In a world where the high-tech Changers rule and the average person is expendable, Krystal Peterson was at the bottom of the bottom. Friendless, ugly, blemished and scarred, Krystal was a loner living on the street, destined to die young. She would have agreed to anything to change her miserable existence.
When the Changers offered her redemption, good looks and immortality, Krystal made the deal of a lifetime. The assignment was easy: Infiltrate the Punks. Absorb a high-ranking commander. Life was good until she began to question her feelings for her target victim. Krystal found out forever is a long time when you’re indebted to the Changers.
Dion, the backbone of the Punks, has a monkey on his back the size of an AI mutant Chybrid. The elite Changers bring everything in their high-tech arsenal to the Perimeter Gate. With blurring loyalties and spies in his ranks, Dion must face the battle head-on—without Krystal and without his top field commander.
Now, rejected by the Punks and banished by the Changers, Krystal must choose a side. She doesn’t know she holds a winning hand that will bring her to new heights, scars and all. Before she finds that place inside herself, she finds a new depth of despair she had never seen.
Fighting against all odds with a rag-tag group of misfits and society’s rejects, the Punks hold the fate of civilization in their hands.
Hang on for the ride! This high tension, fast paced story of redemption, the elite vs the oppressed and discovering self-worth, will have you turning pages deep into the night.
Absorbing Lives is a YA dystopian sci-fi urban thriller featuring a strong female lead and a diverse cast of characters.
Assessment:
Plot: Anderson offers an often captivating and well-plotted dystopian story. Worldbuilding sections can rely too heavily on exposition, while innovative ideas have intriguing potential but can overwhelm the story. Nevertheless, Anderson presents a chilling reality marked by stark societal divisions and oppression.
Prose: Written in a commanding and hard-hitting style, Anderson's prose effectively conveys the tension and terror of a world erupting in chaos, with a doomed love affair at its center.
Originality: The narrative is evocative of past dystopian works, yet Anderson capably creates a dark and cruel multidimensional story with memorable imagery.
Character Development: Anderson presents a cast of memorable characters that expose human nature at its cruelest: power hungry and bent on genocidal annihilation. Others are vibrant and relatable, expressing an authentic range of emotional responses to trauma.
Blurb: Desperate times call for desperate measures in Anderson’s (a father-daughter writing team) dystopic future. As the divide between social classes rages on, succubus-like Changers are pitted against the stubborn and rebellious Punks, with malicious and benevolent Infiltrators posing threats at every turn.
Date Submitted: May 31, 2018
Titled, Writing in Collaboration: Case Study of a Father-Daughter Author Team, the article is one in ALLi's series on Collaborative Writing.
The article cites how using the generation gap to develop unique and powerful ideas is an awesome tool.
Excerpt: "Father, Les Anderson and daughter Taylor make a convincing case for why their finely-tuned partnership, LT Anderson, is much greater than the sum of the parts.
