and Cole.

Told from Gabriel’s perspective, the world seems hopeless. Or at least it would be without his older sister, Lilly. The way that Gabriel desperately cares for her reminds me a bit of C.S. Lewis’ The Great Divorce. And Gabriel’s emotions are so real that I could easily picture the story and feel his pain along with him.  

Without giving too much away, one of the main themes of the story is how a good God could exist in a world with so much pain. I appreciate how Heath handles such an issue without resorting to deus ex machina.

Another quality I really enjoyed was Heath’s writing style, which is typical of YA. Here’s one of my favorite lines:

“As far as Gabriel was concerned, there were only two all-important laws on earth: 

1. Don’t murder people.

2. Never swear in front of Lilly.”

I gave this story 4/5 stars for its well-told narrative but some vague descriptions. But because this is a short story, I recognize that there is only so much a writer can do with a limited amount of space. Because of the instances of profanity, I’d have to go with Heath’s own “rating” and recommend it to anybody older than 13. I look forward to reading more stories from Heath.

Book Review: "Season of Wonder" by Lisa T. Bergren

Book: Season of Wonder (The Remnants, book 1) by Lisa T. Bergren
Genre: Christian fiction, dystopian, fantasy, young adult
Awards: none
My rating: 4/5 stars
One word description: Empowering


I was curious about this book because I had read the River of Time series (definitely recommend), also by Lisa T. Bergren. I enjoyed Bergren's writing style in those books, and I liked in this book too in that sense.

Yes, my of Season of Wonder is an e-book!

Set in the distant future, Remnants: Season of Wonder is a dystopian/fantasy book geared towards young adults. The protagonist Adrianna is easy to relate to with her struggles and successes with her gift of empathy. I appreciated how the gifts of the Ailith were developed throughout the book, making it the strong point of the story.



The descriptions of the setting and characters were minimal, however. While I appreciate settings that do not bog down a story, there were not many descriptions of the characters until half-way through the book when I already had a clear, quite different picture of the characters in my head.

Although this book is more slow moving than other books, it does not fail to keep me guessing what will happen next. This book is set up to be a part of a trilogy, so it ends with a cliffhanger. This was frustrating because I wanted to know what happens, but this is also a good thing because I looked forward to the other books (I preordered book 2 before it came out). I also did not sense a clear climax of this book, for the tension at the end reflects the tension throughout the book and is not clearly escalated.

I gave the book 4/5 stars for its strong message and characters but confusing plot elements and minimal descriptions. I would definitely recommend it to somebody who enjoy dystopian/fantasy literature and/or a good theme.

 

Season of Fire (The Remnants, book 2) picks up the story where Season of Wonder left off. You can read my review for it on Goodreads (I gave it 5/5 stars because I think the second book was better than the first). The final book, Season of Glory will release in the winter of 2016 (I can't wait!). If you enjoy these books, you should check out Bergren's River of Time series.

Have any thoughts on this trilogy? Have you read any other YA fiction recently?