Denise

Alone, she felt the city around her: a fragile and elaborate construction; a maze of streets as complex as the strands of a spider’s web; houses in which people had lived and slept and made love, each individual leaving an indelible mark on the place.

Ever since I first read a book by Pat Murphy that was being offered on Netgalley I have grown to really love her books. I can honestly say that I probably would never had discovered her had it not been for Netgalley. While most of her books are fantasy or sci-fiction they all seem so unique and different that I honestly never know what I'll get when I start one of her books.

This book was no exception to that. This books follows a group of artists who live in San Francisco after a plague has wiped out most of the population. The group of artists must ban together when a stranger with no name comes to town warning them that a General most people call Fourstar wants to take control of San Francisco.

I loved reading about the artists and reading all of their backstories and seeing what they did before the plague came. The girl with no name (she eventually gets a name but I will refer to her as 'the girl with no name') absolutely fascinated me at first and I was dying to know all that had previously happened with her mother. The further along in the story I got the more her stubbornness and aggressiveness annoyed me.

I loved the way that the artists fought back (and how the city itself helped them). I became a bit wary with where the book was going towards the end but ultimately I ended up enjoying the end. If you are looking for a dystopian book with a cast unique but extremely interesting characters then I would definitely recommend you read this book.