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.