Blythe Woolston

In a near-future world of exurban decay studded with big box stores, daily routine revolves around shopping—for those who can. For Zoë, the mission is simpler: live. Last girl Zoë Zindleman, numerical ID 009-99-9999, is starting work at AllMART, where "your smile is the AllMART welcome mat." Her living arrangements are equally bleak: she can wait for her home to be foreclosed and stripped of anything valuable now that AnnaMom has moved away, leaving Zoë behind, or move to the Warren, an abandoned strip-mall-turned-refuge for other left-behinds. With a handful of other disaffected, forgotten kids, Zoë must find her place in a world that has consumed itself beyond redemption. She may be a last girl, but her name means "life," and Zoë isn’t ready to disappear into the AllMART abyss. Zoë wants to live.

Martians

Laura

Not really much I could say about this book, except that it was so truly awful, it made a Natasha Preston book look good by comparison (which is a hell of a feat, let me tell you). This book made absolutely no sense, the setting was idiotic and brought nothing new to the long table of dystopia/science fiction, and the social commentary was underdeveloped and fell completely flat. Another big corporations are evil story. The only thing that I thought was interesting potential (emphasis on potential) critique was the bit about people being sexually attracted to cartoons. The “plot” was extremely thrown in there, and I felt this strange disconnect between the characters. But the biggest reason this book has the rating it does was because of how poorly it was written. It wasn’t even enjoyably bad, like Preston’s books usually are. It was more like nails on a chalkboard bad. I read this book in one sitting cringing my way through because it had the same effect on my eyes that certain noises, like the clanking of china/Fiestaware, has on my ears. How this book got published, I’ll never know. I can’t even hate read this book because it will cause me too much pain.

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Martians

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