Enclave Reviewed on a Green Day

I gave up on the book I was talking about yesterday after reading another chapter or two without making a connection to the character or the story. Essentially, and nothing at all worked for me. I couldn’t get over my initial annoyance with the protagonist, so off to the discard pile goes the book.

On the other hand, I enjoyed Kit Reed’s latest novel, Enclave, which I thought was both dark with shots of hope injected throughout. Here’s a sampling of my review:

As often happens in such Utopic settings, something shatters the sought-after idyllic setting. The monastery in which the novel takes place is supposed to be impregnable and unbreachable, which is why Sarge chose it for his boarding school. Sarge and his crew try to tell the children they are at the Academy for their own good, to save them from the pending apocalypse. These children are initially told the reason for their installment at this Academy is to further their education, when in reality all these kids have some sort of troubled past. As such, their parents want to get rid of them. “Killer” Stade got his nickname from killing a peer, another young man was sent to the Academy because his epileptic fits would be too embarrassing for his royal family to handle, while another child is sent because she/he is confused about his/her gender.

Genre Wars reignites!
Jeff VanderMeer leads an interesting discussion about what books are Dark Fantasy and what books are Urban Fantasy after seeing a table of books labeled "Dark Fantasy."

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!!