Bookworm Speaks!- The Scavengers by Michael Perry

Bookworm Speaks

The Scavenger’s by Michael Perry 

****

The Story: When the world started to fall apart, the government gave everyone two choices: move into the Bubble Cities . . . or take their chances outside. Maggie's family chose to live in the world that was left behind. Deciding it's time to grow up and grow tough, Maggie rechristens herself "Ford Falcon"—a name inspired by the beat-up car she finds at a nearby junkyard. The same junkyard where Ford's family goes to scavenge for things they can use and barter with the other people who live OutBubble. Her family has been able to survive this brave new world by working together. But when Ford comes home one day to discover her home ransacked and her family missing, she must find the strength to rescue her loved ones with the help of some friends.

The Good: What sets this book apart from the endless myriad of dystopia fiction up for grabs is the setting. The world outside doesn't feel like a barren wasteland. It is an abandoned world that has returned to nature but not the same nature as before. What many writers tend to forget is that nature is more resilient than we think. Everyone though Hiroshima and Chernobyl would be lifeless wastelands but soon the grass grew back. The nature of humanity is well done too. The contrast between the bubble cities and guarded corn fields and the life of the outsiders can draw parallels to contemporary society. 

The world Ford Falcon lives in is constructed beautifully. It is a secondhand world but it lives and breathes in a way that seems very tangible. The characters that Ford Falcon encounter are well-written and seem like the kind of character’s one would encounter in a post-apocalyptic world when the societal pressures to conform have fallen away. 

It’s also to the book’s credit that Ford Falcon has her whole family with her. All too often the cliche is that the main character is an orphan or comes from a single parent household. Ford Falcon is with her mother and father and younger brother. All of them are fully realized characters or at least realized enough for the protagonist of that age. The mother is a particularly compelling character, whose sense of loss of the world she knew is quite tangible within the narrative. Her love of books is a very nice touch as well. 

Ford Falcon’s younger brother is really more of a side character than anything else, but he is unique in how he seems to be autistic. That’s fairly rare in this kind of fiction and serves as another level of challenge for the main character. 

No spoilers but the books ending is definitely not what most would expect. It is almost shocking and completely different from books in this genre. It may be setting up the possibility for sequels but the unorthodox ending alone is why fans of all ages should read this book. 

The Flaws: While the setting is very strong, the background on the other hand is lacking. The exact nature of what exactly caused the world to fall apart is somewhat vague. Throughout the book there are mentions of global warming, terrorism, genetically altered food and paranoia run amok but no concrete explanation. While it is to the author’s credit that he doesn’t utilize exposition, a more clear story of how the world came to be would be preferred. Again perhaps it is being saved for sequels. 

The villains are kind of weak. We get no real sense of their motivations and they are given names by the character which fit, but frankly are too childish to really take seriously. Perhaps that is the point. 

This book is good for breaking several tropes found in this genre but it falls into one that is very common and frankly overdone: the zombie trope. Throughout the book there is this lingering threat of mutated beasts that were once human and could overrun them at anytime. Done to death is what that is. The sad reality is, humanity doesn’t need zombies, gangs of normal humans could do exactly what happens in the book easily. Even the “science” explaining how they came to be is kind of flimsy. The author seemed to make an attempt to explain how they mutated in a somewhat realistic fashion but fell short and was not even vague enough to utilize handwavium. It wasn’t needed in the beginning anyway. 

Final Verdict: The Scavenger’s is a unique take on popular genre that is worth a read no matter the age group. 

Four out Five Stars 

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