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A review by itsme_lori
The Ballad of Ami Miles by Kristy Dallas Alley
4.0
#readathon
Really surprising. I couldn't stop reading about Ami! Her story shows just how easy it is for kids to share the beliefs of those who raise them and what can happen once those kids step out into the real world. It's a coming-of-age story set in a post-apocalypse future where most women have gone sterile and having babies has become women's most important job but Ami's not sure that's what she wants.
Ami's been raised on a compound (with cult-like qualities) founded by her great-great-grandfather by her grandparents after being left by her mother, for reasons explained in the book. When she turns 16 and her grandparents bring a man to the compound basically to breed her, she runs away with the help of her aunt. And what follows is Ami's realization that the world outside her compound might be a little different than her extremely religious, racist, misogynist grandfather might have raised her to believe.
It seems like this would be a very dark book but it actually turned out to be a sort of light introduction to the post-apocalyptic/dystopian book genre. There are references to breeding and mating but no actual descriptions were given nor acts on the page (aside from some consensual kissing). And as someone who has read some very dark post-apocalyptic worlds, I kept waiting for it to take a dark turn or for people to turn on Ami or bad situations to happen, but it really does just focus on Ami learning about who she is and what she wants, the world she now lives in and her hopes for a future that might be different than what she was raised to believe in. And it turns out to be a very hopeful story with moments of sadness and heartbreak but an overall feeling of being true to yourself and finding love and happiness even when times are tough. I thought it was really well done and I think a lot of young people will enjoy this book.
CW: mentions of racism, suicide, depression, stillborn babies, death during delivery, abandonment, religion, breeding, homophobia
Really surprising. I couldn't stop reading about Ami! Her story shows just how easy it is for kids to share the beliefs of those who raise them and what can happen once those kids step out into the real world. It's a coming-of-age story set in a post-apocalypse future where most women have gone sterile and having babies has become women's most important job but Ami's not sure that's what she wants.
Ami's been raised on a compound (with cult-like qualities) founded by her great-great-grandfather by her grandparents after being left by her mother, for reasons explained in the book. When she turns 16 and her grandparents bring a man to the compound basically to breed her, she runs away with the help of her aunt. And what follows is Ami's realization that the world outside her compound might be a little different than her extremely religious, racist, misogynist grandfather might have raised her to believe.
It seems like this would be a very dark book but it actually turned out to be a sort of light introduction to the post-apocalyptic/dystopian book genre. There are references to breeding and mating but no actual descriptions were given nor acts on the page (aside from some consensual kissing). And as someone who has read some very dark post-apocalyptic worlds, I kept waiting for it to take a dark turn or for people to turn on Ami or bad situations to happen, but it really does just focus on Ami learning about who she is and what she wants, the world she now lives in and her hopes for a future that might be different than what she was raised to believe in. And it turns out to be a very hopeful story with moments of sadness and heartbreak but an overall feeling of being true to yourself and finding love and happiness even when times are tough. I thought it was really well done and I think a lot of young people will enjoy this book.
CW: mentions of racism, suicide, depression, stillborn babies, death during delivery, abandonment, religion, breeding, homophobia