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sarah_grey's review against another edition
3.0
I feel like the only person who didn't realize she was living in a dystopian is the main character. Gorgeous cover, interesting characters, but a slow pace and predictable end don't make this stand out as much as I hoped.
manaledi's review
3.0
Good fantasy often flips life as we know it on its head as a way of challenging the assumptions we make as a society. This book did so in a very aggressive manner that at times felt a little heavy handed in the framing of gender, violence, capitalism, and drugs. I wished for a little more backstory on Mega City and the loyalty it inspired. An interesting read but not amazing. Could be a good discussion book for YA readers.
soupwitch86's review against another edition
4.0
I enjoyed this so much! I'm starting to really like dystopian novels and I love YA, so it only makes sense.
I liked all of the characters, even the when I shouldn't - I think they were all developed and it was great to see queer and gender fluid characters in full roles (would have liked more between Shi and Smiley, tho!).
The book was fun and fast paced, and a great book to escape in. I only took a star off because I wish there was more (would have been a great 2 part series or trilogy), I didn't like that a world where women rule, means that men, queer and GNC folx have to be abused.
I liked all of the characters, even the when I shouldn't - I think they were all developed and it was great to see queer and gender fluid characters in full roles (would have liked more between Shi and Smiley, tho!).
The book was fun and fast paced, and a great book to escape in. I only took a star off because I wish there was more (would have been a great 2 part series or trilogy), I didn't like that a world where women rule, means that men, queer and GNC folx have to be abused.
cesttemps's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
magaramach's review against another edition
3.0
A main character who makes terrible decisions, which you understand both that they’re terrible and where she’s coming from, is hard to do. Rivera does that well though. Had so many great little moments that drive in the horror of the dystopia, but didn’t give them the gut punch they deserved. Nena and Truck, my terrible terrible girls.
megatsunami's review against another edition
3.0
Interesting novel with some very original aspects. Uneven - didn't live up to its promise.
serranok's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
marajoy's review against another edition
adventurous
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.0
the plot and premise of this story had great potential, but the writing did NOT follow through. this was honestly terrible and i shouldn't have stuck with it so long. the characters are very flat, a lot of the book is restating the same events/memories, it's all action & dialogue no setting or prose, the central themes are extremely basic and poorly portrayed like a sudden addition at the end that in many ways reinforced the gender binary and inequality and classism that they were supposedly against. nalah was a very irritating mc. also why did she and santo refer to each other as siblings if they were love interests? and why were these sixteen year old girls going to strip and pleasure clubs? i disliked almost every aspect of this book. but exciting to see genderfluid representation!
bak8382's review against another edition
4.0
Nalah, leads one of the best girl gangs in the city, and has been pursuing her dream of living in the Towers and getting off the street single-mindedly. Now that she's almost there she's asked to take her crew past the city limits and report back on the Ashe Ryders, a group that might not even exist, but seems to be threatening Nalah's entire way of life. This is a great dystopian, with a fascinating world built for female power, which at first seems great, but Rivera shows just how twisted a "utopian" dream can become. The ending leaves open the possibility of at least one more book in this series.
halschrieve's review against another edition
5.0
Rivera, Lilliam (2019). Dealing In Dreams. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.
ISBN: 9781534411395
336 pages.
Nalah, also known as Chief Rocka, runs the hottest crew in Mega City, and she knows she's close to the top. After almost a decade of Spartan training, she is just one throwdown away from earning her place in the Towers alongside the city's benevolent ruler, and saying goodbye forever to the grueling work and constant danger that has always defined her life. Of course, she's not going alone: she's taking her girls with her. Decades after the Big Shake, Mega City is run by crews of teenage girls, who police the streets, defend the public, tag their logo on their patrol areas, and menace evildoers or outsiders. A semi-official police force, part gang and part government, the girl crews have status far above menial woman toilers, papi chulos (male dancers), or men. They are paid in sueños, or tabs which assist sleep and induce lucid dreaming. Of all the crews, Las Mal Criadas are the closest to the top. While it's a dangerous world, even within the city, Nalah trusts her teammates--especially her second-in-command, Truck--with her life. They're all she has, especially after her mother died and her father and sister left for Cemi Territory, never to be seen again.
But then the unimaginable happens, and Deesse, the ruler of Mega City, asks Nalah to intentionally lose to the Deadly Venoms in the upcoming big throwdown. Instead of welcoming Las Mal Criadas into the luxurious Towers, Deesse tasks Nalah with performing a dangerous recon mission in Cemi Territory to gather information about a menacing new movement--the Ashe Ryders--which threaten to bring down the tenuous structure that Mega City has relied on in the wake of the apocalypse. Nalah consents, but as she leads her team outside the protective city boundaries into a trash-strewn wilderness, she knows she's stepping into new dangers she might not ever be able to defend against.
Nalah's characterization as a traumatized, tough, strategy-minded fighter is crystal clear and totally consistent throughout the story, and her empathetic connections and undying loyalty to her crew drives the action of the story. Meanwhile, side characters have sharp, well-defined characterization of their own; as the action progresses, Truck and the others begin to doubt Nalah, while revolutionaries with alternate worldview attempt to empathize and connect with the position of Las Mal Criadas and persuade them to abandon violence in order to participate in a new, solarpunk eco-socialist society beyond the borders of urban space.
Rivera crafts a hot, action-packed new dystopian science fiction world which draws on a range of influences but which punches enormous new holes in traditional scripts in order to cut deep and talk about pressing questions in an age which often feels like the end of the world. The devastation that has rocked Mega City is implied to be environmental in nature, potentially related to climate change but also to economic collapse. In the wake of the devastation (we learn through different unreliable sources), a single family initiated a reconstruction of key infrastructures. Deesse has also offered work to refugees --manufacturing the drugs that allow the populace to cope with continual malnourishment and trauma. Mega City's matriarchal authoritarian state initially appears to be a gritty, feminist reimagining of a brutal survivalist trope, but as the story goes on, Rivera deftly explores how a rigidly defined gender-based hierarchy continually marginalizes those who don't fit within it and encourages violence and lack of self-examination in the ruling class. Rivera imagines a world where regulating government structures and corporations have fallen away, and the survivors of the apocalypse rebuild society under different organizational structures.
Essentially, Rivera presents two possible futures. In one, represented by Mega City, a hierarchical, violent order ensures the masses live in servitude or addiction and a dictatorial, narcissistic leader plays underlings off against each other in order to maintain power. The other possible future, meanwhile, hovers around the margins of the main characters' awareness but hangs in luminous possibility over the reader's head. It involves egalitarian community, discourse and discussion, cultural heritage and faith, self-defense and sustainable agriculture, and an embrace of both traditional family structures and LGBT inclusion.
Rivera steps loudly into the territory of recent major authors of hard, fast-paced, action-driven science fiction full of ideas (China Mieville, Cory Doctorow, Philip Reeves, Cameron Hurley, C.A Higgins) while also inheriting part of the legacy of genre giants Ursula K. LeGuin and Octavia Butler by working with similar themes of social speculative fiction. Her vision of a sustainable post-crisis future, in particular, echoes Butler's Parable of the Sower. Intense physical action sequences, meanwhile, evoke Brian Vaughan's Paper Girls, Jamie Hewlett and Alan Martin's Tank Girl, or Diane Dimassa's Hothead Paisan. Super fresh, super visionary, smart, satisfying, and immersive. A necessary purchase for any and every teen and adult collection.
ISBN: 9781534411395
336 pages.
Nalah, also known as Chief Rocka, runs the hottest crew in Mega City, and she knows she's close to the top. After almost a decade of Spartan training, she is just one throwdown away from earning her place in the Towers alongside the city's benevolent ruler, and saying goodbye forever to the grueling work and constant danger that has always defined her life. Of course, she's not going alone: she's taking her girls with her. Decades after the Big Shake, Mega City is run by crews of teenage girls, who police the streets, defend the public, tag their logo on their patrol areas, and menace evildoers or outsiders. A semi-official police force, part gang and part government, the girl crews have status far above menial woman toilers, papi chulos (male dancers), or men. They are paid in sueños, or tabs which assist sleep and induce lucid dreaming. Of all the crews, Las Mal Criadas are the closest to the top. While it's a dangerous world, even within the city, Nalah trusts her teammates--especially her second-in-command, Truck--with her life. They're all she has, especially after her mother died and her father and sister left for Cemi Territory, never to be seen again.
But then the unimaginable happens, and Deesse, the ruler of Mega City, asks Nalah to intentionally lose to the Deadly Venoms in the upcoming big throwdown. Instead of welcoming Las Mal Criadas into the luxurious Towers, Deesse tasks Nalah with performing a dangerous recon mission in Cemi Territory to gather information about a menacing new movement--the Ashe Ryders--which threaten to bring down the tenuous structure that Mega City has relied on in the wake of the apocalypse. Nalah consents, but as she leads her team outside the protective city boundaries into a trash-strewn wilderness, she knows she's stepping into new dangers she might not ever be able to defend against.
Nalah's characterization as a traumatized, tough, strategy-minded fighter is crystal clear and totally consistent throughout the story, and her empathetic connections and undying loyalty to her crew drives the action of the story. Meanwhile, side characters have sharp, well-defined characterization of their own; as the action progresses, Truck and the others begin to doubt Nalah, while revolutionaries with alternate worldview attempt to empathize and connect with the position of Las Mal Criadas and persuade them to abandon violence in order to participate in a new, solarpunk eco-socialist society beyond the borders of urban space.
Rivera crafts a hot, action-packed new dystopian science fiction world which draws on a range of influences but which punches enormous new holes in traditional scripts in order to cut deep and talk about pressing questions in an age which often feels like the end of the world. The devastation that has rocked Mega City is implied to be environmental in nature, potentially related to climate change but also to economic collapse. In the wake of the devastation (we learn through different unreliable sources), a single family initiated a reconstruction of key infrastructures. Deesse has also offered work to refugees --manufacturing the drugs that allow the populace to cope with continual malnourishment and trauma. Mega City's matriarchal authoritarian state initially appears to be a gritty, feminist reimagining of a brutal survivalist trope, but as the story goes on, Rivera deftly explores how a rigidly defined gender-based hierarchy continually marginalizes those who don't fit within it and encourages violence and lack of self-examination in the ruling class. Rivera imagines a world where regulating government structures and corporations have fallen away, and the survivors of the apocalypse rebuild society under different organizational structures.
Essentially, Rivera presents two possible futures. In one, represented by Mega City, a hierarchical, violent order ensures the masses live in servitude or addiction and a dictatorial, narcissistic leader plays underlings off against each other in order to maintain power. The other possible future, meanwhile, hovers around the margins of the main characters' awareness but hangs in luminous possibility over the reader's head. It involves egalitarian community, discourse and discussion, cultural heritage and faith, self-defense and sustainable agriculture, and an embrace of both traditional family structures and LGBT inclusion.
Rivera steps loudly into the territory of recent major authors of hard, fast-paced, action-driven science fiction full of ideas (China Mieville, Cory Doctorow, Philip Reeves, Cameron Hurley, C.A Higgins) while also inheriting part of the legacy of genre giants Ursula K. LeGuin and Octavia Butler by working with similar themes of social speculative fiction. Her vision of a sustainable post-crisis future, in particular, echoes Butler's Parable of the Sower. Intense physical action sequences, meanwhile, evoke Brian Vaughan's Paper Girls, Jamie Hewlett and Alan Martin's Tank Girl, or Diane Dimassa's Hothead Paisan. Super fresh, super visionary, smart, satisfying, and immersive. A necessary purchase for any and every teen and adult collection.