An Author Requested Review
Title: Tent City
Author(s): Kelly Van Hull
Publisher: Kelly Van HullCopyright: 2013
ISBN-10: 1482754533
ISBN-13: 978-1482754537
Format: ebook, paperback (340 pages)
Genre: Young Adult, Speculative Fiction
Part of Series: Yes
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Not Quite a Dream Come True
Who hasn’t
wanted to run away from home? Like most teenagers, I dreamed about freedom from
parental rules and taking charge of my own life. However, none of those dreams
included my parents telling me to run away or insisting I take my younger
siblings with me. That would have turned the dream into a nightmare! Yet that
is exactly what happens to 17-year-old Dani and her 5-year-old brother, Brody,
in Kelly Van Hull’s novel, Tent City. This young adult fiction weaves a story
realistic enough to be believable with a dystopian future. The story, in first
person point of view, tells how the
Army, renamed the Council, under the leadership of General Burke controls all
resources to “protect” citizens from starvation after locusts destroyed most of
the crops. And now they want to “protect” children between the ages of five and
eighteen.
Van Hull captures our sympathy immediately with the
opening line, “It feels a lot like the night my brother Drake died.” In one line
Van Hull ties creates reader empathy as well a scene tension as Dani’s parents
sit her at the kitchen table and tell her she needs to run away with her little
brother. Uncle Randy, who’s “high up” in the Army, has warned them that the
Council “fears if too many more deaths occur, the human population may be in
danger of extinction.” The answer, of course, is to put the children in safety
camps where procreation may be assured. Van Hull shows us lingering uncertainties
through Dani’s statement, “The year they took over is when most people died.
Doesn’t that seem weird to you?” Hesitant to take on the sole responsibility of
her brother, she’s given a choice between hiding in the cellar and running off to
hide in the Black Hills. Dani chooses the latter. But she isn’t some
self-assured, arrogant teenager. She questions her ability to take care of
Brody on her own and insists that her best friend, Kit, comes with them.
The Ride of a Lifetime
This fast-paced ride begins as Dani, Brody and Kit
head for Black Hills on the family’s four-wheelers. As they follow a map Dani’s
father marked to their cabin and Kit proves her value by being the only one who
can actually read it. The plot is riveting, regardless of your age, as we
follow the trio deep into the woods. Dani gets her four-wheeler stuck in the
river and the group is rescued by a mysterious travelling teenager named Jack.
While Kit is flirtatious, Dani is cautious and sends him on his way post-haste. Dani and Kit create an interesting dichotomy
of characters. Kit’s practical skills are coupled with playfulness and Dani’s
guardedness is combined with curiosity. These contradictory skills come in
handy when the trio reaches their destination, only to find the cabin already
occupied and surrounded by a small city of tents.
Tent City
is of full of dichotomies. There’s Bentley, the hard-nosed community leader and
the previously mentioned, mild-mannered Jack. They obviously know each other
and don’t like each other, but denied this to Dani. Jack and Bentley are as
opposite as Kit and Dani. Where Bentley is a harsh, Jack is compassionate;
where Jack focuses on helping others with his healing skills, Bentley focuses
on fighting and conducting raids for supplies. They are an irresistible puzzle
to Dani, who must find out the secrets which seem to surround them both.
Kelly Van Hull crafts a compelling story filled with
puzzles and opposites. Who are Jack and Bentley and how do they know one
another? How can they both have such exceptional yet opposite skills? What does
the “spiritual awakening” after the locusts have to do with the Council’s
control? How can Dani protect Brody when she feels barely about to take care of
herself? Will Dani, Brody and Kit ever be able to bet back home? The ride is
worthwhile, so read Tent City and
learn, as Dani does, that answers sometimes yield more questions.