This tale is set in Wormwood. It's never made entirely clear whether it is a country, a city or a small town, although descriptions do favour the latter. Whatever its geographical status, it is surrounded by a dark, foreboding hinterland known as The Quag, where all manner of dangerous creatures live that will kill any of the citizens that dare, or are foolish enough, to enter there.
Fourteen-year-old Vega Jane works as a finisher at Stacks, what the exactly entails is never really explained. However, she is an inquisitive child, and when one of her co-workers is reported as disappearing into The Quag, her curiosity is piqued, particularly as she witnessed him head into the forbidden forest, and the official story didn't match what she saw. Soon she is unveiling a conspiracy that involves her family and the town elders that leaves her fighting for life on more than one occasion.
From my limited knowledge of the YA fantasy genre, the story seems to fall somewhere between Harry Potter and the Clarke Award-winning Dark Eden, which is probably higher praise than it deserves. Overall, the story is engaging, but there are lots of niggles (which aren't the name of one of the many creatures that inhabit the world) about the universe in which it takes place, and most of it has to do with language. For example, children only attend school until they are 12, and the education is rudimentary at best, and yet the story's heroine and narrator is incredibly eloquent, with a command of English that would put even the best A-level students to shame. However, in order to establish that this is not an entirely familiar world, certain objects and concepts are given different names eg. light is used instead of day, sessions instead of years, slithers for minutes. There are plenty of other examples, but on other occasions it is all familiar words.
In the audiobook, and this is nitpicking a bit, different characters are given different British regional accents to help differentiate them, but surely, with such an insular community, the accents would all be the same. With only a single person reading the story there are obvious limitations on what can be done, and too be fair, it is recited very well.
The other nagging question was to do with the commercial infrastructure of where the raw materials are coming from for manufacturing, and is it a sustainable economy. But if the main character is questioning the world she lives in, why shouldn't we.
Of course, I am not the target audience for this story, but younger readers/listeners deserve some credit, and despite what the general population like to think, people who read sci-fi and fantasy are generally more intelligent, possibly because of their tendency to have their heads in books.
Despite its aforementioned shortcomings it's an engaging fantasy tale whose ending is clearly set up for a sequel, which will hopefully address some of those questions.
The Finisher by David Baldacci, narrated by Nicola Barber, is available now as an audiobook from Audible. You can win a copy of this audiobook by clicking on the link below. Please read Terms & Conditions first.
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