MARTians

Reviewed by: Karen Sandlin Silverman - Scarborough High School / Scarborough Middle School, Scarborough, Southern Maine Library District

Review Date: January 13, 2016

Review

Zoe Zindleman lives in a dystopian world where big box retailers AllMART and Q-MART have all the power. Government is shrinking -- her school is closed abruptly and she and her classmates are declared graduates even though they have more than a year to go, the buses no longer run, and she lives in an abandoned subdivision where most houses are without power and water. On graduation day, she and her fellow students are assigned their roles, including one sent directly to prison. Zoe lands a job at AllMART where she meets her former neighbor MORTimmer. ZERO (her employee nametag name) ends up moving to an abandoned strip mall with MORTimmer and others abruptly left behind. Interspersed with quotes from Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles, the tone is surreal and otherworldly. Not a page-turner but definitely a book ripe for discussion.

Overall Book Score: very good