Born and raised a privileged Edenite, sixteen-year-old Tessa Rockwood left everything behind after the sudden, violent death of her scientist mother to escape to the Badlands.
The Badlands are outside the lush borders of Eden – where water is a precious, rare commodity, as is privacy, prosperity or nearly anything that comes easy in Eden. After years of the Trust – those that govern Eden – leading Edenites to believe the Badlands are simply an exotic, humbler place, Tessa now knows the ugly, brutal truth.
So, when she is approached to return to Eden and secretly fight the inequality by joining a rebel group called Kudzu, Tessa does. She attempts to swallow down her gnawing guilt at the secrets only she knows about her mother’s death and tries to slip back into her old life by showing up at her uncle’s home.
It’s tougher than she expected to return, though.
And as it’s revealed that the Trust may be tinkering with artificial intelligence after a prior epic failure, Tessa is faced with torn loyalties…
Parched provides an interesting, quick thrust into a dystopian, sci-fi future filled with creepy robots. Both within and without Eden robots have taken many of the labor jobs that used to employ humanity and there’s an unsettling feeling that - despite the assurance that they could never kill a person – they are dangerous.
Quickly, I felt the edgy, compelling, suspenseful vibe of Parched and appreciated the way the writing and pacing allows us to get to know the characters and gain an understanding of this futuristic world.
Tessa is different than many YA heroines. She’s secretive and haunted in a Jack Bauer type of way. She’s sarcastic and hardened – yet also vulnerable. She might think she’s tougher than she really is.
Parched is a little bit Ocean’s Eleven and a little bit Elysium, from a movie perspective.
There’s a big shocker that impressed me and a lot of dark, psychologically fascinating twists.
Not to mention a ton of action.
All of this plus a little romance makes for a very good read. I enjoyed Parched quite a bit.
The end, for some reason, felt a little anti-climactic to me – not that it was bad, I really don’t know what I was expecting – but I would recommend Parched to any sci-fi, dystopian, action fans!
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