The plague changed everything, setting boundaries that
split families and friends apart. Cressyda "Syd" Turner
has survived in the City, while her hometown, known as
New Charity, has thrived by refusing City residents
everything. Even the water is kept from the City. The
death of Syd's father allows her entrance into New
Charity and Syd returns home, intending to release the
water from the dam so that the City residents can access
it. Instead, she finds a town gripped by strange beliefs
and following the orders of the Bishop. Can Syd and her
once best friend, Casandra "Cas" Willis, find common
ground to save both communities?
NEW CHARITY BLUES is told between the alternating
perspectives of Syd and Cas. We meet a plethora of other
characters along the way and at times it can be a bit
overwhelming. Nevertheless, I love the way Camille Griep
utilizes magic in NEW CHARITY BLUES! I won't reveal
spoilers but we get some interesting twists and turns as
Camille Griep takes things in several unexpected
directions.
I wanted to like NEW CHARITY BLUES a lot more than I
actually did. I absolutely love the concept, particularly
as it's a unique approach to a dystopian world. However,
I kept double checking to see if NEW CHARITY BLUES was
part of a series as I felt like I was thrown headlong
into the middle of a story without any background.
Camille Griep gives us some of the background history but
frankly I had far too many unanswered questions for me to
fully appreciate NEW CHARITY BLUES.
In the wake of a devastating plague, two communities emerge
as bastions of survival. One is called the City, and its
people scrabble for scraps in the wasteland. The other, New
Charity, enjoys the bounty of its hydroelectric dam and
refuses City denizens so much as a drop of precious water.
When City-dweller Cressyda inherits her father’s ranch
within New Charity, she becomes intent on opening the dam to
all—no matter the cost.
But when Syd reunites with her old best friend, Casandra, a
born seer and religious acolyte, she realizes that her plans
could destroy the fragile lives they’ve built in order to
survive. What’s more, the strange magic securing the dam’s
operations could prove deadly if disturbed. Yet when Syd
discovers evidence that her father might have been murdered,
she is more determined than ever to exact revenge on New
Charity’s corrupt.
Pitted against Cas, as well as her own family, Syd must
decide how to secure the survival of both settlements
without tipping them over the brink to utter annihilation.
In this intense and emotional reimagining of the Trojan War
epic, two women clash when loyalty, identity, community, and
family are all put to the ultimate test.