Representation: Side character with autism
Trigger warnings: bullying, near death experience in a river, child labour, death of a child, death of a friend in a river

6/10, after I read Where the World Turns Wild by Nicola Penfold which was another British middle grade dystopian novel I was hoping that I'd enjoy this over the mediocre ones I've read, sadly this wasn't the case and I doubt that I would pick this up again due to the glaring flaws in this, where do I begin. It begins with a small backstory about a hurricane destroying Kairos and ten years later they rebuilt the city but things have changed since then; most notably the new dystopian government and what they did to society. The main story revolves around Shifa and Themba who enjoy normal lives at first until they get sent to a new place called Freedom Fields where the government makes children do essentially child labour for five years by pollinating the plants so they and the rest of the country could eat since the bees were all gone apparently. Of course Shifa and Themba didn't like working there especially after they experienced the oppression of the Freedom Fields program and even saw another person named Yara die a horrible death in the river; after that they finally manage to escape and here's where the flaws begin to show.

First off is the characters, I didn't really connect to them since they weren't really that developed and the author probably made them as an afterthought and secondly is the worldbuilding since the book said the bees were gone and humans had to fill their role but they were discovered somewhere else; I wondered why haven't the bees returned to Kairos after the hurricane and pollinated the crops, an obvious plot hole that's for sure; what was the point of the government making the Paragon, Forager and Freedom classes which were just mentioned and weren't fully fleshed out. Finally the problems that Shifa and Themba faced were easily overcome which I found unrealistic. Anyways they cross a river, got under the fence and they escaped as easily as that and the second half of the book was really fast paced as Shifa and Themba somehow manage to survive on their own and then eventually they found their way home; there's an epilogue which seems completely disconnected from the main plot as a girl finds a poetic note and that ends the book rather underwhelmingly. This book isn't nearly as good as other dystopias out there like the Legend series by Marie Lu and you can try that instead of this. ( )

An intriguing glimpse into what our world could be like if all the bees disappeared. A heartwarming tale of one girl's journey to find her way home and share the truth about the Freedom Fields. ( )