The Disappearance of Ember Crow

March 1, 2016

Gr 7 Up-In this second installment of the dystopian series, Ashala Wolf's closest friend Ember Crow has disappeared. The series is set in a postapocalyptic Australia where humanity's abuse of the environment has caused societal and environmental chaos called the Reckoning and where young people who have developed strange abilities evade the government by hiding in a wilderness area called the Firstwood. As the story opens, Ashala must return from the wolf world to protect her Tribe and go in search of her missing friend. Her mission is complicated by a cryptic vision in which Grandfather Serpent tells her to "beware the angels" and Ember's own warnings that she hasn't told Ashala the entire truth about her past. As the protagonist and her friend Connor search for Ember, they discover hidden secrets about legendary inventor Alexander Hoffman, who predicted the Reckoning, and Ember's origins, secrets that endanger their Tribe and other people, which will force them to consider what it means to be human. Readers will need to be familiar with The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf (Candlewick, 2014) to understand the events in this one. However, Kwaymullina's rich world-building, which incorporates the worldviews and ancient stories of Australia's indigenous people, makes this series stand out in the crowded field of YA dystopian fiction. VERDICT Purchase where the first book was popular.-Kathleen E. Gruver, Burlington County Library, Westampton, NJ

Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 15, 2016
Six months after the events in series opener The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf (2014), the Tribe is thriving; then Ember Crow fails to return from a scouting mission, and Ashala and Connor, searching for answers, make a discovery that upends what they thought they knew about their friend and their own history. When rumors of a man claiming to be the Serpent, a rebel supporting the Illegals, reach the Tribe, they know he's an imposter, a fictional decoy they'd designed themselves to mislead the government. Ember, who's gone to check this story out, instead of returning, sends Ashala a memory message stone via her dog, Nicky, saying she thinks she knows the imposter's identity. Should Ember fail to return, they are not to look for her. Ashala's determined to help anyway, but it won't be easy. Her Sleepwalking (active dreaming) ability is becoming unreliable, and her snake grandfather's warning to "beware the angels" confuses her. Ashala will need more than her ability, he says; she must understand her power. Searching Ember's lab presents new mysteries. When a strange young man arrives with a longer message from Ember, Ashala realizes it's time to act. While this second act's pacing is slower and the plot's political machinations more complex than the first volume's, it's seasoned with enough intriguing speculation--what do we mean by "human"? When and why might we want to revisit that definition?--original worldbuilding, and sympathetic characters to hold reader interest. Fresh and fascinating. (author note) (Indigenous futurism. 12-18)

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July 1, 2016
Ashala (The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf) and her group of supernaturally gifted young runaways search for missing member Ember Crow. Ash's Tribe works to dissolve divisions in their post-environmental-cataclysm society. Ember reveals herself to be an entirely new kind of being. This action-filled novel--described in an author's note as Indigenous futurism--speaks to technological and ecological concerns with a vigorous futuristic imagination.

(Copyright 2016 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

May 1, 2016
In an action-filled sequel to The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf (rev. 3/14), Ashala and her Tribe, a group of supernaturally gifted young runaways who dwell in the sensate forest the Firstwood, leave their protective home to retrieve a beloved missing member, Ember Crow. In this post-environmental-cataclysm world, society is a restrictive network of divisions between Citizen, Exempt, and Illegal (the Tribe members are Illegals because of their status-quo-threatening abilities). Ash's Tribe works to dissolve those divisions; Ember Crow reveals herself to be an entirely new kind of being; and it all blows up in spectacular special-effects fashion. In an afterword Kwaymullina, of the Palyku people of Western Australia, describes her novel as Indigenous futurism, "a form of storytelling in which Indigenous authors use our cultures, knowledge, and experiences to confront colonial stereotypes and imagine Indigenous futures." And although the plot is convoluted and the romance predictable, Kwaymullina's story is indeed intriguing for its unusual melding of imagery. She brings together the natural world, animal creators, repressive government, and living artificial intelligence -- speaking to technological and ecological concerns with a futuristic imagination that is both vigorous and conceptually demanding. deirdre f. baker

(Copyright 2016 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)